For some good entertainment, why don't you take 5 minutes to read this article about the genius of Starbucks, by David Garzian.
For those who don't have the time...just read my condensed report of the main ideas below (heavily edited for readability).
--- begin quote ---
Like few other companies in the world, Starbucks is adept at manipulating its customers' emotional weaknesses to generate cash.
The third place of American life
Like many others, I am a sucker for the ritualistic experience of what founder Howard Schultz has termed the "third place" of American life. It's a place without the stresses of the home or the office, a neutral ground where there are always "friends" behind the counter...returning to the homey confines of one's own Starbucks, staffed with people who care enough to remember something about us, provides a primal human connection.
A ridiculous premium for heating milk
Second, the cost of this third cup is ridiculous. Yet, despite being a value buyer in virtually every other part of my life, I pay without complaint. How crazy is it? Well, if you break down the components...the $1.37 premium is therefore just for the labor of steaming the milk, which takes about 20 seconds. If a barista can do three steamed milks in a minute and keep up that pace all day, then she's earning Starbucks around $246 an hour just by steaming milk.
Also, a lust for status emblems is an obnoxious burden that we carry around in our collective cerebral cortex. It's the same reason that businesspeople shake hands upon meeting, showing each other, in a subliminal gesture, that neither bears the calluses of hard labor (or a weapon)...these gestures bear identification to others that they are members of the same tribal caste.
Since it's fairly obvious that all the people riding the elevator in a downtown skyscraper are not day laborers, it seems that we then unconsciously take another step by holding an expensive white cup in our hands as a status symbol...a cup of Starbucks beams out a little message that we are wealthy enough not to care about overspending for coffee.
Starbucks card means money is no problem
Third, we allow Starbucks the right to earn interest on the $10-to-$50 value of our smart cards to satisfy a need for convenience -- and to offer another symbol of caste. On one level, flashing a card instead of cash shows that you are a regular, that you're in the club. On another, it offers a way to exhibit a sense that coins and dollar bills are trifles.
--- end quote ---
Further to the 'it's all about marketing' post, this is one of my favorite examples of the fact that I'm so impressed with them figuring out the brilliance of their model that I don't hold it against them for so blatantly 'using us'...in fact, I'm still happy to 'reward them' with my continued business for it.
Is that so horrible? I mean, it's capitalism at it's best!
26 May 2005
24 May 2005
it's all about marketing
I'd like to think I would have the same 'when life hands you lemons...make lemonade' attitude as this lady. I'm sure the insurance money helped...but CAPITALIZING on the tragic...that's where I hope I'd be able to respond in kind.
It really highlights the human condition of wanting to be 'in the club'. Clearly, we all have different 'clubs' we'd like to be a part of...but ordering something just because of a cool or unusual name (probably at an inflated price)?
Brilliant marketing. Which, by the way, is one of a two-part axiom under which I think the vast majority of the word, aware or not, operates. (We'll get to the second part another time.)
It's all about marketing. The first time I realized this truth I was shopping in that great retail mecca known as Target. I needed tape. Just enough tape to go with the wrapping paper and last-minute birthday present I was also buying on my way to the birthday party (don't judge...you've done it too).
As I stood in the office supplies aisle, I was overwhelmed with choices. Permanent tape. Temporary tape. Shiny tape. Invisible tape. This width. That width. Scotch brand tape. Target brand tape (probably made by 3M - who makes Scotch brand, sold at a lower cost but still going to 3M's bottom line revenue). And then...something caught my eye. It was a Scotch brand tape, but it was bound in a curvy, shiny, fluorescent green tape dispenser...a FAR CRY from the clunky, angular, plain 'standard issue' dispenser. I was sold. I grabbed it (and no, I have no idea if it was permanent or temporary, shiny or invisible) and was on my way. Give me a break, I was in a hurry to wrap the aforementioned last-minute gift and make a fashionably late appearance to the birthday party. As I stood in line at the register, it hit me.
Target brand tape: $0.69
Average price of Scotch brand tape: $0.99
Shiny green dispenser Scotch tape: $1.39
I was SUCKERED by the marketing machine. Me! A reasonably intelligent and self-aware consumer. And I bought it anyway...I mean, what's a measly $0.40 to me? Answer: not much. What's a measly $0.40 to 3M's bottom line? Answer: at thousands of units sold...it's BIG MONEY. Brilliant.
Now...allow me to connect the dots of my fragmented psyche. Why did I buy the fancy green dispenser tape? Because I thought it was cool, and I want to be "in the club" (consciously or not). Just like the people ordering the "elephant set" at the "Restaurant Where Elephants Have Been."
