Feb
26
2007
The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience: Why Doing Everything Right can be So, So Wrong

Audrey HepburnStarbucks chairman Howard Schultz recently sent an email to CEO Jim Donald, which outlined what he felt was the commoditization of Starbucks. Passion for a brand is driven by small details. Efficiency has a tendency to erase these details. Here are some specific examples given by Schultz:

  • Automatic espresso machines “removed much of the romance” of the espresso brewing experience - and, more practically, their height made it nearly impossible for the customer to see what was going on anyway.
  • Vacuum-sealed “flavor lock” bags made it efficient to ship fresh coffee beans to all 13,000 stores, but eliminated a lot of the pervasive aroma in stores. Of course, scent is the sense most susceptible to persuasion, though it’s difficult to brand - unless you’re selling, say, coffee.
  • Removing coffee presses and similar merchandise from the shop streamlined the process of buying their core product (coffee) but made the store feel boring and sterile.

The lesson? Think hard about what is genuinely a flaw, and what makes your business an authentic experience. Victoria’s Secret models are commodities, Audrey Hepburn was an authentic experience.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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