Starbucks coffee experience culture highlights the characteristics of a brand

Engaged in news coverage and reporting work in New York, the place where journalists often meet with friends is the Starbucks Coffee Shop (hereinafter referred to as Starbucks). Starbucks was not chosen because there was a mouth-watering delicacy here, but it was more of a fancy for the atmosphere and character here, and it was also because Starbucks was visible in New York and it was eye-catching and easy to find.

Iron Triangle Ventures Schulz Innovation

In April 1971, the first Starbucks quietly opened in the Pike market in Seattle. The three founders of Starbucks are actually not exactly businesspeople: Baldwin majored in literature and was once an English teacher; Pocker is a writer who once wanted to be known for his books; Siegel is A teaching teacher, teaching history is his masterpiece. Perhaps because of their cultural background, three literati opened the coffee shop at the time was jokingly called the iron triangle combination. They each invested 1,350 U.S. dollars and borrowed 5,000 U.S. dollars from the bank. The joint venture opened the first Starbucks. At that time, Starbucks only sold coffee beans, did not sell cooked coffee drinks, and the store furnishings were very general. It was mainly handmade and advocating natural style. However, this Starbucks occasionally makes a pot of coffee and guests are invited for free. Since Starbucks coffee is very popular, in the following years, three people opened four stores in the Seattle area.

However, what really made Starbucks work was Schultz, the key figure who joined Starbucks in 1982. Schulz used to be the vice president of the United States branch of a home appliances manufacturer in Sweden. At the time, Starbucks, which had four stores in Seattle, caught his attention by ordering a large number of coffee makers from him. In 1981, Schultz made a sales visit to Starbucks. The staff of the store has made a deep impression on his efforts to provide customers with high-quality imported coffee. In 1982, he decided to jump to Starbucks as an operations and marketing director.

Schulz's joining rewritten the history of Starbucks' development. In 1983, Schulz traveled to Milan, Italy on a business trip and saw the local coffee shops were overcrowded. The customers stood in front of the counter and talked with the waiters. The waiters were able to call out each guest's name when they were serving customers. They were very kind. After Schultz saw this scene, he felt that the Italian coffee shop had actually become a meeting place for the local community. This kind of coffee shop business in the United States will certainly be very popular and have a great market. After returning to the United States, Schultz persuaded the founders of Starbucks to open a similar coffee shop in April 1984. This can be said to be a breakthrough in the history of Starbucks, because this is the first branch of Starbucks to sell coffee beans and hot coffee drinks.

However, the ambitious Schultz did not feel satisfied, he has his wishful thinking. In 1985, he left Starbucks to create his own coffee chain. In August 1987, Schulz raised $3.8 million in venture capital to buy all the shares of Starbucks founding partner and changed the name of the merged company to Starbucks, where he became chairman. At that time Starbucks had a total of 1,100 employees and opened 17 chain stores in the Seattle area.

After more than 10 years of operation, Starbucks is now not the same. Starbucks’ latest performance report released on February 8 this year showed that Starbucks’ net revenue in 2005 increased by 20% to US$6.4 billion, and net income increased by 27% to US$494 million. Currently, Starbucks has a total of 10,800 outlets in 37 countries or regions, among which 3,100 stores are located outside of North America. The number of employees worldwide has exceeded 100,000. Starbucks Chairman Schultz revealed to reporters recently that the ultimate goal of Starbucks is to open at least 30,000 stores worldwide, of which at least half are to be located outside of North America.

Starbucks has brought great benefits to shareholders. Starbucks’ share price was listed at US$17 per share when it was listed in 1992. Since its listing, Starbucks has made a split of two stocks four times due to price increases, that is, the original one stock is equivalent to the current 16 shares. Based on this calculation, the original issue price of the Starbucks stock currently traded on the market should actually be US$1.0625 per share. As of the end of February this year, Starbucks shares have risen to $38 per share. This means that Starbucks' stock price has increased more than 30 times in the past 13 years.

One customer at a time to cultivate customer loyalty

Starbucks succeeded, and the secret of success lies in brand strategy, accurate positioning and unique quality. Starbucks started by operating a coffee shop. It was Starbucks' Starbucks brand that was established by Starbucks all over the world. Starbucks' branding effect was derived from Starbucks's other products.

