Wake up and smell the coffee – Starbucks aims to buck the downward trend

There’s something I have noticed about many coffee shops – they don’t smell of coffee. When I lived in West Hampstead there was a coffee shop by the station that pumped out that arresting aroma, it was impossible to pass by without wanting to go in. Smell is a powerful sense and is strongly linked with memories – I can smell it now. Linking smells to positive experiences can be a powerful marketing tool.

After much consultation, Starbucks are to getting back to basics and will start grinding coffee again in store to generate that powerful aroma. Gone will be that sanitized environment, in comes rich coffee aroma.

This is all part of CEO Howard Schultz’s “back to the future” strategy to revitalize the world’s largest chain of coffee shops – with 15,011 stores in 42 countries, more than 45 million customers around the world visit a Starbucks every week.

Schultz plans to offer the “freshest cup of coffee on the planet”. Last year, embarrassingly,  McDonalds managed to beat Starbucks in a major consumer report and with other chains, including Dunkin Donuts, chasing the lucrative coffee market, it’s become a battleground that requires tough action.

Schultz intends to get back to basics and focus on the coffee with the introduction of premium blends. Meanwhile they plan to cull some stores in the US but expand stores internationally. Growing markets include India and Asia.

“The Third Place” was a genius positioning but times have moved on and there’s a need to redefine what the third place is. Many coffee shops are offering soft seating, wireless internet access and the internet café has sprung up all over the place. The integration of coffee shops into books shops was another clever move, but what will the coffee shop look like in another 5 years?

One area that has been significant in separating Starbucks from the crowd has been their ethics. They been well aware since 2000 that ethics is becoming a key element in consumer choice and have made the biggest moves forward of any chain. The phrase “people before profits” sits at the core of their ethos (few large organisations can claim that as an ethos). Their work to support coffee growers is impressive and they are now the world’s biggest buyer of Fairtrade coffee.

The chain has always been a great supporter of local communities and it’s books at Christmas project, part of the Starbucks Foundation, is part of a mission to improve young peoples’ lives by supporting literacy programs for children.

Despite the risk to business, they have championed smoking bans in most of their stores around the world.

Their Ethos water range funds clean water projects in under-developed areas and have raised over $4 to date.

Despite a highly impressive range of ethical initiatives, Starbucks still gets bashed by left wing greens who see them as a classic American brand that symbolizes globalization. This is the inevitable fate for any large and successful organisation. However, large world brands when they adopt ethical policies tend to make far more difference than small worthy individuals can.

Finally some trivia. The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in the book Moby Dick. It nearly got named Pee-quod. The logo is a "twin-tailed siren" . At one point they were opening a coffee shop every day.

Well at least he drives a Toyota Prius.

In Toyota’s latest ads we are told it’s the world’s favourite hybrid. Lots of nice earthy green imagery. It’s a nice ad but these aren’t the Prius ads that are getting talked about. Instead the unofficial ads are. Could we be seeing a new era of user generated ‘mock ads’ having more impact than the real thing?

There’s three mock press ads going around that feature a very alternative image of the Prius drivers. One features a man chatting up a hooker, another the driver is dumping a dead body and in the third the driver is shagging some bloke’s wife. Each carries the line ‘Well, at least he drives a Prius’. A new spin on the benefits of being an eco-warrior.

The ads were created by art director by David Krulik (see the ads at http://www.davidkrulik.com/Print-Prius-1.html ). Krulik actually works at Ogilvy New York, where they don’t have the Prius account.

There all look very professional and unless you knew you’d think Toyota were trying to give the Prius a sexier image and breaking with stereotype car ads. They may not be D&AD but they aren’t bad and actually refreshing. And who knows, could well attract a new audience to the Prius.

Ironically one of the most talked about VW ads of all time was a ‘mock ad’. It featured a terrorist blowing himself up inside a Polo. Despite being in very poor taste it was the one ad everyone wanted to see. Unlike Toyota, VW didn’t see the funny side of the ad and it all got very messy.

Ford got a lot of flack for their sun roof ad where the cat gets decapitated. Despite denials, many suspect those in Canary Wharf were involved.

A number of years ago Renault made a dreadful ad for the Kangol. It was bad. Thankfully the image of the car was saved by a German ad featuring a Rhino bonking the Kangol senseless. It had a higher recall than the UK version.

