Comments on: Great series of posts on marketing lessons learned at Starbucks http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/ Thoughts on marketing, innovation, social networking, new products and the impact of technology on all those thingies Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:00:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Allison Trump http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-171 Allison Trump Wed, 16 Nov 2005 20:08:29 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-171 This is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 37466, and this game guessed it! See it here - <a href="http://www.funbrain.com/guess/" rel="nofollow">http://www.funbrain.com/guess/</a>

This is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 37466, and this game guessed it! See it here - http://www.funbrain.com/guess/

]]> By: Emergence Marketing http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-172 Emergence Marketing Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:47:13 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-172 <strong>Search Engine "miss"-optimization</strong> Forgive my ignorance with SEO techniques and the like, but as we are starting to get a fair amount of Google search referrals to our blog I noticed some strange things worth mentioning. First off - the largest number of... Search Engine “miss”-optimization

Forgive my ignorance with SEO techniques and the like, but as we are starting to get a fair amount of Google search referrals to our blog I noticed some strange things worth mentioning. First off - the largest number of…

]]> By: francois http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-170 francois Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:43:32 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-170 Laura - thank you for the comment. I agree 100% with your statement that there is brilliance in simplicity. In terms of trying to build a brand first - I do not think that is possible. A brand has to be build on "usage". If that's absent then people will not help you retell the story or pay attention to/notice your brand-building exercises. Laura - thank you for the comment. I agree 100% with your statement that there is brilliance in simplicity.

In terms of trying to build a brand first - I do not think that is possible. A brand has to be build on “usage”. If that’s absent then people will not help you retell the story or pay attention to/notice your brand-building exercises.

]]> By: Laura http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-169 Laura Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:15:08 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-169 Emil said, "'Touchology'...?... Brilliant...? I don't think so. Just plain old common sense." And Francois has responded with, "I am just surprised how we do not have more companies embrace this. How many companies do you know where the marketing department is spending all their marketing $$ on advertising while having the customer service department deliver painful experiences to the customer?" Part of Starbucks' foundation is building the business first, and the brand will flow from that, rather than the other way round. One of the inevitable results from this is that the marketing strategies are SIMPLE, and focus on customer touch-points. Hence the business lesson about "touchology." Yes, it's simple, but it is brilliant in its simplicity. When you keep the customer as the reason for your decisions, you realize they're not looking for anything complicated. In the case of Starbucks, they want their coffee but more so than that, they want their third place and they want to feel special. It's not tough to make people feel at home. When you try to build a brand first and then turn it into a business, things get more complicated. We have all kinds of complicated marketing strategies, and that's fine, but not if we forget that a single customer experience in the store has far more impact on a customer than a thousand ads will ever have. And that is the inevitable result if we focus on the brand before the business or the customer. THAT'S the take-away value here, in my humble opinion. Emil said, “‘Touchology’…?… Brilliant…? I don’t think so. Just plain old common sense.”

And Francois has responded with, “I am just surprised how we do not have more companies embrace this. How many companies do you know where the marketing department is spending all their marketing $$ on advertising while having the customer service department deliver painful experiences to the customer?”

Part of Starbucks’ foundation is building the business first, and the brand will flow from that, rather than the other way round. One of the inevitable results from this is that the marketing strategies are SIMPLE, and focus on customer touch-points. Hence the business lesson about “touchology.” Yes, it’s simple, but it is brilliant in its simplicity. When you keep the customer as the reason for your decisions, you realize they’re not looking for anything complicated. In the case of Starbucks, they want their coffee but more so than that, they want their third place and they want to feel special. It’s not tough to make people feel at home.

When you try to build a brand first and then turn it into a business, things get more complicated. We have all kinds of complicated marketing strategies, and that’s fine, but not if we forget that a single customer experience in the store has far more impact on a customer than a thousand ads will ever have. And that is the inevitable result if we focus on the brand before the business or the customer. THAT’S the take-away value here, in my humble opinion.

]]> By: Emil Sotirov http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-168 Emil Sotirov Tue, 04 Oct 2005 13:56:00 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-168 And you are right - the Verizon story only confirms what you are saying about being easily impressed these days... :) And you are right - the Verizon story only confirms what you are saying about being easily impressed these days… :)

]]> By: Emil Sotirov http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-167 Emil Sotirov Tue, 04 Oct 2005 13:51:09 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-167 Believe it or not, there was a post the other day on Feld Thoughts called "Unbelievably Great Customer Support from Verizon Wireless"... and I agreed with the post having similar experience with Verizon. Take a look: <a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/10/unbelievably_gr.html" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/10/unbelievably_gr.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/10/unbelievably_gr.html</a></a> Believe it or not, there was a post the other day on Feld Thoughts called “Unbelievably Great Customer Support from Verizon Wireless”… and I agreed with the post having similar experience with Verizon. Take a look: http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/10/unbelievably_gr.html

]]> By: francois http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-166 francois Tue, 04 Oct 2005 13:07:19 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-166 Emil, I guess you're right - but these days we see so little of that, that when somebody does it right it impresses the heck out of me. Especially when its done a fairly large scale like at Starbucks. And when I said brilliant - it was the marketer in me over-reacting to the "clever" terminology...more so than the strategy. But at the end of the day - you are correct - there is nothing new here and its all common sense. I am just surprised how we do not have more companies embrace this. How many companies do you know where the marketing department is spending all their marketing $$ on advertising while having the customer service department deliver painful experiences to the customer? Emil,

I guess you’re right - but these days we see so little of that, that when somebody does it right it impresses the heck out of me. Especially when its done a fairly large scale like at Starbucks.

And when I said brilliant - it was the marketer in me over-reacting to the “clever” terminology…more so than the strategy.

But at the end of the day - you are correct - there is nothing new here and its all common sense.

I am just surprised how we do not have more companies embrace this. How many companies do you know where the marketing department is spending all their marketing $$ on advertising while having the customer service department deliver painful experiences to the customer?

]]> By: Emil Sotirov http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-165 Emil Sotirov Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:16:02 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-165 I meant "dawn of the coffee era"... not "down..." Sorry. I meant “dawn of the coffee era”… not “down…” Sorry.

]]> By: Emil Sotirov http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2005/10/04/great-series-of-posts-on-marketing-lessons-learned-at-starbucks/#comment-164 Emil Sotirov Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:12:30 +0000 http://emergencemarketing.com/?p=379#comment-164 “If we greet customers, exchange a few words with them and then custom-make a drink exactly to their taste, they will be eager to come back.” He calls it delivering great customer experiences though "touchology" - brilliant! Francois, isn't that the bread and butter wisdom of every Old World cafe... since the down of the coffee era back when the Viennese developed a taste for the drink while battling the Ottoman Turks and stopping their march into Europe. Wow, only after finishing this sentence, did I realize that my brain is, in fact, still processing the latest political news from Europe... :) "Touchology"...?... Brilliant...? I don't think so. Just plain old common sense. “If we greet customers, exchange a few words with them and then custom-make a drink exactly to their taste, they will be eager to come back.” He calls it delivering great customer experiences though “touchology” - brilliant!

Francois, isn’t that the bread and butter wisdom of every Old World cafe… since the down of the coffee era back when the Viennese developed a taste for the drink while battling the Ottoman Turks and stopping their march into Europe. Wow, only after finishing this sentence, did I realize that my brain is, in fact, still processing the latest political news from Europe… :)
“Touchology”…?… Brilliant…? I don’t think so. Just plain old common sense.

]]>