himself and Dave Olsen. He later expressed it like this: “If every business has a memory, then Dave Olsen is right at the heart of the memory of Starbucks, where the core purpose and values come together. Just seeing him in the office centers me.”
Il Giornale was a brand in the making. It had the obvious outward trappings of a brand, a visual style of its own. Its logo embodied its emphasis on speed: the head of Mercury, the swift-footed messenger of the gods, was surrounded by a green circle bearing the company name. Staff dressed in white shirts and bow ties, and recordings of Italian opera were played throughout the day. On the Italian coffee bar model, there were no seats, just a counter to stand at. Customers could take down a newspaper to read from one of the rods on the wall. The menu was, at least to the eyes of Seattle customers, incredibly foreign, filled with Italian words.
The shop did well, but things had to change. Though the numbers were good, it became clear that they would be better if the bow ties went, the opera was replaced by something lighter, and a few chairs were added. After six months, the store was serving 1,000 customers a day, and a second store opened in Seattle. A third store followed soon after in Vancouver, Canada. Already Il Giornale was an international business, the signal that Howard wanted to send his investors early.
Then in March 1987, something extraordinary happened. Jerry and Gordon put Starbucks up for sale. And Howard bought it.
Just before I started writing this chapter I traveled to Porto in Portugal. I had been invited by one of the country’s leading companies to give a talk. As I was driven into Porto that evening, my first experience of Portugal, I looked out of the taxi window at the buildings and signs that lined the river Douro. It was a pretty sight. Lights glowed, reflected on the still surface of the river.
Lots of the lights were on the tops of the quayside warehouses and they announced SANDEMAN, GRAHAM’S, TAYLOR’S, COCKBURN’S, names that seemed strangely British in this Portuguese setting. But it was a good example of the way brands cluster together as friends and competitors in a neighborhood.
My fellow speaker at the Porto conference was a French marketing academic called Michel Montebello. His theory talks about the way business and brands have moved from catering for “users” to serving “customers” and now to looking after “friends.” Perhaps we were all users in the 1970s. Our expectations were set low. Gradually customer service developed until we all became aware that we were customers. We could make demands, and we did. We chose brands that did not treat us simply as users, but we had relatively shallow loyalties.
The best brands now are striving to gain “friends.” Certainly that is what Starbucks would like its customers to feel. Perhaps there is an irony in the association with the US TV programme
Friends
, which often features gatherings in a coffee shop. The advantages of “friends” to a brand are a much higher degree of brand loyalty, and a much greater propensity to forgive when things go wrong.
Since 1987, Starbucks has been one of the leading brands moving in this direction. It has simply recognized the importance of sociability to a brand. Howard Schultz might say, “Strong brands create a powerful personal connection,” but then go on to say, “We never set out to build a brand.” This is honest, but slightly disingenuous. When he first became involved with Starbucks, he might not have said or thought, “We want to build a brand.” But because he understood marketing and branding instinctively, everything he did worked towards that goal, including the concentration on the core product, the determination to sell one cup of coffee at a time to individuals. Howard understood that brand-building relies on establishing emotional links – in effect, friendship – with people. You secure this deeper
Il Giornale was a brand in the making. It had the obvious outward trappings of a brand, a visual style of its own. Its logo embodied its emphasis on speed: the head of Mercury, the swift-footed messenger of the gods, was surrounded by a green circle bearing the company name. Staff dressed in white shirts and bow ties, and recordings of Italian opera were played throughout the day. On the Italian coffee bar model, there were no seats, just a counter to stand at. Customers could take down a newspaper to read from one of the rods on the wall. The menu was, at least to the eyes of Seattle customers, incredibly foreign, filled with Italian words.
The shop did well, but things had to change. Though the numbers were good, it became clear that they would be better if the bow ties went, the opera was replaced by something lighter, and a few chairs were added. After six months, the store was serving 1,000 customers a day, and a second store opened in Seattle. A third store followed soon after in Vancouver, Canada. Already Il Giornale was an international business, the signal that Howard wanted to send his investors early.
Then in March 1987, something extraordinary happened. Jerry and Gordon put Starbucks up for sale. And Howard bought it.
Just before I started writing this chapter I traveled to Porto in Portugal. I had been invited by one of the country’s leading companies to give a talk. As I was driven into Porto that evening, my first experience of Portugal, I looked out of the taxi window at the buildings and signs that lined the river Douro. It was a pretty sight. Lights glowed, reflected on the still surface of the river.
Lots of the lights were on the tops of the quayside warehouses and they announced SANDEMAN, GRAHAM’S, TAYLOR’S, COCKBURN’S, names that seemed strangely British in this Portuguese setting. But it was a good example of the way brands cluster together as friends and competitors in a neighborhood.
My fellow speaker at the Porto conference was a French marketing academic called Michel Montebello. His theory talks about the way business and brands have moved from catering for “users” to serving “customers” and now to looking after “friends.” Perhaps we were all users in the 1970s. Our expectations were set low. Gradually customer service developed until we all became aware that we were customers. We could make demands, and we did. We chose brands that did not treat us simply as users, but we had relatively shallow loyalties.
The best brands now are striving to gain “friends.” Certainly that is what Starbucks would like its customers to feel. Perhaps there is an irony in the association with the US TV programme
Friends
, which often features gatherings in a coffee shop. The advantages of “friends” to a brand are a much higher degree of brand loyalty, and a much greater propensity to forgive when things go wrong.
Since 1987, Starbucks has been one of the leading brands moving in this direction. It has simply recognized the importance of sociability to a brand. Howard Schultz might say, “Strong brands create a powerful personal connection,” but then go on to say, “We never set out to build a brand.” This is honest, but slightly disingenuous. When he first became involved with Starbucks, he might not have said or thought, “We want to build a brand.” But because he understood marketing and branding instinctively, everything he did worked towards that goal, including the concentration on the core product, the determination to sell one cup of coffee at a time to individuals. Howard understood that brand-building relies on establishing emotional links – in effect, friendship – with people. You secure this deeper
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