Marketing

Hello world!
It's been a very long time since I posted on my blog but I'm sitting
at the airport in Dubai with a few minutes until boarding.
That brings me to the title of this post. I'm sitting in one of 4
Starbucks in this airport. I'm enjoying a venti coffee of the day
(Kenya if you're into such things) and I heard a Windows computer
start up. Here I am, very remote from the US, surrounded by US company
branding. I walked past a Costa coffee shop to get here and I know it
was a Windows computer because of the distinctive chime when it is
turned on.
Some things, like the Windows computer, aren't here so much for the
brand or current marketing as for past marketing and making the PC
user friendly. Starbucks though? That's all marketing!
There are not many computer operating systems out there that are
accepted by the masses but there are a ton of coffee shops! Here in
Dubai I can visit big chains (Costa, Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Gloria
Jeans, Coffee and Tea House, Caribou to name a few) or any smaller
chain but the one with 4 in the airport is Starbucks. In all fairness,
Costa has three here.
They just passed a boarding call for an Iranian Air flight to Tehran.
I wonder what an Iranian thinks of all these American brands with such
dominance just a few miles from their shores?