It’s been a crappy morning, and when the running around to preschool, frustrating errands and what have you was done, I found myself getting a cup of coffee at the Starbucks up the street. The very cheery woman (but not cloyingly so) handed me my coffee and I handed her my Starbucks card. Or tried to. She just ignored it and said “Thank you!” Confused (remember, I was pre-coffee) I tried to hand it to her again and she just said “Thank you!” When I finally caught on, I thanked her in an equally cheery way and let the line move on.

The randomness, as well as the genuine cheeriness of the woman behind the counter are what made it so uplifting. It may only be a $2 cup of coffee, but it was a gesture that made me smile and that’s worth more than two bucks to me. It’s also worth more than that to the company.

The reason I think this might be a brand statement and not just an employee being nice (which, I’ll grant you, my Tweet-buddy @tedcoine would tell you is the same thing) is that Starbucks has been trying to regain its brand identity by going back to being the cool local place it was when it began. I remember going into a Starbucks for the first time and it looked, smelled and sounded so different. Now, they’ve become so homogeneous that you might as well be going to McDonald’s. That’s fine if brand homogeneity is Job 1, but it’s not fine if you want to stay special in your customers’ eyes.

Like politics, all Starbucks are local. I don’t think there’s anyone travelling around to all the different locations taking notes and blogging about it (unless you work at the company, perhaps). You go to the one up the street, around the corner or down the road. So local attachment is important to cultivate. Whether that’s always been an articulated brand value I don’t know, but I’m guessing it is now. After all, all the fresh paint and comfortable chairs in the world won’t change how your customers feel about you. But people walking out with a smiles on their faces or saying “hey, you know what?” will increase your local loyalty and your brand value dramatically – and for only 2 bucks.