Influx

Starbucks is a strange brand; hated by many for its ubiquity, but loved for the simple indulgent pleasure it brings. When it went down in 2008- there were cheers from various quarters, the company had gotten too big too fast and those on the sidelines wanted to see if suffer. In the tough months...

While crowd sourced creative might not be the thing ad agencies want to talk about, there's a large group of folks in marketing services who might not be too excited about the spread of crowd-sourced ideas beyond advertising. Starbucks has been one of the most aggressive users of crowd ideas and...

It takes decades to create a reputation and only a few days to destroy it, Toyota is the latest brand to be falling into the death spiral with a massive erosion in its equity. Something that it's key competitors can only be extremely happy about, especially when a number of the players including-...

It was not so long ago that employees in most retail environments were held in little regard by marketing teams. Sure, there was some training, but in the main they were under utilized as brand communicators. This was obviously something of an oversight and since the sale of Zappos to Amazon and...

Starbucks is a brand that grew from the ground up and always flirted with marketing in a a way that it never felt comfortable with. However, given a year of declining comp store sales and an erosion of the brand, marketing appears to be firmly back on the agenda. At a recent Goldman Sachs...

Pricing is obviously one of the critical components of marketing, but it's little discussed by communication agencies and seems to be the domain of number crunchers client side and consultants. I think it's interesting how Starbucks just announced a new pricing play- basically splitting it's market...

Tom Formeski's recent post about social media and brands is an interesting take on brands that don't really respond to negative responses on social media platforms.Tom singles out Apple and Wells Fargo as examples of companies who don't really to respond to negative comments. He claims that because...

"15th Ave. Coffee & Tea was founded on the core principles that have made Starbucks successful: a focus on premium quality, passionate partners and a rich customer experience. It shares Starbucks mission and values, is pioneered by Starbucks partners, and offers Starbucks whole bean coffee and...

There's a lengthy profile piece in last weekend's Financial Times discussing the fall from grace of Starbucks, it suggests that humanity might be the thing that helps the brand to re-invent itself.The supporting evidence for this point of view is the following excerpts.1. It's Not About the...

Homogeneity and it's close relative, consistency are cited as critical components of brand success. Many analysts tell us that brands have to deliver consistent experiences if they want succeed and that homogeneity is what consumers want and desire.It's therefore interesting to read about the...

Jean-Marie Shields, Head of Trends at Starbucks gave an excellent presentation at last week's PSFK conference in San Francisco. It became clear that the brand is increasingly looking to Japan as a source of inspiration for the future direction of the Starbucks brand. Tokyo's coffee houses and cafes...

Back in March, Starbucks asked their customers for ideas, it created a website and the ideas have been been flooding in, exceeding the expectations of the company. It makes me thing that every brand should be doing this, why not?Here are the top 20 ideas that are being considered. It's a great list...

Ad agencies and brand consultants will tell their clients about the value of being single-minded and focused.In a saturated and complex world, being focused is always better. It’s just easier to communicate one idea, rather than several.  The problem with focus is it limits business. The...

Ray Kroc would never have dreamed that McDonald's would go into combat in a war over coffee, the fact it's doing so is a testament to the work of Howard Schultz and Starbucks. The elevation of the coffee experience in America has been done by Starbucks and now the fast food guys want a share of the...

Slate has a good story, although we've heard it before, about Starbucks and the independent coffee store. Contrary to popular imagination, Starbucks has helped grow the coffee house business for everyone. The article states:"According to recent figures from the Specialty Coffee Association...