Starbucks knocking itself down

Starbucks recently launched Via – the instant coffee brand. Howard Schultz is convinced that people can’t tell the difference between the store brew and the instant version. The ‘taste challenge’ being promoted in Starbucks stores aiming to prove this very fact. According to Shultz even his wife couldn’t tell the difference between them.

Well, the taste challenge is a great idea if ‘another’ brand was taking on the high coffee brand but the taste test challenger is its own store brew coffee – Losing the taste test is humiliation and sending a bad message to consumers that their product (store brew) is no better than instant coffee. Consumers perceive Starbucks as being expensive and worth it. They pay more to get freshly brewed gourmet coffee. “Why pay more when you can get the same cheaper?” – Wrong message!

What happened to focus? Successful high end brands don’t introduce cheaper versions of their products; it damages credibility and the core brand. I haven’t seen cheaper versions of the Macbook pro or a Cross pen.

I do understand that the economy has taken a toll on Starbucks with store closures left, right and center but what it should have done is revise its pricing strategy a little and maintaining the image and the value of the brand in the mind of the consumer.

This is a good case of shooting oneself in the foot!