Comments on: Focus, In Memoriam | p.2

By: Schultz’s Return to Focus & Profit « Matchstic Blog

Schultz’s Return to Focus & Profit « Matchstic Blog — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:03:31 +0000

[...] more, read the recent NY Times article cited here & my previous posting Focus, In Memoriam Back to Blog Share This Posted by: Dustin Britt on January 29th, [...]

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:32 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by matchsticblake: How eggs sandwiches killed Starbucks, New matchblog: http://matchstic.com/blog/?p=3964…

By: Dustin

Dustin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:39:25 +0000

More thoughts from Schultz this morning on their brand’s stumble…

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2009/11/13/Starbucks-CEO-Sends-McCafe-A-Venti-Thank-You.aspx

By: Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:38:28 +0000

Gotcha. I agree with you, Alvin.

By: Alvin Diec

Alvin Diec — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:52:55 +0000

Not disagreeing, Walmart is definitely focused. I may have worded it wrong — they embrace being a brand that offers a diluted product at the lowest price — and are deadly focused in doing so. This model lends itself to being expandable without losing integrity, since it doesn’t pretend to have any to begin with.

You can’t have it both ways — and that’s Starbucks’ problem. It wants to be “U2 circa 2009″ while trying to convince the customer that they are “U2 circa 1983.”

Just making an observation about the constant chase for growth (as is necessary for a public company) and how it affects one’s brand. Having to first and foremost please shareholders, your product will suffer. It will get diluted.

There’s something to be said for sacrificing growth for the sake of staying true to your philosophy.

By: Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:18:08 +0000

Alvin, to the contrary, Walmart seems to be incredibly focused. Focused on the lowest prices for everything. You obviously disagree. How are they unfocused?

By: Alvin Diec

Alvin Diec — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:55:48 +0000

I would also say that there comes a point where integrity must be sacrificed for growth. Unless you are content with staying steady somewhere and simply innovating and changing within the same plane.

Walmart does not have this problem because it embraces being a diluted brand. Being that Starbucks chooses growth, they will have to accept the fact that they will always have an overall product of lower quality than a real coffee house.

Honda must sell a billion Accords so that they could offer enthusiasts an S2000. Porsche had to dive into the SUV market in order to stay profitable enough to continue giving us 911s. But these extensions still tied back to the brand philosophy, whereas CDs and sausage muffins do not.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:34:49 +0000

Great post. It’s amazing how easy it is to take one step and then another and then turn around and notice you’re nowhere near where you started or where you had thought you were going. Chasing butterflies rarely breeds success.