That’s gotta hurt.
Starbucks dumps its PR firm after a survey of 8,000 consumers says the coffee behemoth is “arrogant, intrusive and self-centred.”
Here’s hoping that Starbucks’ efforts to recast itself as a more socially and environmentally conscious organization are more than skin [scales?] deep. Given their stature, Starbucks could have a bigger impact than anyone to inform and educate the consumer, and to spur the specialty coffee trade.
February 1, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Starbies could have saved a bundle, skipped the survey and got a clue from this guy. Instead they sued him blue in the face.
March 20, 2005 at 6:57 pm
I can’t imagine any marketing company really helping Starbucks. While I don’t give them my patronage, they’re wildly successful, and success breeds dislike. Maybe they could tone down their “only our terminology is correct attitude (a small coffee, anyone?), but so long as they continue to expand, they’ll have their detractors.
I know they’ve driven many mom and pop coffee shops out of business, but a lot of those m&p shops served *terrible* (no just burnt) coffee. In my area, a bunch of places have opened up in the last several years, places that are serious about coffee. I’m not sure people would have welcomed them had Starbies not established the precedent (not all of us live in Seattle).
April 4, 2005 at 6:18 pm
Starbucks is trendy. Therefore, image-concious coffee drinkers publicly despise it. I can see why. I work at Starbucks and everytime someone complains about their humoungous 20 oz cappuccino lacking hideous soap foam, a little part of me dies. We’ve totally bastardized it. On the other hand, don’t average people deserve to try specialty coffees and (often terrible, I admit)espresso drinks? It was my introduction to coffee and it has helped the coffeeshop business in general (in my town, anyway). The names are stupid. I have been told a lot of things about Starbucks’ purchasing standards etc… It appears very socially responsible, but that’s the company’s angle. However, every criticism I read seems to have the objective of certifying the writer as a rebellious champion of ethics, rather than to actually make a convincing argument against the company.
April 4, 2005 at 7:31 pm
My own point of view…
There’s probably tens of millions of folks who had never experienced anything remotely like specialty coffee until they were lured in the mermaid’s door.
While their style of roasting isn’t to everybody’s taste, and their beverages may not meet the exacting standards of the more discerning palate, Starbucks has nonetheless played a *huge* role in awakening the American palate to the idea of something more than a cuppa joe…