This idea is at the heart of all great marketing. But the brilliant ones...they make you fall for it without realizing it. Or, they make it such that, even if you do realize it, you reward them by buying it anyway.
Consider Starbucks.
Author's note: the Target incident happened way too long ago for me to remember the actual prices of the various tape products, but for the sake of illustration, allow me to declare that they are reasonably accurate, comparatively speaking.
It really highlights the human condition of wanting to be 'in the club'. Clearly, we all have different 'clubs' we'd like to be a part of...but ordering something just because of a cool or unusual name (probably at an inflated price)?
Brilliant marketing. Which, by the way, is one of a two-part axiom under which I think the vast majority of the word, aware or not, operates. (We'll get to the second part another time.)
It's all about marketing. The first time I realized this truth I was shopping in that great retail mecca known as Target. I needed tape. Just enough tape to go with the wrapping paper and last-minute birthday present I was also buying on my way to the birthday party (don't judge...you've done it too).
As I stood in the office supplies aisle, I was overwhelmed with choices. Permanent tape. Temporary tape. Shiny tape. Invisible tape. This width. That width. Scotch brand tape. Target brand tape (probably made by 3M - who makes Scotch brand, sold at a lower cost but still going to 3M's bottom line revenue). And then...something caught my eye. It was a Scotch brand tape, but it was bound in a curvy, shiny, fluorescent green tape dispenser...a FAR CRY from the clunky, angular, plain 'standard issue' dispenser. I was sold. I grabbed it (and no, I have no idea if it was permanent or temporary, shiny or invisible) and was on my way. Give me a break, I was in a hurry to wrap the aforementioned last-minute gift and make a fashionably late appearance to the birthday party. As I stood in line at the register, it hit me.
Target brand tape: $0.69
Average price of Scotch brand tape: $0.99
Shiny green dispenser Scotch tape: $1.39
I was SUCKERED by the marketing machine. Me! A reasonably intelligent and self-aware consumer. And I bought it anyway...I mean, what's a measly $0.40 to me? Answer: not much. What's a measly $0.40 to 3M's bottom line? Answer: at thousands of units sold...it's BIG MONEY. Brilliant.
Now...allow me to connect the dots of my fragmented psyche. Why did I buy the fancy green dispenser tape? Because I thought it was cool, and I want to be "in the club" (consciously or not). Just like the people ordering the "elephant set" at the "Restaurant Where Elephants Have Been."
This idea is at the heart of all great marketing. But the brilliant ones...they make you fall for it without realizing it. Or, they make it such that, even if you do realize it, you reward them by buying it anyway.
Consider Starbucks.
Author's note: the Target incident happened way too long ago for me to remember the actual prices of the various tape products, but for the sake of illustration, allow me to declare that they are reasonably accurate, comparatively speaking.
22 May 2005
they
They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I'm counting on that!
Of course, They also say "out of sight; out of mind" (about which I hope They are wrong). "They" say lots of things that are obscure, ridiculous, or down right contradictory.
They're also pretty nice sometimes. A few weeks ago, during a Round Rock Express (Astros minor league team) game, one of the guys hit a home run, and a fan in our section stood up and started collecting money from the rest of us. My friends and I were confused (and didn't readily make the connection between home-run-hit and hat-collection). The guys in front of us then explained: "They say that since minor leaguers don't make much money, when they hit a home run, the fans take up a hat collection and give all the cash to the home-run-hitter." Isn't that kind?
I wonder if we'd have done a hat collection that night if They hadn't told us about the sad state of minor league baseball salaries? Or, rather, if They hadn't told someone, who told someone else, who told the guy who started the hat collection? See...that's the biggest problem with it all...by the time you hear what They say, it's so far removed, you can never get back to them to ask real questions (and believe you me, I have questions).
One of them is this: Do They even know they're "They"? I submit that They do NOT. Who knows who they are? See...if I could just figure out who Who is...I'll be getting somewhere.
Of course, They also say "out of sight; out of mind" (about which I hope They are wrong). "They" say lots of things that are obscure, ridiculous, or down right contradictory.
They're also pretty nice sometimes. A few weeks ago, during a Round Rock Express (Astros minor league team) game, one of the guys hit a home run, and a fan in our section stood up and started collecting money from the rest of us. My friends and I were confused (and didn't readily make the connection between home-run-hit and hat-collection). The guys in front of us then explained: "They say that since minor leaguers don't make much money, when they hit a home run, the fans take up a hat collection and give all the cash to the home-run-hitter." Isn't that kind?
