Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Starbucks: Slipping?

Jasmin Aline Persch writes on MSNBC about Starbucks' efforts to stay hip amid competing forces such as McDonalds and a decline in popular perception of the brand. Here's a snip:
The company’s stock price was slashed almost in half this past year. And store traffic slipped last quarter for the first time since the company went public.
The piece also notes the rise and decline of the Starbucks "third place" concept:
Eventually, Starbucks conceived the “third place,” after home and work, where one could indulge hot coffee in a soothing setting, including cozy chairs and eclectic music. Today, about 80 percent of purchases, though, are consumed elsewhere.

“They’re not the only third place,” [JWT Worldwide (advertising) trendspotter Marian] Salzman said. “They’re kind of a generic third place.”

Read the entire piece: Starbucks: Cool or a commodity?

Follow-ups

January 30: Matt Andrejczak (from MarketWatch) has written an article that further details Starbucks plans to trim their number of stores by one percent.

Read the entire article: Starbucks profit slows as U.S. business weakens

January 31: Elizabeth Gillespie (from AP Business) has written an article that notes plans by Starbucks to reduce some of their menu items. The piece also notes that the company, which now has some 15,700 stores worldwide, is slowing its plans to open new ones.

Read the entire article: Starbucks axes sandwiches as part of fix

March 19: Lisa Lisa Baerlein (from Reuters) discusses Starbucks plans for a turn-around amid the nation's economic woes.

Read the entire article: Starbucks CEO sees economic tailspin

2 comments:

Unknown said...

love starbucks....consistency in coffee! I can go anywhere and be rest assured close by is a starbucks where I feel at home and know I will good coffee...always there! Why are we stuffing Starbucks into the trendy or hip or cool analogies when i say it is really a "Classic" in our daily lives.

Ways to improve: Important
Service has slipped in light of volume - instrumental in having pesonalzied hellos/thank you's and faster service....back to basics 1,2,3.

They need to get free WiFi - huge!
They need to clean up some of their stores - train the service staff CLEANING UP is part of their jobs AND get more staff!

Incentives for free drinks after so many purchases...come on...reward your customers or partner up with NWA Worldperks Program or start something with Best Buy points! GET Creative Starbucks.....!

highway163 said...

For your thoughtful and insightful comments, someone at Starbucks owes you a free latte!