Author Topic: Starbucks tries to convince customers that their coffee is worth $4. (Read 1742 times)

Howard Alan Treesong · « **on:** May 01, 2009, 03:41:27 PM »

BUT IT'S NOT.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i88d85d8ede4fd0afd5ee42bb2ac055be

Quote

After years of allowing fast-food competitors to take potshots at its high-priced coffee, traditionally advertising-shy Starbucks is fighting back with an ad campaign that reminds consumers "It's not just coffee. It's Starbucks."

"The coffee world is getting increasingly crowded and competitive and there is a conversation about coffee that is being had and we have not been a part of it," said Terry Davenport, CMO of Starbucks. "There are many things we do -- from the quality of our coffee to the values we have as a company -- that are very relevant."

The current economic environment and the shift in consumer behavior from "conspicuous consumption to considered consumption" provides Starbucks with a well-timed opportunity for telling its larger brand story, he said.

"When we come out of this, consumers will fundamentally be in a different place," said Davenport. "They are looking harder at the brands they buy and want to do business with people who are like-minded. Some of the very things that consumers are looking for have been what we're doing. We feel we've got tremendous stories we can go out there and tell."

The "Coffee value and values" campaign from BBDO begins to tell that story on Sunday with a copy-heavy manifesto newspaper ad written by the agency's North American CCO, David Lubars.

"Starbucks made its name as a humble, modest company and its values haven't changed," said Lubars, stressing the "soulness" of the company and its practices, from its partnerships with fair-trade farmers to the fact that it offers healthcare benefits to part-time employees. "We are not in the cheap coffee business. We are in the incredible coffee business that is of good value."

The campaign kicks off with print and out-of-home and will later extend to in-store and online initiatives. "Beware of a cheaper cup of coffee," warns the copy in one ad fashioned to look like burlap coffee-bean bags. "It comes with a price." Other ads encourage consumers to "Pour your heart into it" and declare: "Starbucks or nothing. Because compromise leaves a really bad aftertaste."

The company is also starting an employee outreach effort next week that will take the communications program into store. Using a new online tool called "Did You Know," Starbucks will highlight a different company fact each day. (Examples: it buys the world's best coffee beans purchases more Fair Trade coffee than any company in the world.) This will allow employees -- or baristas, as they are called -- to pass the information on to their customers.

Howard Alan Treesong · « **Reply #1 on:** May 01, 2009, 03:44:58 PM »

Let's talk about better local coffee shops.

Anyone who lives in OC (I know there are a few of you) should check out Kean Coffee (http://www.keancoffee.com/)

Founded by Martin Diedrich, who also founded Diedrich Cofee all those years ago (before selling the chain). A distinctly better cup of coffee.

I fuckin' hate Starbucks' burnt shit.

Eric P · « **Reply #2 on:** May 01, 2009, 03:49:55 PM »

in new york, there's "damn near anything" which is better than starbucks
but the company has a card, so we get it from there.

Flannel Boy · « **Reply #3 on:** May 01, 2009, 03:53:56 PM »

I don't like the taste of their coffee either, but there's a Starbucks a couple of blocks from my house and it's always full of good looking college chicks.

Bloodwake · « **Reply #4 on:** May 01, 2009, 03:56:08 PM »

Berea Coffee and Tea, mother fuckers.

Fuck Starbucks.

border · « **Reply #5 on:** May 01, 2009, 05:14:04 PM »

The campaign is less about the quality of the coffee and more about the environmental and social dimensions of it. Not that I think appealing to people's sense of goodwill is going to work for them or anything. Nobody gives a shit if their coffee was farmed by slave children, bought at a cut-throat price, and served to them by an uninsured single mother barely making minimum wage......as long as you don't have to see it or hear about it, it's awesome to save fifty cents.

Kara · « **Reply #6 on:** May 01, 2009, 05:57:40 PM »

I drink the leaves. The Boston Tea Party was my Holocaust.

clothedmacuser · « **Reply #7 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:15:09 PM »

Screw that corporate trend shit.

My local shop forever.

huckleberry · « **Reply #8 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:31:46 PM »

Only thing at Starbucks worth getting is an americano.

...and theirs isn't even that good.

