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February 6, 2008
Starbucks, a Step in the Right Direction
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Brand & Identity
We first wrote about Starbucks losing their way in May of 2007. We did it again in November when Brad mentioned their undesirable breakfast sandwiches.
We were clueing into the reality that they were losing their "cause." And it seems that the newly reestablished CEO, Howard Schultz, agrees with us. In an article posted the other day on Yahoo news Schultz announced the end of the breakfast sandwich--even though it boosts a store's annual revenue by $35,000.
So what do we mean by "cause"? We've identified 21 personality attributes that we call frames. These 21 frames create a unique Personality Profile™ of the organization.
The fourth frame of the 21 frames is cause--in short it's an organization's role in sustaining the greater good. There are four kinds of cause:
- Supply--supply something of value.
- Reform--change the way things are valued.
- Restore--replace something of value.
- Rally--show the way to value.
Every organization exhibits to some degree all four of these, but one trait is always primary. Starbucks lost theirs, and it seems they're taking a step back towards it.
In our opinion, their primary cause was and still is Restore--bringing back the love of fine coffee and restoring for all of us a little piece of La Dolce Vita, "The Sweet Life."
They fell victim to what many brands do--their own success lead them to expand quickly into new areas of "good" business opportunities, like increasing store revenue by $35,000. They made a fundamental shift in what they thought they existed to do and moved into having a Supply cause, losing their focus on restoring a slice of the sweet life . They were operating with the belief that the more products they had to sell the more profit they would make. And in the short term, they were right. The long term, however, is a different story.
Starbucks' glory has been tarnished as their growth has slowed for the first time ever. It's good to see them take a step back in the right direction. Paying attention to your cause is one of the ways to effectively manage your brand over the long haul.
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