The Strategy Behind Starbucks Sizing

Walk into any Starbucks, and you'll speak English–with a slight twist. Want a small drink? That's a Tall. Medium? That's Grande. Large? Venti. As America's largest coffeehouse, Starbucks confuses countless customers with a bizarre sizing system. Here's a breakdown:

• Demi – 3 oz
• Short – 8 oz
• Tall – 12 oz
• Grande – 16 oz
• Venti – 20 oz
• Trenta – 30 oz

Only Tall and up appear on store menus, and drink volumes can fluctuate depending on the beverage's temperature.

Why would a company that serves millions of coffees daily choose a sizing system that frustrates so many Americans? The answer is surprisingly strategic. Starbucks blends Italian "linguistic fetishization" with familiarity by using Italian loanwords like Grande, Venti, and Trenta for its sizes, a strategy designed to build mass appeal with an elevated status.

Although Starbucks is rooted in Seattle with a Moby Dick-inspired name reflective of the environment, the company has gone to great lengths to attain different associations. Starbucks's former CEO, Howard Schultz, often cites a trip to Milan as the inspiration for these changes. He loved how locals treated coffeehouses as "third places," public spaces frequently visited beyond home and work, and wanted to bring this feeling to the United States.

This personal story also served a deeper strategic purpose.

A Prestigious Purpose

The company's incorporation of Italian words for sizing names deepens Starbucks's connections with the prestige of European coffeehouses. Unexpectedness also plays a role. Using foreign words for product names? Fine and expected. American consumers have already fully adopted Italian beverages: cappuccino, espresso, and latte. But for sizing? These new words are revolutionary.

Importantly, Starbucks doesn't use Italian to attract Italian speakers but rather to evoke prestige. Targeting Italian speakers would be a poor decision because Italian is one of the fastest-dying languages in the United States. Starbucks doesn't cater to Italian speakers but utilizes its exoticism to make the company feel more exciting.

Starbucks consumers don't need to understand the literal meaning of its sizes. Linguist Helen Kelley-Holmes found that consumers do not have to know precisely what is said in a foreign language for its symbolic use to be effective. The more important thing is that the Starbucks sizes represent the coffee connotations of Italian.

The company, in essence, proves this itself; Starbucks' sizes don't make literal sense: "Tall, Large, Twenty, Thirty." This sizing system would be absurd, and that's the point. Starbucks relies on the cultural connotations of borrowed terms more than literal meanings.

The Ideal Balance

Italian strikes an ideal middle ground between exoticism and familiarity. The language, part of the romance family, shares many Latin roots with English and uses the Latin alphabet. This similarity makes it relatively easy for English-speaking consumers to understand the general sizing system and its pronunciation. Demi, Grande, Venti, and Trenta are all written in Latin orthography (writing system), so customers can get the gist of sizing. The sizes also have distinct pronunciations–Venti and Trenta are not as similar as twenty and thirty–making it easy for both consumers and cashiers to comprehend the borrowings.

While other companies, especially designer brands like Hermès, can use foreign languages to create exclusivity, Starbucks aims to be accessible for mass-market appeal while differentiating itself. The company uses just enough Italian in its products and sizing to feel special and a little bit quirky but not so much as to feel pretentious or alienating. Starbucks sells millions of coffees every day, and striking a correct blend of authenticity and relatability remains a top priority.

Profiting Off Confusion

Starbucks's sizing also leads to an interesting product pricing scenario. Instead of the familiar sizing of small, medium, and large, Starbucks's foreign language use makes consumers navigate a confusing system with little points of reference.

Additionally, the smallest drink sizes, the 3oz Demi and 8oz Short are absent from the menu and must be explicitly requested, nudging consumers up the pricing ladder. This model establishes Tall as the lowest point of reference, encouraging upgrades to larger sizes such as Grande, Venti, and Trenta. Even though Tall sounds large, consumer confusion may reframe the size as though it is the same as a traditional small.

Starbucks's notoriously weird sizing system is an intentional, well-planned move by the company. It skillfully incorporates prestigious Italian elements with familiarity, creating a presentation that is both accessible and exclusive. Starbucks's incorporation of just the right amount of foreign elements makes the company further stand out among a sea of competitors. This strategy leads to increased profits through confusion and bolsters the brand's identity. By offering unconventional sizes, Starbucks adds an air of sophistication to its menu. It's enough to elevate the morning coffee run without getting lost in translation.