Today, Starbucks Coffee has become a household name in the US and globally. In January this year, the famous online magazine "Brand Channel" ranked Starbucks as the world's fourth most influential brand.

Not long ago, reporters exclusively interviewed Schulz’s chairman at the Starbucks Seattle headquarters. When asked by reporters about Starbucks' brand strategy, Schulz talks about his brand story: "The overall environment for creating a consumer brand has undergone major and profound changes compared to the past. Consumer branding in the past The creation is often through large-scale market launches and consumer-oriented traditional advertisements. P & G is relying on this approach to become bigger and stronger --- you put yourself out, advertise, have a nice package and quote This is the traditional brand-building model, which is still being used by many companies, but Starbucks is taking a different route. Starbucks didn’t have much money to create at the beginning of its creation. So the brand can only be created in another way. This method is more ancient than the traditional way. Like an old businessman, you need to take good care of your customers. How to take care of it? One customer at a time."

Schultz said, "Starbucks's success proves that a multi-million dollar advertisement is not a prerequisite for the creation of a national brand, which means that even if a company has sufficient financial resources, it will not necessarily create brand-name products. It can be done step by step, one customer at a time, one shop at a time, or one market at a time. Actually this may be the best way to build trust among customers. Through this kind of direct dialogue, plus your patience and experience It won't be long before you will promote a local brand to a national brand."

Of course, Starbucks has an accurate position on its customer base. It is because of this customer positioning strategy of Starbucks that most Starbucks coffee shops are located near crowds, especially shopping malls or office buildings. The reporter carefully observed several Starbucks stores in New York and found that the customers who came here to spend are mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, and there are also some middle-aged and old people. The waiters are familiar with them, often calling their names. Mr. Steve, who claims to be a loyal customer of Starbucks, excitedly said during a chat with reporters that Starbucks sells coffee on-site, on-site, so that the resulting coffee can be sipped, and the authentic coffee aroma can make The human body will get fresh breath from Colombian coffee beans in South America.

Of course, Starbucks does not entirely emphasize coffee, but a culture.

In order to reflect the brand positioning, Starbucks stores were specially designed. The unique environmental layout and decoration, appliances, music, and elegant atmosphere in the store all make people linger. Once customers enter the store, they feel the profound brand connotation from the purchase of products to the entire consumption process, so that consumers recognize the brand connotation from the inside and start recommending and publicizing to familiar families, colleagues and friends, which makes Starbucks's The impact has rapidly expanded.

Focusing on services, focusing on dialogues and emotional interactions between employees and customers, these are important means for Starbucks to create a brand and have received very good results. The customer is the most important resource for the company. To cultivate customer loyalty, Starbucks trains employees into coffee culture experts, communicates with customers and learns a variety of knowledge so that customers can fully feel that in addition to enjoying high quality coffee products, they can also enjoy A variety of experiences, such as Starbucks coffee culture, increased customer loyalty. What Starbucks pursues is not the number of customers, but the quality of the customers and the loyalty of certain people to Starbucks Coffee. A Starbucks public relations manager said that since Starbucks has adopted a strategy to foster customer loyalty, there have been a number of Starbucks loyal customers in the United States. Some of them have visited Starbucks more than 18 times a month.

Starbucks' brand communication is not simply to imitate advertising promotions in the traditional sense, but is an innovative way to use an outstanding communication strategy --- word of mouth marketing, to promote Starbucks target customers by means of oral communication. The expansion and growth of the group. For Starbucks, word of mouth is the best advertisement. In order to achieve this word-of-mouth effect, we must serve every customer. The slogan put forward by Starbucks is to cook every cup of coffee and grasp every detail. Nowadays, Starbucks can provide a variety of different mixed coffee beverages according to customers' different needs and tastes, and each coffee beverage is ground-smashed. Customers can request their employees to make different coffee beverages on site according to their tastes and tastes. It can be seen from this that companies promoting brands are not only relying on overwhelming advertisements, but also conveying brand connotations to customers to gain customer acceptance and acceptance.

