On the train heading to work and had a couple of random thoughts. Not sure if they'll end up being full posts, it's more some quick streams on consciousness right now.
Just heard that Starbuck's is introducing instant coffee to their menu and getting ready to do a heave promotion around that introduction. Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? I don't go to Starbuck's every day, but I've been enough and one thing I've never heard people say there is Gee, I really wish they had instant coffee here. I don't care how good they say they've made instant coffee taste, that's not why people go to Starbuck's. They just keep moving away from who they are and so far, that hasn't helped them at all yet. You're Starbuck's. If you're not going to embrace who you are & what you stand for, how do you expect us to?
In turbulent financial times, we need brands with a strong sense of self. We flock to them. I've been going to the mall a lot lately to prep for some upcoming retailer meetings and when I do, I see lots of stores without many people in them. Abercrombie always looks dead. Most of the big box retailers seem to only get their foot traffic from people cutting through to get into the mall. But through it all, everytime I walk by the Apple store it's packed. With people buying. You don't have to like Apple to learn the lesson.
Almost certainly, the Starbuck's move was made to either capture more revenue or cut back on expenses. And those moves are almost always entirely dictated by Wall Street. It seems to me that Wall Street really has no clue what it's doing! I mean, if the collapse of the whole financial industry because of their generally selfish behavior doesn't kill off American business, then their constant moves to force companies to grow at absurd rates will. That's what I guess is happening to Starbuck's. Wall Street is demanding better number in order to not tank their stock. Starbuck's decides to introduce cheaper, instant coffee to bring in more customers. Cheap instant coffee and the customers who want that will start pissing off the loyal Starbuck's customer, who will worry about quality control of an expensive cup o' joe. Other places will step up, embracing what used to be core Starbuck's values and customers will go there instead. Starbuck's may see a short term lift in sales, but will end up destroying their business in the process.
My guess is that Wall Street really drives probably more brand decisions then any other factor. The Street pushes companies to earn more profit so a relatively small group of financial people will make more money in that short term then they could ever spend in their lifetime. The fact that their moves could put companies out of business in the long run is of little consequence to them. And frankly, I'm surprised that with all we've seen and learned about Wall Street and the unbelievable, incredible, vast greed that lives there, we're not shouting from every rooftop I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! Really, what's it going to take before we're heading to Wall Street -- figuratively speaking -- with our pitch forks and torches demanding that the beast be put to death.
And since it's Friday the 13th, how can I not comment on what, like the 600th sequel to the original Friday the 13th movie. Jason's been killed more times then I can recall. Not only have we had a movie where he fought Freddie Krueger, but he was frozen, sent into space and killed again like 300 years from now. And I think he was shot out of the airlock in that movie! So why are they releasing yetanother Friday the 13th, which seems to be less a sequel then a reimagining of the original story. There's a lot of great stories out there that you can reimagine. This shouldn't be one of them. Unless it's Friday the 13th, Jason Goes to Wall Street. Payback's Going to be a Bitch! I think lots of people would go see that, I know I would.
So that's my ramblings for the morning. Hope you're all having a great Friday the 13th.
Sent wirelessly from Nokia 9500 & T-Mobile
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