I wonder if we'd have done a hat collection that night if They hadn't told us about the sad state of minor league baseball salaries? Or, rather, if They hadn't told someone, who told someone else, who told the guy who started the hat collection? See...that's the biggest problem with it all...by the time you hear what They say, it's so far removed, you can never get back to them to ask real questions (and believe you me, I have questions).
One of them is this: Do They even know they're "They"? I submit that They do NOT. Who knows who they are? See...if I could just figure out who Who is...I'll be getting somewhere.
16 May 2005
the 'kiss cam' proposal
Why? Really...why does this keep happening? During the latter portion of the "kiss cam" at almost every Astros home game that I have attended, we find ourselves participating in one of the most critical moments during the life of any long-term couple: the proposal. I don't understand this phenomenon.
Let the record reflect that I am, in fact, quite a fan of the game...but there's much ground to be covered before I'd consider it dreamy for my guy to ask for my hand in front of a crowd of roughly 30,000 - 40,000 people. And I say this because I think the vast majority of the girls I see trying out their new ring on the jumbo-tron for all to see are in my club.
Let's evaluate the typical "kiss cam" proposal. Guy is wearing at least one piece of Astros (or baseball) paraphernalia; Girl is generally NOT wearing such gear. Guy is awkwardly watching the cam until he realizes that "he's on", then scrambles to a knee (assuming camera position allows for such a gesture), and hopes for the best as the crowd looks on (and while I, admittedly, am screaming "SAY NO!" because I think any guy that doesn't know me (or her) well enough to know this is NOT my (or her) dream does not deserve a YES to that question). The whole thing seems "hurried", Girl usually looks rather caught off guard, always gives a big nod to Guy (and the camera) and all the world cheers as she tries on the ring. Somehow I feel like I'm invading their personal space...and I didn't at all mean to do it! (But I can't not look at it.)
Two clarifications:
1. Guys, if your girl can out-quote you on any given player's stats, college play, or rules of the game (especially differences between secondary, college, minor and major league rules)...you *might* consider it...but I'd ask at least one of her (closest) girlfriends before popping the question in front of us all.
2. Even if #1 above applies (which it doesn't, and never will), the ONLY acceptable situation in which I would accept, dare I say enjoy, a proposal from my guy during a major league ball game is if Guy is WEARING A TEAM UNIFORM BECAUSE HE GETS PAID TO WEAR IT (no...buying the full get-up from the gift shop doesn't count), and he brings me out ON THE FIELD. I mean, if we're going to share this with everyone else, let's make it special...not a 15-second blip on the screen. Stop the game (between innings, of course). Make the national television coverage "go long" on commercials...heck, they'd probably thank us for the extra advertising dollars! Give Lidge a few extra minutes to warm up for the 9th. We need it!
Let the record reflect that I am, in fact, quite a fan of the game...but there's much ground to be covered before I'd consider it dreamy for my guy to ask for my hand in front of a crowd of roughly 30,000 - 40,000 people. And I say this because I think the vast majority of the girls I see trying out their new ring on the jumbo-tron for all to see are in my club.
Let's evaluate the typical "kiss cam" proposal. Guy is wearing at least one piece of Astros (or baseball) paraphernalia; Girl is generally NOT wearing such gear. Guy is awkwardly watching the cam until he realizes that "he's on", then scrambles to a knee (assuming camera position allows for such a gesture), and hopes for the best as the crowd looks on (and while I, admittedly, am screaming "SAY NO!" because I think any guy that doesn't know me (or her) well enough to know this is NOT my (or her) dream does not deserve a YES to that question). The whole thing seems "hurried", Girl usually looks rather caught off guard, always gives a big nod to Guy (and the camera) and all the world cheers as she tries on the ring. Somehow I feel like I'm invading their personal space...and I didn't at all mean to do it! (But I can't not look at it.)
Two clarifications:
1. Guys, if your girl can out-quote you on any given player's stats, college play, or rules of the game (especially differences between secondary, college, minor and major league rules)...you *might* consider it...but I'd ask at least one of her (closest) girlfriends before popping the question in front of us all.
2. Even if #1 above applies (which it doesn't, and never will), the ONLY acceptable situation in which I would accept, dare I say enjoy, a proposal from my guy during a major league ball game is if Guy is WEARING A TEAM UNIFORM BECAUSE HE GETS PAID TO WEAR IT (no...buying the full get-up from the gift shop doesn't count), and he brings me out ON THE FIELD. I mean, if we're going to share this with everyone else, let's make it special...not a 15-second blip on the screen. Stop the game (between innings, of course). Make the national television coverage "go long" on commercials...heck, they'd probably thank us for the extra advertising dollars! Give Lidge a few extra minutes to warm up for the 9th. We need it!
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