Opinion on PR Week's Starbucks piece

Dated 25th February 2011.

I read the piece regarding the change in branding for Starbucks in the UK due to roll out in March 2011, which I found extremely interesting as I come from a Graphic Design background and this being a major culmination of that with PR. I was interested in finding out the methods talked about by their Head of Comms Tim McCoy that they used in testing out their new image as it is clearly a big risk to take for such a well known brand around the world. Although the article did not have much information regarding the reasons as to why they decided to make a change, I would really like to know why a company of their size would like to do such a major overhaul especially considering the fact that GAP almost committed PR suicide recently only to take a last-minute U-Turn. This would have been quite interesting to read about as it would have put the article into better context for the reader as well as making it more interesting.

The methods used as described were by targeting the consumer and media stakeholders through subtle integration of new branding in certain stores as well as events for selected members of the media which apparently went well enough to continue with the decision to go ahead. I find this very interesting as I do not think the test stages would have been as small as the article makes it out to be and am interested in the methods of PR used in both of the methods used as well as the findings and results. The article has definitely left me wondering what the new look will look like and I for one am intrigued.

Pre-Week 1

I found out about this PR internship through the regular job update emails sent out by the University of East London's employability team to graduates and I was immediately intrigued by the vacancy that was on offer. I graduated in July last year and since then I have been wondering which route to take a step in, in regards to a career and everything that I read about in the email and from subsequent research appealed to me so much that I could not think of any reason not to apply.

Considering I had a degree that included Media Studies and the fact that I unknowingly did some PR anyway with my own T-Shirt label that I run on the side, I could not think of any reason why I could not see myself in this field.

The assessment day for the position was not as nerve-racking as I expected it to be, as I was in familiar territory in the group and presentation tasks and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I hope that this internship will now allow me to gain the skills, knowledge and experience necessary for me to find my feet in this industry and get me started which I am very much looking forward to.