Starbucks Flunks “Who Cares?!” Hype Test
It’s a hard lesson for companies and organizations to learn in today’s new world of intelligent communications but … here it is: No one cares ‘about’ you.
When an organization, for example, issues a news release and concludes with a puffy ‘about’ section, no one … and certainly no one in the news media … cares.
What people — customers, consumers, shareholders, the media, stakeholders, employees, vendors, etc — care about is the value to them of what a company or organization does. That’s what influences an organization’s brand value.
So, for Starbucks to hype a “04.08.08″ promotion with such gusto merely to announce a new roast of coffee, it’s … well (let me think of something polite) … it’s not only dull, predictable and boring but tarnishes Starbucks luster to announce something more authentically important in the future. Sorry, Starbucks … but your feeble attempt to right your listing ship is more ‘about’ you than the value of why we should care.
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in Washington, D. C., area and works worldwide.
Alissa | Apr 8, 2008 | Reply
So true. On top of which the new coffee is bad, or at least I thought so. I happen to have a Starbucks near my work, and coffee is always a good thing so I thought I’d try some. Kind of a nutty flavor with very high acidity (even the woman serving it admitted that). The comments around me were things like “wow, this is really bitter”, “it kind of taste like espresso” and “can I have more cream and sugar in it to give it some flavor”. Of the 7 people that were trying it when I was there (Union Station is always filled with people in that Starbucks since it is where all the trains and buses come in to DC) not a single person liked it. While 7 people definitely is not representative of the entire population. It does make me wonder if not only did they fail on the marketing campaign of trying to make the company relevant, but maybe this was an additional failure in the new product itself.
On the other hand, product failure is nothing new. According to most studies, about 75% of new product launches fail. Microsoft quotes a 2005 AMR research study in with 47% of the companies polled said the primary reason for failure was “failing to understand and meet customer needs exactly.” http://www.microsoft.com/industry/manufacturing/hightech/solutions/newproductdevelopment.mspx
And according to a NY Time article from 2005 “Fifty-six percent of consumers could not name a single product that was introduced last year.” This included the 25% that didn’t fail! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/business/media/14adde.html
While these numbers are from a few years ago, I think the trends remain. So I would not be surprised if by 04.08.09 even this new roast of coffee is gone.
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