I am currently sitting in a Starbucks that shares a wall with a smaller coffee shop. Even though they are actively competing with each other for business, they are both successful. Each shop serves a slightly different demographic, and provide a marginally different service. For the small coffee shop to succeed, it needs to focus on a specific demographic.

Starbucks achieves success through widespread distribution and a standardized brand experience. They provide a public workspace for people to gather, work, and order Starbucks products. They usually play popular music and have a design aesthetic that is easy on the eyes for most people. Even though every shop may be different, the experience of each was decided to be appealing to as many people as possible.

For some smaller coffee shops, this is not the case. Instead of pumpkin spice lattes and frappuccinos, the smaller coffee shop next door to me right now sells a minimalist collection of coffee drinks. They decorate with art that the employees themselves enjoy, and they consistently play music from obscure indie bands. Hanging filament lightbulbs somewhere in the shop seems to be a requirement for selling coffee in general. These cafés do not cater their shop for everyone to enjoy, but instead for a particular group of people to feel at home.

Coffee shops like these have a smaller, but more loyal crowd of customers. This is how they can stay afloat and even compete with larger coffee shops like Starbucks. This kind of demographic focus does not only work for coffee, it can be applied to any small business competing with large competitors.