Before you know anything, I am a lover of Starbucks and passionate about what they have created over the past 20 years.  That said, I am often jibed for bucking on Bucks but the fact is a few years back I did put out my article "The Buck Stops Here" which outlined with great detail of how the Buck would in-fact stop.  I posed that the current management would need to change, it did.  I posed that the value proposition would dwindle, it did and I posed that maybe the master himself would need to return and direct the masterpiece that was once Starbucks .... six months after that article he did in fact return.

The failed Starbucks Plan:
Reported in the NYT : The scene could be at any independent coffeehouse around the country. Instead, it is at a Starbucks-owned shop called 15th Avenue CoffeeTea. and The new store, one of two in Seattle’s trendy Capitol Hill neighborhood, grew out of a series of brainstorming sessions by a group of Starbucks employees after Howard D. Schultz, Starbucks’ chief executive, told them to “break the rules and do things for yourself.”

My Point is simple, this tactic won't work and rebuilding a Global icon is not easy.  I really think the steps are simple Howard but you have to have the stomach for them.  Listen to your customers and change up the model of the "Green Machine" to breathe the life back into to the heartbeat that still drives the coffee business. 

Here is my Five Step Plan

Step One - Remake the menu to accommodate the growing demographic, and lower prices we will adapt and understand just how much Starbucks will resonate with us.  Not some obscure local shop no name shop.  I have traveled the country over the past 20 years watching and evaluating the Fast Casual business and I know when you have a winner.  Starbucks is a winner 15th Street wanna-be is not.

Step Two - Rebuild the store design to handle the lower cost menu items and land somewhere around an average coffee check of $2.90.  The store design I have in mind will support it.  Remake counter design, the drive-thru, remove all the clutter get clean, go green more seating, less glass and more tech friendly.

Step Three - Take a queue from the people who built the brand, yes Howard that would be the "Customers", see what they like, engage them in the social platforms and create a new digital space for them to extend the four walls of the Starbucks Experience.  Build a new network of digital brands that light up the connection to the consumer and bring back the love that was once Starbucks.  Yes I have an app for that.

Step Four - Shock the world with a new look, feel, vibe and taste that would be considered the "Elvis Plan" the ability to remake yourself and adapt to a changing fan base.  He was the master, you could be as well!

Step Five - Create the community that you were once so passionate about creating.  This works bigtime, Facebook, Twitter and the likes have the tools but I wonder had my plan been looked at a few years ago, who knows maybe Starbucks would have been the social network that elevated a society around a global company.  This is a really deep step, but give me a call and I will walk you through the concept.

Listen, I am a lover of Starbucks and it was the brand that helped me understand how the American consumer was changing in the early 90's which is what drove me to how I coined the term Fast Casual.  700 Concepts later and 30 Billion in US revenue and growing I think this concept of value still has potential.  The day of the Cheap is over, the day of Value has just begun you just need the right little birdie to help spread the olive leaf once more.

Just like this NYT Ad shows, "It's Not Just Coffee, It's Starbucks"

Posted via email from Paul Barron's Social Coco