Saturday, June 29, 2024

Overheard at Table 3: The Decline of Starbucks

https://hbr.org/2024/06/how-starbucks-devalued-its-own-brand?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Very interesting article.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it doesn't mention coffee, but further supports what I had noticed decades ago, which is that Starbucks does not really sell coffee, it sells an image - the image of "cool" & "hip" 

Starbucks was a Millennial place... and GenXers went there to feel like they were Millennials.  But now the Millennials have aged out and spend more time at home or at work (not in this "third place" as Schultz called Starbucks), and perhaps if Starbucks had originally focused more on good coffee at a good price, there might be something for it to cling to - a core commodity.

But instead, it focused on image (the article calls it "experience") and as the company made more money and strove for more profits, the experience suffered.


 

 

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