It’s not about the coffee Written on July 16, 2008, by Brett Evans.
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It’s about the experiences when getting one.
Starbucks built their empire on word of mouth because it was simply remarkable. The store, coffee, food, and the employees were simply amazing. I don’t drink coffee often, but on the rare occasions that I do go, I can honestly say its different. Almost worth that $4
At the moment Starbucks is faced with low balling coffee market. Everyone is taking on the giant with cheap coffee. So in light of the competition Starbucks is considering a new drink.
What can that possibly do?
I have read somewhere before that Starbucks has over 19,000 drink combination’s. I am sure its changed to even more. Will one more drink really make a difference?
McDonald’s and other low cost coffee providers are in the coffee drink business. Starbucks has always been in the coffee experience business. There is a difference. Starbucks should consider what got them to where they are today.
It wasn’t because they added a fruit smoothie.
Isn’t that cool? Written on July 1, 2008, by Brett Evans.
Can you imagine big time executives saying something like that when launching a new product or service?
It happens.
When asked, there are two choices: personal decisions and business decisions.
Making personal decisions sub-consciously with the, “Isn’t that cool?” statement is perfect. Every teenager learns it the hard way. Trial and error. They ask themselves whether if they did this if it was cool to someone or not.
Would these shoes look good with that shirt?
Would the cute girl notice me if I did this ______?
This method is useful if you are wanting win over a few people you run around with. But more often than not, managers make the same decisions on whether people in the board room think its cool or not.
Business decisions need personal feelings left at the door. The only time you want to hear someone say “Isn’t that cool” is your target market saying it to one another. Not decision makers.
Milk Bathing Written on June 10, 2008, by Brett Evans.
Sometimes companies, not all, make it big with a new product. And for years they will soak in their product’s success.
Milking it.
Eventually your cash cow, (the product), either stumbled upon or strategically developed, will be bathing in spoiled milk.
Bigger, better, and faster ideas will be out into the public. Then your product will become sour and udderly distasteful (ok, I’ll stop with the puns).
But, the benefit with cool new products is they give you more time to create even better ones.
So, instead of bathing in the milk for too long, try creating a new product before the old one spoils.
Too much beef Written on May 28, 2008, by Brett Evans.
Just recently, I was given the opportunity required for a grade, to conduct a phone survey in our local area. The survey was the second of two surveys our marketing research class required us to conduct.
The first survey, I listened to the instructions our professor gave us and went right away calling down the list. I was polite and eager to see how people responded.
Sadly, the majority I called hung-up.
I actually didn’t event finish the first part of my script without being hung-up on. I tried numerous ways of sounding more polite and even varied the tempo of how I said the first few lines.
Still I ended up listening to my own voice.
The second night of surveys I sat back and listened to see who was successful at getting people to complete the survey.
I found two options you can go about getting a message across.
- Say everything possible and wait for response. (Indigestion)
- Break the message down into smaller portions. (Consumable)
Next time, think about how much you are feeding your audience (the message) before giving them more than they can handle.
P.S. The person who broke it down was twice as successful finishing surveys.
Live long and prosper Written on May 27, 2008, by Brett Evans.
new shoes Written on May 16, 2008, by Brett Evans.
Testing out the new design.