Blog #4: OPTION 1 - Pick a [Second Cup] and…

1. Describe, using about 10 adjectives or phrases, what "brand" you think this place is trying to convey, and indicate who you think the target demographic is.

I specifically picked this coffee shop in this neighbourhood because I live in the area – partially, I was looking for a convenience factor, but I also think that the location impacts the environment. This strip of the Danforth is fairly gentrified, with lots of middle- to -upper class families. There is a surprisingly lack of coffee shops at this end of the street, but I think it’s because the closer end towards Broadview is overstuffed with coffee options. Within this block, the only other coffee-specific café option is an espresso bar across the street, which is also part of a chain.

My chosen Second Cup (Danforth location) in all it's franchisey glory.

Baring all this in mind, here are 10 adjectives to describe this particular Second Cup:

1. Modern

2. Efficient

3. Spacious

4. Comfortable

5. Clean

6. Friendly Service

7. Quality

8. Bright

9. Profitable

10. Enjoyable

My knowledge of the neighbourhood is that the demographic who can afford to live here mostly skews middle-aged and up (I’m part of a minority, for sure – not a ton of students in this area.) I also know, however, that Second Cup’s branding is consistent across most of the chains, so there’s not a ton of wiggle room given that they all need to look, feel, and sound like a Second Cup. Also taking into consideration that it’s 11:30am on a Tuesday, the people here are likely retired or work outside of “bank hours.” Generally, I would say that Second Cup is trying to appeal to an audience that has money to spend on $5 lattes, but that they want to appear contemporary enough to attract a younger demographic while not driving away middle-aged people and beyond.

2. Go visit this retail environment and list all of the sounds heard in the environment during at least a 5-minute period.

3. Answer the following questions, based on Julian Treasure's explanation of retail soundscapes, with a brief explanation supporting your answer.

a. which sounds were arbitrary, and which sounds were deliberate?

ARBITRARY SOUNDS – The most noticeable arbitrary noise in the soundscape (TEDx Talks 2010) or the “keynote…the fundamental tone” of the space as Mr. R. Murray Schafer would call it was the overwhelming loud hum of the heating system. I don’t always agree with Schafer’s ideologies about some of the more negative aspects of sound, but admittedly this “flat continuous line of sound” (Schafer 78) was incredibly pervasive. This also followed Julian Treasure’s argument that “most retail soundscapes have got three core characteristics: the first is they're arbitrary, the second is that they're incongruent with the brand, and the third is that they're hostile.” (TEDx Talks 2010) Combined with all the other sounds filling the space, the low-grade, incessant grumbling was without a doubt the most noticeable thing in the café, whether Second Cup wanted that to be the case or not (I would assume not, which adds to the case for the incongruity of the sound.) Other arbitrary sounds were those of the normal tasks that are characteristic of a café, such as dishes clinking and taps running. These sounds were punctuating and brief, and inevitably when they fell quiet I would again be drawn to the heater’s aggressive (or some might say hostile) noise.

DELIBERATE – The keynote deliberate sound was the generic pop/rock music piped over the speakers. This was as incessant as the humming of the heating system but was varied in its delivery (as music tends to be.) The music was loud in combination with the arbitrary sound of the heater, but not unpleasant – in fact, I found myself being distracted from the other things I was trying to listen to because the upbeat nature of the music proved to be quite alluring. Another aspect that made me pay more attention to the music was what Julian Treasure would characterize as my “cognitive” reaction (TED 2009) – the competition of a familiar sounding song with the humming of the heater and the ambient chattering and other noises of the café made it difficult to parse the lyrics of the song, causing me to listen more attentively to that source as I tried to place it. I wouldn’t necessarily characterize this as brand music – I think it would be more likely to fall under the category of brand voice (TEDx Talks 2010) since it feels like it fits the general vibe of the demographic that Second Cup is trying to attract (namely me) by offering a sense of enjoyable familiarity without alienating anyone who might be unfamiliar with that music.

b. which sounds were congruent to the brand and which were incongruent to the brand?

INCONGRUOUS SOUNDS – An incongruous sound I noticed in the café was the sound of a blender whirring. I don’t think it’s necessarily because it didn’t belong in that space; its characteristic of a café to offer blended beverages like smoothies and the like. The thing that made it incongruous was how dominating it was of the space – it was almost impossible to hear anything over the roaring of the blender. I had a hard time characterizing this sound; it also could have fallen under the category of arbitrary sounds, because undoubtably it was not the intention of Second Cup to select a blender model specifically because it was so ferociously loud. The sound imperialism (Schafer 77) of the blender doing its job in this crowded auditory space really kind of shattered any semblance of peacefulness. The only argument I can make in defense of the blender is that in some ways it could be considered a kind of product sound (TEDx Talks 2010) wherein the affiliation of the blender acts as an advertisement for other patrons that there are blended beverages served there. I think that line of validation is a bit tenuous given what Julian Treasure would characterize as the physiological stress (TED 2009) of being overwhelmed by the blender might in fact act as a deterrent to ordering a beverage that would cause the noise to start up again.

