Has Starbucks watered down its’ coffee?

Not speaking literally, but has the Starbucks brand been diminished by it product placement and too many stores.  I remember the first time I had a Starbucks.  Was visiting my dad in Dallas.  The first thing I noticed was all the young people hanging out and drinking.  The place was packed inside and out without an empty chair or table.  Now when I visit Starbucks, I see one or two working professionals typing away on their laptops, or small a group of people conducting a business meeting.   Its never near full, half for that matter, with the exception of the Starbucks located in Barnes & Noble.

Don’t get me wrong I love Starbucks coffee, but am one of the many grab it to go.  The experience and atomsphere has gone from the local coffee shop to hang out to the fast food of coffee.  According to a Business Week online article Starbucks: How Growth Destoryed Brand Value,  the founder, Howard Shultz, in a leaked internal memo admits the growth of Starbucks has destoryed the Starbucks experience of a “warm feeling of a neighborhood store.”

Recently they have annouced they shutting down 600 stores.  This comes as no surprise to anyone.  With so many stores and so close together. 

For example, near where am living at highway 635 and MacArthur, there are three stores within a quarter mile.  Not only are they competing with each other, but it destorys the whole concept of being a local neighborhood coffee shop. 

Not only do you have three Starbucks to chose from, you have the option of purchasing a pound of their coffee or one of their packaged drinks from two super markets and the numerous gas stations. 

Clearly closing their stores will cut cost and boost sales in remaining stores in those areas, but feel they taken a small step and need to take more radical action.

Blogging In China

With the raise of global economy and China as an economic power, China has been a new market for international companies.  According to The Economist web article “The party, the people and the power of cyber-talk“, since the end of 2002, the amount of computers connected to the internet has doubled to 45.6 million.  It also states there are 111 million daily internet users, and over 30 million blogs.  China has now become the second largest users of the internet, second to only the Unit States.

About a month ago, I read an article in The Economist magazine at a bookstore (Sorry don’t remember the title, and couldn’t find it) about company in China.  The company is in the business of monitoring bloggers in China for multinational companies.   For  example, if McDonald’s introduced a new sandwich, they would search through thousands of Chinese bloggers for customer feed back.

The company also would enlisted bloggers to post positive comments or blogs about its’ customers, or counter negative postings from bloggers.  Basically, they try and sway the online community’s  perception of a company.

It was a very interesting article recently published in The Economist with the last month.  I’ll continue to try and find it, but you have a copy of it or know it name.  Please let me know.

Advertising Jingle

The following jingle goes to the tune of the Marine Corps Hymn:

From the halls of Home Depot,
To the stores of Wal-Mart;
We market our store brands
On the radio, TV, and Internet;
First to rebate and discount
And to keep our store’s clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of Northwood Marketing.

Our banners’ unfurled to every breeze
From the sales to salesroom;
We advertised in every market
Where we could make a buck;
In the malls of far-off northern Richardson
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The Northwood Marketing.

Here’s coupons to you and to our demographic
Which we are proud to sale;
In many of sales we’ve fought for shelve space
And have never lost our sales;
If the competitor and the customer
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are advertised
By the Northwood graduate.
This is what I have so far.  If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to post a comment.

Census Data And Marketing

The use of the government census data can help marketers determine where to  place  advertisements.  The census data can be accessed for free online at http://www.census.gov/.   The website contains all sorts of information that may be helpful in creating a advertisement geared towards the demographic or help determine your target market.  Helpful items may be the average median  income by state, or the population projected estimate growth.  The major draw backs are:  the information can be several years old, projected growth trends or patterns /  trends may have changed, and looks at the entire of a state, not local metro areas or counties.

Well I find the site to be very interesting and helpful.  And recommend checking it out.

About Daniel

My name is Daniel.  Currently a student at Northwood University’s adult program at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth working on a business management major with a minor in economics.  I have been married for almost six years to wife Leila, a.k.a. Persian Fox.  We have two beautiful girls, Mahya and Zarah.  Mahya is my five year old princess, and Zarah is my three year old dare devil.

 

Currently I am a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.  No, I don’t plan on making a career out of it.  I have little over a year left in the Marines.  Then I plan on applying for a Federal government job (don’t want to lose the time I served in the Marines towards my pension.).

 

My interest are poker, chess, soccer (playing), and my kids.  Well that’s me in a nut shell.