Genius, thy name is Starbucks

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).

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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.

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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!