Human Snorenado · « **Reply #9 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:37:02 PM »

There's a local chain called Port City Java in Wilmington that's pretty good, at least their coffee isn't burnt as fuck like SB.

BobFromPikeCreek · « **Reply #10 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:40:37 PM »

My friend works at starbucks so I often mooch free/discounted coffees off him. It's really not that amazing and I wouldn't think of paying full price for it.

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #11 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:42:26 PM »

Quote from: mac on May 01, 2009, 06:15:09 PM

Screw that corporate trend shit.
(Image removed from quote.)

My local shop forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle's_Best_Coffee

Quote

Seattle's Best Coffee, a subsidiary of Starbucks, is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler based in Seattle, Washington, USA.

mac annihilated

Eric P · « **Reply #12 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:43:15 PM »

i tend to hate the whole "annihilated" stuff, but that is a pretty shocking twist.

huckleberry · « **Reply #13 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:43:22 PM »

two of my employees are ex starbucks workers so we got the hook up. My caffeine addiction has forced me to use them to purchase every fucking thing on the starbucks menu a hundred times. I will drink it when it is free...but I will walk the extra three blocks to the local coffee shop anytime and gladly pay when I have to.

...a london fog isn't bad either. It isn't coffee though.

border · « **Reply #14 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:45:37 PM »

I knew that Starbucks = Seattle's Best......it's just such a funny/obvious mistake that I assumed it was intentional.

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #15 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:46:46 PM »

y'all are a bunch of posers, anyhow. starbucks is fine, the service is always good around here, there's a good selection of shit, and i always enjoy what i get. i have had bad espressos, and a starbucks quadshot is nowhere near bad. y'all are a bunch of coffee sodomites.

shit is a fuckin' can of yuban, you poultroons.

huckleberry · « **Reply #16 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:53:32 PM »

go in and get a coffee of the fucking day and then say that starbucks is fine. whatever the hell they serve now tastes like the sole of a burned shoe.

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #17 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:56:48 PM »

a drip is always shit, no matter where you go. i don't pay money for drips -- that's why we have a fuckin' office coffee pot. when i go to starbucks i want a fuckin quad, or something girlie and icy and sweet, or a fist-sized slab of their amazing banana loaf. you fruits. you flames of callandor.

Eric P · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2009, 06:57:14 PM »

yes but a fair trade shoe!

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #19 on:** May 01, 2009, 07:00:07 PM »

if you can't get local, dunkin donuts is the better option.

huckleberry · « **Reply #20 on:** May 01, 2009, 07:00:11 PM »

Quote from: Professor Prole on May 01, 2009, 06:56:48 PM

a drip is always shit, no matter where you go. i don't pay money for drips -- that's why we have a fuckin' office coffee pot. when i go to starbucks i want a fuckin quad, or something girlie and icy and sweet, or a fist-sized slab of their amazing banana loaf. you fruits. you flames of callandor.

...that kind of abuse is uncalled for. I have been called lots of things....but goddam :'(

spoiler (click to show/hide)

drip coffee

[close]

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #21 on:** May 01, 2009, 07:00:40 PM »

yeah, that was kind of a low blow

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #22 on:** May 01, 2009, 07:11:04 PM »

@ Starbucks' supposed partnerships with Fair Trade coffee. Most of their stores don't carry it, and if they do, it'll take them 5 minutes to find it and the bag will be covered in dust.

Mandark · « **Reply #23 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:03:08 PM »

Coffee is for the weak and chemically dependent. When I'm grand vizier of the world, Boogie's going to be serving no-knock warrants on the lot of you.

Howard Alan Treesong · « **Reply #24 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:08:20 PM »

Prole, Starbucks is really vile. I can't believe you are defending it!

Me and Cohen are gonna be over here in the REPUBLIC OF COFFEE

Howard Alan Treesong · « **Reply #25 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:11:56 PM »

Official mug of the REPUBLIC OF COFFEE:

Akala · « **Reply #26 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:15:33 PM »

I like their iced caramel macchiatos. Neutral on starbucks, haven't really been big on coffee since high school.

Bloodwake · « **Reply #27 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:18:34 PM »

BC and T is fair trade, cheaper, and has better fucking coffee, drip or otherwise.

border · « **Reply #28 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:47:50 PM »

Starbucks has its own standards to make sure that everyone gets a proper price for the beans they buy, though they have pledged to be selling and serving 100% FairTrade by like 2012 or something. Seems like a lot of hassle just to appeal to some hippie-types.

Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 01, 2009, 08:08:20 PM

Prole, Starbucks is really vile. I can't believe you are defending it!

For better or worse, Prole just has a preternatural compulsion to defend/love any and all companies headquartered in the Seattle/Redmond area. That explains why he loves Pokemon so much, and why he supposedly named his daughter "Vista".

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #29 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:22:35 PM »

how is starbucks vile? i love their coffee-esque beverages and especially their banana loaf! i have never had a bad starbucks experience, and therefore i judge them AWESOME. their bean quality is as good or better than any mom-and-pop snot joint (who can barely afford a grade above yuban), and they probably have better equipment, and they usually have competent baristas. anything else is MAGIK PIXIE DUST only noted by wanky effete fops with overactive imaginations.

if you aren't importing your own beans nor own your own roaster and press, I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT.

STARBUX 4 LIFE.

Eel O'Brian · « **Reply #30 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:26:41 PM »

it's funny how stuff that used to be common folk food and drink is so expensive now

coffee

chicken wings

ribs

all poor folk food/drink coopted by the tragically hip

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #31 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:27:46 PM »

now we ask, WHAT DOES CHEEBS THINK

Eel O'Brian · « **Reply #32 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:30:08 PM »

i don't usually drink coffee but when i do i drink it like a proper man ought to, with no frillydilly flavorings or additives

Smooth Groove · « **Reply #33 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:31:27 PM »

I prefer to spend my $5 on smoothies.

Eel O'Brian · « **Reply #34 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:32:01 PM »

just kidding, i load that cup up with whatever i can find to mask the flavor

all coffee tastes like shit

Brehvolution · « **Reply #35 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:36:18 PM »

While in Myrtle Beach, there was a SB right across from our hotel. All 5 of us walked in, I dropped almost $20 ON DRINKS?!
The kids only drank half their stuff. Fucking Awesome!

Smooth Groove · « **Reply #36 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:38:06 PM »

Eel, I know what you mean. I am a tea man. The only coffee I could really stand is Cappuccino.

Eel O'Brian · « **Reply #37 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:40:14 PM »

i do like coffee-flavored stuff like ice cream, though

and chocolate-covered coffee beans make me nice and jumpy

brawndolicious · « **Reply #38 on:** May 01, 2009, 09:56:39 PM »

Coffee is a "mixing" drink for me. I sometimes drink it just to add a slight bitterness after I taste all of the sugar and milk that I put in. Starbucks is just pure ass though.

I don't get why, but even their hot chocolate tasted really burnt and bitter. I don't know how their other non-coffee drinks are since I refused to go there after I heard how much they screwed over the farmers.

TVC15 · « **Reply #39 on:** May 01, 2009, 10:16:15 PM »

Quote from: Genghis Cohen on May 01, 2009, 10:10:51 PM

http://www.barefootcoffeeroasters.com/
I go here. It's near my house, their coffee is better than Starbucks by a long enough shot to not even put them in the same class, and it assuages my liberal guilt nicely. Also they give me free shit for riding my bike over.

This place obviously sucks. Bare feet are fucking gross.

Human Snorenado · « **Reply #40 on:** May 01, 2009, 11:05:00 PM »

Personally, I don't go for all that bullshit frou frou crap at SB and similar places. I like a regular cup of coffee, and it has the benefit of being only one fucking dollar for a bottomless cup at the greasy spoon diner around the corner from the house. Pour a creamer and a bit of sugar in it, stir that fucker up and suck 'er down. Mmm mmm good.

trippingmartian · « **Reply #41 on:** May 01, 2009, 11:06:28 PM »

Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on May 01, 2009, 03:44:58 PM

I fuckin' hate Starbucks' burnt shit.

Yep.

Rman · « **Reply #42 on:** May 02, 2009, 12:38:42 AM »

Starbucks is decent, but I'm too cheap to have it regulary. I stick with Cafe Bustelo, brewed at home.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #43 on:** May 02, 2009, 12:39:59 AM »

Espresso Royale

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Author Topic: Starbucks tries to convince customers that their coffee is worth $4. (Read 1742 times)