Jim Hightower: Starbucks' Strategy - Hide Its Name, Pretend to Be 'Authentic' Local Coffee Shop

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Hightower: Starbucks' Bizarre Branding Strategy -- Hide Its Name, Pretend to Be 'Authentic' Local Coffee Shop

By Jim Hightower, Creators Syndicate. Posted August 12, 2009.

Starbucks is now striving to be the anti-Starbucks, dressing up as funky neighborhood coffeehouses with a cool vibe.



There's a joke going around that Starbucks has so saturated the coffee market that it is now opening new Starbucks stores inside its old stores.

Well, not quite -- not yet -- but the corporate coffee colossus is presently trying to expand through an equally bizarre marketing strategy: By disowning its globally ubiquitous brand name.

With Starbucks' sales declining as more and more caffeine consumers reject the cookie-cutter corporate climate that the chain epitomizes, it is launching a new line of stores that disappears its name. There's no corporate signage on the new buildings, no logo stamped on every product inside and none of the generically bland ambience that makes one Starbucks just like the other 16,000 in the chain.

Instead, the new shops strive to be the anti-Starbucks, dressing up as funky neighborhood coffeehouses with a cool, local vibe. A sort of rustic, thrift-shop decor screens the corporate presence, and such additions as live music and poetry readings are meant to lend an aura of down-home authenticity.

The first of these faux local outlets opened last month in Seattle under the nom de commerce of "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea," taken from the name of its neighborhood. Future stores are also expected to appropriate the names of their neighborhoods all across the country in a corporate effort to convey a sense of belonging. The idea, as explained by the chain's senior vice president of global design, is to give each of the coffeehouses "a community personality." ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141938/hightower%3A_starbucks%27_bizarre_branding_strategy_--_hide_its_name%2C_pretend_to_be_%27authentic%27_local_coffee_shop/

[Ian David]

1. Great. Stealthbucks. Just what we needed. n/t

[marmar]

3. They'll probably change their drink sizes to....

Shorty, Mid-Sized and Big Ass, just to throw us off.

[conscious evolution]

2. Thanks for the heads-up

[zipplewrath]

4. Reminds me of the faux irish pub

Irish "themed" pubs were all the rage for a while, back in the '90s mostly. Many weren't too bad, but some were just a joke. They apparently though "irish" and "TGIF" were synonymous. They'd be festooned with shamrocks and whiskey mirrors, and then serve 4 beers on tap. Bud, Bud light, Michelob, and Guinness.

[Walk away]

5. Twenty yrs ago they replicated replicated my entire neighborhood.

I used to live on St.Marks Pl. in NYC. For the first ten years I lived there is was the ultimate in low rent, arty and cool. On any given day you could be sharing the corner bar with Lou Reed, Patti Smith or lesser know but incredibly talented artists of every sort. Conversations were thrilling and fun.

Then it started. Oh sure, Starbucks used their real name then, but plenty of venues that were actually small chains and began to replaced the original local vendors.

Now my block (once one of the coolest in the world) is an up scale strip mall.

[zbdent]

6. how about all those "micro-breweries" done by the major beer companies?

[8 track mind]

7. oh yeah

Budweiser has a new "organic" beer and it is HORRIBLE. A buddy and i split a six pack and it's a one way ticket to a headache.

[gorbal]

8. I always thought they should try this actually.

They should just focus on selling coffee instead of whole stores- Now if they just make it all fare trade certified I might actually go there..