Has Starbucks jumped the shark?
…We’re going to take advantage of opportunities that we have in terms of leveraging our assets to really monetize the environment we have and the exposure that we can provide.
And, the prize for cramming as much meaningless corporate speak into a single sentence goes to: Ken Lombard, SVP and President of Starbucks Entertainment (as quoted in the March 26 ed. of Hollywood Reporter.) (tip of the blog bowler to Kirsten for her Starbucks post).
Mr. Lombard is talking about their music and now their movie tie-ins. From the comments on Kirsten’s post, methinks Starbucks should rethink this. They’re going to kill their brand if they keep this up. (”Demonetize” it if you will.)
I already much prefer to go to Satellite coffee (was just there yesterday) - part of the locally owned Flying Star chain. Great coffee and food, nice vibes and I’m not bombarded with a gazillion “leveraged asset” plays and materials. (And, I’m helping keep the “quirky” in Albuquerque by spending my dollars with locally owned companies.)
P.S. A cool company lapsing into marketing speak could be one of the first warning signs! So, do that self-exam early and often, folks. Better to be a little less “polished” and a lot more interesting.
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, nobody, Starbucks
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April 10th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Could be the early warning sign indeed. And according to a posting over at Brand Autposy, Dunkin Donuts is remodeling some stores to look more like Starbucks. Never mind one dog chasing their own tail, sounds like both of them are in the crazy spiral.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:02 am
Hmm. I saw that as well. I’d recommend to Dunkin’ that they would do better by focusing on having better doughnuts (and cleaner facilities) to grow the customer base. Otherwise, they do run the risk of driving off their core market who “hate” Starbucks. And, “Me too” seldom works for long.
August 9th, 2006 at 9:12 am
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