With YouTube and numerous ad sites, budding creatives (or bored ones in dull agencies) can now post their own ‘mock ads’ up. Gone are the days when we prayed for that golden brief. Stuff it, now you can have an idea and who cares if you don’t have the client. You just turn on the Mac, make the ad and post it up somewhere. And no anal account handler or client to destroy it. Creative heaven! Talent at last can fly.

When once people would try and run it in some obscure magazine or send it into Luerzers Archive or enter it into expensive awards to get noticed, your inspired idea can now be seen all over the world by tomorrow afternoon and you can be in a new job by the weekend.

‘Mock ads’ could change the face of advertising. The upside is at least we might start seeing some braver more imaginative ads about. And who knows, maybe soon a major brand will attribute increased sales to an ad made not by their agency but by some student from an obscure ad agency in Ohio.

Sony recycles old ads

Even Sony are jumping on the ethical marketing band wagon. Their new commercials feature old ad clips. It’s all part of a campaign about recycling.

Stuart Redsun of Sony’s American marketing department was quoted as saying, "we are recycling our old commercials to remind you to recycle your old electronics." Sounds like PR spin to me but at least it’s a worthy reason.

UK audience may be thinking that Ecover did this almost 10 years ago (and EDF did it a few weeks ago).

Sony have really taken the philosophy “action, not just words” on board and are aiming to set up e-waste recycling points within 20 miles of most consumers in the US.

Electronic waste is a big problem across the globe and Sony, as one of the world’s leading electronics manufacturers, are taking it seriously. They have already recycled over 1,000 tons of electronic waste.

Being Japanese, Sony are probably driven by spiritual ethics (like many Japanese brands), sadly others aren’t. Far too many brands are being reactive rather than proactive. Either because City investors are putting the pressure on many companies to clean up their ethical act or because of consumer pressure.

We have yet to see if the Sony campaign is coming to the UK (or if any of the other big electronic brands get there first).

Who knows, maybe we will see ‘Balls’, ‘Tower Block’ and ‘Bunnies’ recycled. But as what?

P&G, Unilever, Tesco, Co-op, M&S. Big brands fight to be the most ethical

P&G are battling it out with Unilever. All the supermarkets are at it. It seems everyone is trying to be more ethical than the other as the agenda moves from green to more philanthropic causes. ‘Ethical marketing’ is the term of the moment.

I always hate saying “I told you so” but this was on the cards. The big brands were flirting with ethics a few years ago. Many thought it was just about being green but now they are fighting on a bigger ethical platform. Everyone is tying up with charities and trying to save the people as well as the planet.

In a recent blog I mentioned Coke and Pepsi’s shift towards humanitarian causes and how this was defeating the environmentalists. How can you call a company that saves lives in Africa evil, even if their plastic bottles are filling land fill?

As the supermarkets battle it out, M&S have certainly won the recent PR battle with their 5p on carrier bag announcement. Plan A has been a historic moment in both their history and in the world of retail. But the Co-op still dominates as the UK’s leading ethical retailer because ethics is at the core of their ethos. While others have jumped on the green bandwagon, the Co-op have stuck firmly behind Fairtrade and their belief in supporting people and communities, even when the greens have been condemning food miles. 

Even Asda has been rolling back the ‘green’ prices while their parent company Wal-Mart has been championing ethics (there is a God).

The award for putting your foot in your mouth goes to Tesco’s.  After a very successful year of being the greener grocer, they announced the £1.99 chicken. Opps! That really wasn’t the right time with so much TV coverage on chickens. Meanwhile Jamie and Sainsbury’s seemed like a married couple on the issue of ethical food but managed to see eye to eye in the end (thank goodness for Relate).

So strong is the move towards ‘ethical marketing’ in the States that Saatchi’s have bought an ethical specialist. The UK isn’t short of a few green agencies (probably more than the States) and ethical marketing specialist either – it’s a growing trend. Meanwhile the traditional ad agencies are falling over themselves to look greener than green (better ten years late than never) though green wash would be a better word.

One just knocked up a green guide and rather than send it as a pdf printed it instead – dooh!

Yep, ‘ethical marketing’ is the hot term of the moment. Everyone wants it, few have a clue about it and even less know how to deliver it.  But that’s what makes it all so very interesting.