Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex
It was once said that Starbucks is not in the business of selling coffee, they're in the business of selling milk.
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I went to a presentation on one-to-one marketing. One discussion was about the evolution of a cup of coffee and what it meant. It has been a while, so I know some of the details will be screwed up, but you will get the gist of it.
During the time that we were a primarily an industrial economy, coffee meant that you got it for a nickel in a paper cup.
Later, when we became a "Convenience" economy, you could get pre-ground coffee at the local supermarket (think about those large tins of Folgers) and use your percolator at home. Coffee was about a quarter per cup.
As we shifted to a "Service" economy, and offices had a coffee machine with two or three pots and a person would come in from the vending company to restock the premeasured packets, filters, etc.
Now (the speaker argued) we are shifting into an "Experience" economy where we are paying for the experience. In the case of Starbucks (which was the natural evolution of the train of thought), one is paying for the "experience". Jerry Baldwin had been to France and fell in love with the Bistros there. He loved the "neighborhood meeting place" feel of the Bistros. He basically wanted to recreate that experience here for his customers and built the Starbucks experience around that idea. They have always tried to make the stores (at least most of them - there are a lot of exceptions now) a place where one could go and relax, meet with friends and enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee.
Not making argument one way or the other about Starbucks; I just wanted to share the story.
(BTW: the speaker was Tim Sanders, director of Yahoo's in-house think tank. He is also the author of an interesting book,
Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends.)