Commoditizing Romance

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma — perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage?
From an internal memo dated Feb-14, 2007, by Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks.

I’m more than impressed with the contents of the message; particularly since homogenization is something that has been troubling me for some time now - yes, even in India, even in Bombay city with its non-duplicable vada-pav and pav-bhaji vends. And considering that I only recently found out that barista is the bartender! I certainly agree with the view on bringing the focus back to the whole experience of things - even something as simple as having a good coffee. So, for instance, if the staff at the counter of our very own Barista chain tried to find out about my tastes and preferences instead of trying to up-sell me into some or other flavoring or topping, tried a conversational approach to tap into my curiosity, well that would be so much more interesting. Someone who could talk about the difference between an Ethiopian coffee and a Brazilian one could actually induce me to try out something out of interest, at which time I wouldn’t really be thinking of what it cost. Instead of which, the feeling that I often entertain today that most of them don’t even know what they’re selling.

In case you feel skeptical about the genuineness of the message, you may want to check this article on the Wall Street Journal Online, which itself makes fascinating reading. And see how this connects up with the previous posting on Slow Food!

And I’m going to let you find the original memo all by yourself!! Enjoy!!