When Starbucks provides great coffee experiences by giving its customers a customized coffee beverage along with personal, attentive service, it sparks real, unplanned conversations between customers and their friends. In a way, it’s a classic case of “I’ll have what she’s having” working to Starbucks’ best advantage.
Back in the spring of 1995, Starbucks introduced the creamy and cold Frappuccino® blended beverage. The wild success of the Frappuccino spread solely via word-of-mouth because the drink was worth remarking about—there was essentially nothing else like it being offered on the scale at which Starbucks was offering it. Not only did the icy cold sweetened coffee concoction appeal to the coffee-drinking masses, it also appealed to those who had sworn off coffee because it tasted too much like, well, coffee. And that’s what was so remarkable about the Frappuccino and had people remarking about it—it appealed to nearly everyone, coffee drinkers and non-coffee-drinkers alike. Word-of-mouth marketing for the beverage began in-store with customers taking their first sip. “Wow! Never imagined coffee tasting this good” was the general sentiment from those discovering Frappuccinos for the first time. Other customers waiting in the back of the line would witness this unbridled reaction from first-time Frappuccino drinkers, and, when it was their turn to order, they would say something like, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Clearly the successful launch of the Frappuccino was buoyed by this domino effect of ordering that occurred from customer to customer and store to store. Plus, word-of-mouth for Frappuccino happened outside Starbucks as well, with current customers happily sharing the news Starbucks now had a beverage their non-coffee-drinking friends would enjoy.
The next year, 1996, Starbucks celebrated its 25th anniversary by introducing another indulgent, sweet-tasting, mass-appealing drink: Caramel Macchiato. While the domino effect of in-store word-of-mouth helped drive sales of the new drink, it wasn’t until the fall of 1998 when Meg Ryan’s character in the film You’ve Got Mail ordered one, that the Caramel Macchiato really took off in popularity. While customers could hardly pronounce Caramel Macchiato, Starbucks baristas all knew the motivation behind their order came from seeing You’ve Got Mail.
This sounds like the usual product placement you’d expect from a large corporation as a result of an expensive, yet deftly crafted, marketing ploy convincing a Hollywood producer to integrate certain brands into the show, but it’s not. Starbucks didn’t pay for product placement in You’ve Got Mail. Nor did Starbucks pay for the numerous mentions and logo’d cup sightings on Ally Mc-Beal or Sex in the City. Nor did Starbucks dole out dollars for its prominent role in the first two Austin Powers movies. Instead, the producers of these shows came to Starbucks specifically because they wanted to borrow some of Starbucks’ juju to enhance the public’s understanding of the characters in their productions. In The End of Advertising As We Know It, Sergio Zyman explains this marketing strategy by writing, “If your brand doesn’t already conjure up the images and associations you want consumers to get when they think of your brand, then you’ll need to borrow those qualities from someone or something that already has them.”
While Starbucks doesn’t pay outright product placement fees, it will many times open a kiosk on the sets of television shows and feature films to keep the cast and crew pleasantly caffeinated. This kiosk placement not only sets up a cleverly disguised marketing strategy, but it can start a word-of-mouth message that starts on the lips of actors performing on-screen and ends up on the lips of customers ordering at Starbucks. With the right product, the right message can be spread from anywhere to anyone.
Of course, without a remarkable product, even good advertising can’t sustain customer interest. Starbucks has the confidence it’s delivering customers the best coffee moment possible, and it puts faith in its customers to appreciate the value of the experience enough to stay interested visit after visit and year after year. Starbucks doesn’t tell its customers what to say to one another and to their friends, it gives them a great experience and the responsibility of relaying that experience to whomever they see fit. The company trusts its customers because it trusts its products will deliver.
Starbucks has shown the business world that by following the Law of Remarkability, remarkable awareness and remarkable appreciation can be built. (Oh yeah, and remarkable sales success can follow, too.)
Leading Questions …
What is it about your company’s product that makes it stand out from all others in its competitive set?
What ideas do you have to apply the “Law of Remarkability” to your business?
If your company abandoned all traditional advertising, would your product still succeed on word-of-mouth? If not, what can be done to make your products and services word-of-mouth worthy?
My highest aim is to have the entire Starbucks experience provide human connection and personal enrichment in cherished moments, around the world, one cup at a time.
HOWARD SCHULTZ
(internal Starbucks presentation, Seattle)
Everyone aspires to live a certain lifestyle, but most times they settle for living a life below their aspirations. Starbucks understands that an aspirational gap exists between the lifestyle most consumers aspire to live and the actual lifestyle they do live. Knowing this, Starbucks strives to help people actualize their aspirations of having human connection and personal enrichment.
By tapping into people’s wants and offering them a way to actualize their aspirations, businesses can transcend the commoditization trap. Successful businesses find ways to close the aspirational gap by fulfilling consumer wants, not needs. The discount chain Target, with its “expect more, pay less” business mindset typifies this principle beautifully. Target satisfies its customers’ needs of affordability while fulfilling their aspirations to have stylish decor and fashionable clothes. Target has tapped into its customers’ beliefs that style doesn’t have to come at a high price and, in turn, has acquired a mass of loyal customers for it.
However, most businesses resort to only fulfilling consumers’ needs and not their wants. Marketers at these businesses will typically develop products and programs to strictly solve for a particular consumer “need-state.” For instance, creating and launching a new drink to fulfill a consumer’s thirst-quenching need.
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