In an analysis of Starbucks' successful business case, American business management experts pointed out that Starbucks' uniqueness lies in the fact that it has created a brand creation method that does not rely on traditional advertising. Starbucks's brand communication is not through the point-to-multipoint broadcasting model that people commonly use. This approach is characterized by quick results, high cost, but short duration; and Starbucks uses a seemingly slow point-to-point On-demand mode, this approach is characterized by slow performance, low cost, but long duration. In fact, it is this kind of peer-to-peer communication that makes Starbucks a famous brand in the world's food and beverage industry.

Adhere to Direct Management Emphasize Starbucks Experience

Although Starbucks is engaged in the catering industry, it does not want to develop itself into a replica of McDonald's or KFC, but rather to develop its own characteristics.

Schulz told reporters that at the beginning of the development of Starbucks, the company’s top executives had intense discussions about whether it was the development of franchising or direct management. However, Starbucks eventually chose to directly own and operate coffee shops, because only in this way can we ensure the quality of Starbucks products and services in order to fully reflect the culture and value of Starbucks. Schultz believes that the mutual communication people feel at Starbucks is a decisive factor in brand success. To meet or exceed consumer expectations, the best way to expand is to center on stores that are directly owned and operated by them. Starbucks can spend more money, open its own store, train its own people, and ensure that Starbucks products and services are unifying and high quality.

For a long time, Starbucks brand expansion has always insisted on a direct-based strategy: Direct management by Starbucks headquarters, unified management, the purpose is to control and ensure quality standards. In this way, each store is managed and trained by its headquarters, ensuring that each store is 100% Starbucks “descent”. Although the capital invested in the initial stage is relatively large, the professional quality of the trained staff is high, which facilitates the promotion of the coffee culture. The expansion of the Starbucks brand is also stronger and more powerful.

Starbucks focuses on building its own brand in terms of products, services and experience. In terms of products, Starbucks purchases high-quality high-quality plateau coffee beans from the world, adopting strict and high standards to provide the best coffee products during transportation, baking and preparation. In terms of services, Starbucks requires employees to be familiar with coffee knowledge and methods for making coffee beverages. In addition to providing customers with quality services, they also need to introduce these knowledge and methods to customers in detail. Some people say that Starbucks does not sell coffee, but people experience coffee. In terms of experience, Starbucks invited a dedicated designer to design the coffee shop store to provide customers with a comfortable and elegant consumption environment. The reporter has repeatedly met with friends in Starbucks, New York, and found that the store's elegant decoration, wooden tables and chairs, exquisite wall hangings, and elegant coffee making appliances all infiltrated into a relaxed and warm atmosphere, making people feel unique and romantic. And beauty. The in-store rotation of American country music, jazz and piano solo music, just to meet those fashion, trendy, avant-garde consumers. They face a strong pressure for survival day by day and they need to relax. The music played by Starbucks plays this role. Similarly, because coffee is ground-spotted, the buzzing of coffee, and the unique flavor of a coffee maker, can create a "Starbucks" style, allowing customers to enjoy a true "Starbucks experience."

To enable customers to better experience "Starbucks Experience", Starbucks strives to make its coffee shop a "third place", that is, a comfortable social gathering place outside the home and office, so that customers can make friends or meet customers. Another living room where customers can relax alone. After a number of Starbucks visits, the reporter discovered that Starbucks did not use coffee to serve, but rather provided coffee during the service. Customers at Starbucks can not only enjoy a variety of highland coffees and integrated coffee drinks, but also can taste a variety of fresh baked pastries, and can buy coffee-making related appliances and related small commodities. Even if a customer chooses a coffee, there is still plenty of room for choice because the coffee cups here have three levels: large, medium and small. The price of each cup varies from US$3 to US$5. There are several kinds of fat, defatted and semi-skimmed syrups, which can be freely selected by customers, thus providing customers with personalized services. So while Starbucks' coffee prices are much higher than regular beverage stores, Starbucks is often a customer. It seems that to make coffee a life experience, Starbucks does a great job.

With the focus of consumer demand shifting from product to service and then service to experience, experience needs have formed a huge market for experience. The "Starbucks Experience" created by Starbucks meets this demand, and naturally it has gained enormous economic benefits.