The Only Thing Left For Starbucks? To Just Stop Being Starbucks
Starbucks just keeps trying to reinvent itself — and it seems that they've tried everything. The only thing left to do is just to stop being Starbucks. So that's what they're doing.
The Seattle Times says that the ubiqitious coffee giant is testing several new stores in which there will be no Starbucks branding at all. Instead, the coffee shops will be branded with "community names," like "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea," in Seattle.
Not only will the coffee be rebranded with the "15th Ave." name — the cafe will serve beer and wine and "host live music and poetry readings and sell espresso from a manual machine," or, in other words, not be a Starbucks.
The article goes to describe corporate weirdos from Starbucks sending recon teams into actual coffee shops to see what they look like.
Seattle Coffee Works's co-owner told the Seattle Times, "I said, 'If you want to buy something that's great, but just to look, that's not cool,' " he recounted. "I called the PR department and said, 'Never again.' "
It gets weirder — the owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters describes groups of Starbucks employees camped out in his shop with "obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation.'"
Well, that's creepy. In other news, we think the McDonald's ad in the picture is funny.
Starbucks tests new names for stores [Seattle Times]
(Photo:~wesa~)
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Comments:
Wow now you won't even know you're in a Starbucks. Someone at corporate probably asked "Why can't we just buy every other coffee shop?" Too expensive, even for Starbucks. So they'll go undercover!
wow, and they don't even do a very good job of going "undercover". losers.
Interesting idea, but odd considering how much goes in to building brand equity. I guess Starbucks figures people would prefer to get their coffee from the smallish mom & pop's that Starbucks runs out of town... Go figure.
The McDonalds ad is great!
The funny thing is that this plan sounds like Starbucks is trying to go way, way back to its original idea of a "third space" that's now home or work where people can spend time. (Of course they have never been anything close to that original ideal at least as long as they've been a national chain.)
Four bucks, I've been calling them five bucks for years
Hmmm. The only feature Sbux has is that there is some consistency with a brand name. I hit up Sbux when traveling because I know what it is. I would rather have mediocre coffee consistently than hit up some unknown local with the possibility of utterly undrinkable coffee.
This has happened a few times. Of course I had to find this out the hard way. It sounds like Sbux is throwing out one of their key features.
As long as the internets keeps a running list of Starbucks owned stores (which will happen fo sho), I'm sure the coffee snobs will do their best to avoid them.
This will backfire on them because they'll lose the people who to to Starbucks for the branding.
Beer? Wine? Live music? Is this "Road House"?
That McDonalds ad did it's job. From now on, whenever I buy espresso I will buy it from McDonalds.
The question is, will I ever drink espresso?
@Dennis: Slate covered this topic awhile back (about a year and a half ago, I think right before Starbucks started to run into trouble) and actually found that unless it does so directly -- like by buying out a lease -- Starbucks actually is not that good at running mom-and-pop stores out of town. Instead, it actually increases their business! No wonder Starbucks wants to get in on that.
Ugh. McD's coffee is worse than Starbucks if that is possible. I am pretty sure they use faux/powdered cream in their products.
@ReginaPhalange: haha, yeah. That made me chuckle.
I hope there are a few Starbucks on that bus' route.
Ugh. Now every business with "15th Avenue" in its name will get sued for infringing Starbuck's trademark.
Camping out in rival coffee shops and not buying anything? SO not cool.
This entire thing read like a Onion article to me.
I don't drink coffee, but if i did, it wouldn't be from Starbucks, that's for sure.
Starbucks is a company that is at odds with itself. It continues to pimp out its brand on every corner in this country, yet it knows it has a branding problem and is now employing a certain kind of subterfuge to combat it.
I've always thought that once the hipster crowd leaves you, you'll never get it back again. You might as well focus on cashing in on the masses, until the day comes when you're completely irrelevant.
The problem with Starbucks is their coffee sucks...its that simple. Oh and everything is waaaaay overpriced.
@bohemian: What I inferred from this story is they will only do this in places where they think the mom-and-pop ethic is more popular/prized. So Starbucks locations in hipstervilles will get local "rebranding". The ones at the airport/in the lobby of your office building/in deepest suburbia will hang onto that familiar green circle that soothes you so ...
