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August 18, 2004
Stars Will Fall
Posted by Britton
Starbucks is in trouble. It won't give John Winter Smith the time of day. In case you haven't heard of the guy, Smith recently appeared in Fortune Magazine in an article describing his quest to have a cup of coffee in each and every one of its many retail sites. So far, he's been to 4,122 North American stores, 114 in Britain, and 53 in Japan. 
So why won't Starbucks embrace this self-described "enthusiast"? Well, one reason is that the company doesn't want to attract attention to its creeping ubiquity -- not at a time when no-growth, no-logo "progressives" are always threatening to throw a garbage can through your store window.
"Ahem, Starbucks: Everyone knows you're ubiquitous," write the wise folks at the Church of the Customer. "Don't think the elephant of ubiquity is disguised because you choose not to acknowledge it."
But the bigger problem facing Starbucks is its sheer ignorance of customers. While stand-up comics can joke about a new Starbucks opening up in the bathroom of a Starbucks, it's the fact that they don't know who we are that will ultimately catch up to them. No customer databases. No relationship building initiatives. Just ambience and expensive coffee.
Starbucks provides a pleasant experience. But the experience is hardwired into the hardware of its physical infrastructure -- a capital-intensive liability in an era of mercurial tastes. Unfortunately, store proliferation is the only way to grow when you don't really know your customers. Mr. Smith has been to more than 4,000 stores and they still don't (want to) know him.
Comments (4)
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1. Ron Michaels on August 18, 2004 07:21 PM writes...
I'm not sure I understand the problem for Starbucks here. They exert no effort whatsoever, and Mr. Smith goes and buy coffee from ~4300 stores (and climbing). That seems like a clear win from their point of view. Since this appears to be a personal quest of some kind for him which ha will (presumably) continue whether Starbucks notices him or not, the right economic decision on their part _is_ to do nothing.
Anyway, the only way I can see to improve on "ambience and expensive (but good) coffee" as an organizing principal for a _coffee_shop_ is "ambiance and cheap (but equally good) coffee". Customer databases and relationship building initiatives seem counterproductive. If I want a relationship, I'll form it the old-fashioned way; one-on-one with the person behind the counter who actually takes my money and gives me my coffee, not with the corporation that employs them.
Perhaps Starbucks knows their customers better than you think they do. They certainly seem to know the business of selling coffee fairly well.
Permalink to Comment2. Thomas Hawk on August 19, 2004 05:56 PM writes...
I wrote an editorial today which criticizes Starbucks (for their hostile anti-customer photography policy of all thing) at:
I wrote an editorial on the above subject at:
http://thomashawk.com/2004/08/editorial-on-photography-policies-in.html
Permalink to Comment3. Mathew S on August 20, 2004 07:51 PM writes...
The joke about the Starbucks opening in the bathroom of another Starbucks is from The Onion, and is several years old, and is not from some stand up comic.
Permalink to Comment4. Chris Stefan on August 29, 2004 02:01 AM writes...
Mathew,
I believe the joke originated with a Seattle comic, probably either John Kiester on "Almost Live" or Bill Rathke on "Rewind".
At the time I first heard the joke (roughly 10 years ago) Starbuck's had stores in only a few cities worldwide (but a zillion of them in Seattle).
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