And On Second Thought, Maybe Starbucks Shouldn't Be In The Music Business
from the core-competencies dept
We've chronicled Starbucks' successes and failures as it tiptoed into the music industry over the past few years. The ubiquitous coffee shop was trying to position itself as a "lifestyle" brand. After successes in selling the albums it regularly played in stores, the company went so far as to set up its own record label. While we noted that this was an interesting play, it seemed like it would really only work if the the company didn't try to become a normal record label. Unfortunately, it seems like that's exactly what it did. It focused on selling albums, rather than the wider musical experience, and pretty much relied on the Starbucks connection to boost sales. That just wasn't going to cut it -- so it should come as little surprise that the suddenly struggling company is handing over the record label to someone else to deal with. Starbucks will continue to look for music to sell in its stores -- it just won't be producing albums anymore. This makes plenty of sense since Starbucks never really seemed to have much of a plan to do anything really innovative in the music business, and right now it probably has a lot more important things to concentrate on.
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Filed Under: coffee, lifestyle, music, music label
Companies: starbucks
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Seriously, Starbucks has cultivated this wicked high-brow image, but at a Dunkin Donuts I actually get something resembling service. Go figure.
I also hate how Starbucks tastes except for the dessert coffees, but that's not the point, that's just a matter of taste, obviously. If you like the way it tastes better fine. But I can't escape the notion I'm paying more for less, there.
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the music started to suck
Now when I go into Sbucks, I don't even notice the music, I do notice the books they seem to have out on display though. Haven't bought on yet, but I know they are there.
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Starbucks has lost sight of what they do best.
make good coffee.
Starbucks coffee is expensive because it is good but with that success comes the inevitable foray into other non-expert areas. In trying to prop up questionable ancillary businesses like music, books, internet; they lost sight of what they do well, make good coffee.
Linux Penguin Philosophy: do one thing and do it well.
as Mufasa says: Remember who you are.
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Re: Starbucks has lost sight of what they do best.
Looks like I'll stick with Peet's (where the SBucks crew got their start). And they only play classical music in all the Peet's stores. It was a requirement of the buyout from the original owner.
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@ Matt Bennett:
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Clash of titans: Can you see it?
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Starbucks Who?
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Re: Starbucks Who?
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Re: Starbucks has lost sight of what they do best.
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I completely agree with this! Coffe is an adicting drug and just because it makes people unhappy in different ways from the drugs we normaly think of it is ok. All these stupid cofee adicts piss me off. It only makes u think you are more awake, but you are actualy you are more likely to try something that you wouldnt do if you were half asleep which leads to people doing mindless dumb things. It makes people anxious, AND I have to wait for them to run into starbucks evry few hours while they get thier cofee.
I could keep going on like this, but I should stop ranting. I just hope they make cofee illegal.
END OF RANT
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Music?
As for the record label, it's not surprising. They had some good signings (although the others are rather middle-of-the-road for my tastes, I did buy the Sia album from eMusic), but didn't really seem to leverage the market in any way other than store displays. This move should allow the label to reach out while Starbucks get their coffee and stores back on track.
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Re: Music?
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I just dont want to today :)
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It's called strategy, and no one gives a f#ck...
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This in itself, was very simple and easy to do-- They sold Starbucks Coffee alongside Duncan Donuts Coffee in the grocery isle. Unfortunately this "availability" can have a trickle-down effect in a customer's mind when they choose a physical storefront too.
If Starbucks is that "3rd Place" and an "Experience Brand", it needs to differentiate from competitors and, well, comparing apples-to-apples in the coffee isle can be a starting point to a customer. I wonder if just the simple "availability" is making the "experience" more expensive in the customer's mind, and they opt for other "experiences".
Maybe Starbucks can change the brand of beans they sell to a neutral 3rd brand name or something. But find a way to differentiate "Starbucks expereince" from the product.
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thank you very much.
and so does my friend!!
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