"It gets weirder - the owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters describes groups of Starbucks employees camped out in his shop with "obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation.'"
Reminds me of the movie "Jackie Brown" (or was it "Out of Sight"..or both???!!) with Michael Keaton is FBI agent, wearing the FBI t-shirt lol...
It's sort of amusing that Starbucks execs are evidently so unfamiliar with what a coffee house looks like that they have to do these observations to find out.
@ckaught78: My friend just got back from Japan and thought that a $3.50 drink from Starbucks was amazingly cheap. She said the cheapest item over there was a smaller size that is not on the menu (so you have to know about it in advance to ask for it) and that it's still about the equivalent of $6.00.
@squinko:
I doubt they're going to eliminate the Starbucks branded stores. People who have a mermaid fetish will still go to Starbucks, while hipsters too vain to be seen at a Starbucks but too stupid to do any sort of research will go to "15th St. Coffee" or whatever.
Tim Horton's FTW! Or at least WNY and Canada...
Dunkin Donuts coffee ALL THE WAY!!
Now if I could just go in there and JUST buy coffee.
Mystified by all the serious Starbucks hate. Their coffee may not be great, but I still enjoy their espresso drinks. I think they're a great treat. What's the big deal?
We're so good we even drove ourselves out of business.
yes, keep telling yourselves that Starbucks. It's ok.
The ideal situation would be for about 95% of them to close and have the remaining ten million or so become Tim Horton's.
they're still making $$ in Shanghai!
SB pastries are awful, but then that's true of most coffeeshops. Where do they get these enormous embalmed monstrosities like the coffee cake?
@Kimberly Gist-Collins: Id you just get a straight up black coffee, McD's is pretty good. (I've gotten them to put in real milk before, by specifically asking for it.)
Sometimes, though, what I want is some kind of blended, unhealthy, coffee-based dessert drink. And when I want that vanilla latte or peppermint mocha, it's definitely not McD's (or even Dunkins, though I am a loyal Boston baby) that I'm heading to.
@Kimberly Gist-Collins: All of their products are 'faux,' including the burgers (made from milk cows and miscellaneous fillers/binders.
Doesn't Starbucks know? America runs on Dunkin.
@ThinkerTDM: Where the baristas will continue to be nice until it's time to not be nice?
Road House is one of my flu movies :)
@parad0x360: The coffee sucking, that's subjective. I like it, you don't. What's overpriced, though? The coffee is a buck and change. If you wont one of those coffee-caramel milkshake things, well, it will cost as much as a milkshake.
@Eddie Jimenez: I don't like their coffee, but I go there knowing I'll get a donut or two. Double chocolate glazed.
I wonder if the new "Generic" Starbucks will still serve that dreck they call "Pike's Place"
@Gene Gemperline: I'm not sure why people get so irked about it. All they've ever done to me is sell a good product at a reasonable price with excellent service. They haven't even put the neighborhood places out of business around here.
Since sbux went with the Pikes Place Roast, their mass market friendly coffee, I started getting my afternoon coffee from McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts (when I don't just suck it up and make my own). I used to go to Starbucks for their strong coffee, not the atmosphere.
Frankly the only thing they have left is snooty name branding, though I do like their ice coffee over anyone else's. I tried the stuff from McDonalds; calling it horrible is being charitable.
My favorite is still the "Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks" ads at Dunkin' Donuts.
I don't see how this could be profitable unless it's on a very small scale. Think of the manufacturing issues: merchandise and consumables need to be produced with different branding for each location. The same bag of beans will need to be churned out with packaging for each store. The costs would be enormous. Then there's the marketing and design for the branding itself. Their overhead just went through the roof. I can only see this being a very limited roll-out, even when fully implemented. Just some thoughts.
@Kimberly Gist-Collins: They have Green Mountain Coffee Roasters' coffee there. (Rebranded as Newman's Own, but whatever...) That's as real as you're going to get.
Ans what does "faux/powdered cream" have to do with anything? It's the coffee that matters.
@ReginaPhalange: Why do you love that ad? It's bullshit. I'm sick of people claiming Starbucks is ultra expensive compared to DD. Fuck DD.
I LOVE that ad!