CONGROUS SOUNDS – Comparing the blender to another appliance-based sound in the café, the grumbling of the espresso bar and the hiss of the steaming wand fit the tone of the space much better. Since Second Cup is first and foremost a coffee shop, it makes sense to hear those sounds in that space. The “physiological” reaction (TED 2009) to the steaming wand is particular is one I personally find soothing because of how satisfying it is – the natural crescendo of the steam whistling out of the wand, causing energetic bubbling sounds as the frothed the milk in the pitcher becomes heated, punctuated by the tapping of the milk pitcher on the counter represents a kind of natural conclusion to the sound event. On a “cognitive” level (TED 2009) it’s also satisfying because the causal and semantic meaning (Chion 26) of this dance with the espresso and milk concludes with the delivery of a delicious coffee beverage, and who doesn’t love that? (Or, at least, who in a café environment who presumably exchanged money for some sort of product in order to validate their presence in the space wouldn’t want that.)

c. which sounds were friendly, and which were hostile? FRIENDLY – Change jingling as it hit the bottom of the tip jar was one of the friendliest sounds I heard in the café. It was kind of a surprising sound as well, perhaps even “incongruous” (TEDx Talks 2010) for a couple reasons: firstly, the staff was friendly but almost hyper-efficient (I had felt kind of rushed when asking for my coffee, which was only alleviated when the barista complimented my on the design of mt to-go mug) so I wouldn’t necessarily say the service was the best I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to leave a good tip based on that fact; secondly, I had heard the person pay for their purchase with a card at using the interact machine, so I wasn’t expecting the sound of coins after that initial exchange. I think I can characterize my reaction to that sound as “behavioral” (TED 2009) given that it made me change the way I was interacting with the space – instead of feeling resentful about having been rushed, I thought about how maybe the cash tipper was thankful that they were able to get their coffee quickly, so much so that they decided to put money in the jar after having already paid by card.

HOSTILE – Using the words of Julian Treasure, my first reaction to the offensive humming of the heater was likely a negative “psychological” (TED 2009) reaction to the perceived hostility of the incessant noise. However, the longer I was able to sit there and adapt to the sound of the heater, the more it became almost soothing – I’m sure that if the heater had turned off suddenly, the ensuing silence would have probably been as overwhelming as the sound itself had been only moments before. As I acclimated to the space, the heater caused a “physiological” (TED 2009) reaction in that the flat line of sound integrated so effectively into the background of my listening that it crossed over into a positive affiliation. A few months ago, I was staying with my friend in Halifax, and noticed as I was going to bed that the ancient furnace in the basement wheezed loudly enough that I could hear it as I was trying to fall asleep on the first floor. When I commented on this to my friend, she said that she didn’t consciously notice the sound anymore, but away from home she had a hard time falling asleep – the sound that had once been so all encompassing had integrated so effectively into her bedtime routine that she struggled to sleep without the lull of the rhythmic groaning. I guess the heater in Second Cup kind of also followed that acclimation; it straddled several different categories of experience in the short while I was sitting there before falling into the category of if not friendly, then at least accepted sound.

4. Give some thoughts on what you think this place could do with sound to improve their sales and why.

While I don’t think that getting rid of the heater would prove to have net positive results on sales (after all, I did get used to it after awhile, which is not something I think I would be able to say if there had been no heater at all on a late winter day in this end of Canada) there are some things that this Second Cup location could do to be more sonically welcoming. Primarily, I think that the space was too loud – the combination of the heater, and the music, plus the decently full seating area as well as the ongoing blending, steaming, etc. of the bar made for quite the culminative racket. Some of these things cannot be fixed, at least without causing potential damage to the end goal of higher profits (after all, you probably want customers to feel like they’re welcome to hang out, which includes allowing them to talk, breathe, etc.) That being said, the background music could have been turned down a bit, and there’s a possibility that they could get the heater fixed to make it less noisy. I think one of the biggest impacts they could make to cut down on sound would be to train their staff to be conscious of the carrying of noises in the space; I noticed that when the staff started to increase in volume, either when taking orders at the till or chatting amongst themselves, it relationally made the customers sitting around me to start talking louder to so as to be heard by their companions. Also, some sounds like the blender could have been dampened with the use of a sound enclosure to help prevent it from disrupting the café so much.

Sound enclosures for blenders, as seen on whisperblend.com (an apt name, to be sure)

Lastly, the general design of the café was very aesthetically appealing in it’s modern influences, which I assume were also meant to be easier to clean (marble-style counter tops, tile flooring, large glass windows and skylights) but on the whole the hard surfaces that filled the space made it every noisier with more surfaces to bounce sounds than to absorb them. Things like curtains, padded chairs, and even acoustic wall-panelling mounted on the walls of the café could help to bring the general volume level down considerably at fairly low cost, all while staying within the style parameters that they seem to have chosen in representation of their brand.

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"Blender and Juicer Sound Enclosures." Whisper Blend. https://www.whisperblend.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/home-banner-img-tablet.jpg

Chion, Michel, Claudia Gorbman, and Walter Murch. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Columbia University Press, 1994.

“Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us.” Online video clip uploaded by TED. YouTube, 16 Oct 2009. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRepnhXq33s

Schafer, R. M. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Alfred Knopf/Random House, New York, 1977/1994, pp. 71-99.

"Second Cup Coffee Co. - The Danforth." Zomato, 11 Oct. 2014. https://www.zomato.com/toronto/second-cup-coffee-co-the-danforth

“TEDxNewSt – Julian Treasure – The 8 Expressions Of A Brand In Sound.” Online video clip uploaded by TEDx Talks. YouTube, 22 Oct 2010. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTDoz90H9kA