Dear Starbucks…
Jul 27th
Dear Starbucks,
I understand that you invested a lot of time and money into developing your Instant Coffee product, Via. I understand you are under a lot of pressure by your stockholders to return a profit. But what I don’t understand is your method of accomplishing that. Do you really think that linking Via sales to Store and Barista, er, “Partner” performance is the best way of pushing, er, forcing, er, selling Via? When most Starbucks customers at a store are regular customers, are you not worried about alienating your existing customer base by asking them over and over if they want Via?
No they don’t want Via — Via has been out for over a year, you would have to be living under a rock to not know something about Via.
Marketing — Starbucks has fallen behind in marketing their company to the full potential. There is so much competition out there: Dutch Bros, Peets Coffee, local Mom-and-Pop shops, heck – even McDonalds!… What makes Starbucks special?
Why should someone go to Starbucks over any other shop?
Starbucks, when discussing their Seattle’s Best coffee brand has stated that they want the Starbucks brand to be “Premium” — Premium? Okay – between your limited ads for the new Fraps. and for Via I see nothing premium. Between Facebook and Twitter social networking I don’t see premium — I see mediocre.
Want to see premium marketing? Look at Louis Vuitton:
I love that ad — so simple, so elegant, so thought provoking.
I don’t want to give away on a public site my ideas for marketing Starbucks – but web video, etc needs to be exploited. You need to reconnect with your customers. You need to redefine your brand as to WHY… WHY should someone go to Starbucks? What makes Starbucks Starbucks? Create an emotional connection with your customers.
Where I work I am within 1 mile of over 25 coffee shops. Why do I pick Starbucks? Now there are 5 Starbucks really close to me – why do I go OUT of my way to the Starbucks I go to? These need to be explored and built upon and marketed. It comes down to People, Experience, Trust, etc.
Give me a bad experience or no personal connection and I won’t go there. I go to the Starbucks I visit because of wonderful Baristas like Kaitlyn, etc. Without them, I would find a different place.
And stop pushing Via so much!!!!
Thoughts about Measure 66 and 67…
Jan 27th
If you listened to the political ads for the past few months you would likely believe that companies only pay $10/year in taxes and that they should pay their “fair share” .
Sadly that is not the case; companies only paid $10/year if they didn’t make a profit that year. So they could have sold $5million worth of product/services, but if it cost them $5million+ then they would have had to pay $10 in taxes.
So what did Measure 67 change? They now have to pay $150? That is only $140 more – why are they so worried about “jobs”? The nicest way I can put this is simply: they get screwed.
Wilco Farm and Ranch stores sold $180 million in “gross” sales last year. After laying 11 staff off they made $300,000 profit. But, according to ORS 317.090, they pay off of their GROSS receipts. So under Section 1-2-a-L they will have to pay $100,000 in state taxes. 33% of their total profit!
Oh who cares, right? $200,000 profit should be enough! They should just stop being greedy.
Other states typically have an upper limit, somewhere around $5-10k on their minimum tax or they base it off of profit and not gross receipts. 33% off of profit is outrageous!
The business community said they were fine with a higher tax, just not the tax that was imposed.
What I really hate is when people tell me they voted for the tax because “it doesn’t apply” to them. They don’t own a business or they aren’t “rich” – so that gives them the right to tax those who DO make more than them? The tax doesn’t really apply to me either, though through one of my businesses I will have to pay $50 more in my filing fee and a $150 minimum tax, so $200 more than I normally pay. Not the end of the world. BUT!! Here is the but…. One day I would like to make more than what I make now and I would also like to leave my job one day (sooner rather than later) – for a business to make it on its own you need to “sell” at least $150k if you work from home and $250k if you have a retail location. This isn’t accounting for a staff or a large salary. Once you start taxing businesses and the “rich” then you start taking away the desire to work harder to MAKE more or to start a business and when there are no more small businesses in America, America will die.
If people think that the Government will take care of their every need, why would they want to live on Ramen noodles and beans for a year? We are the land of opportunity, not the land of hand outs. Sure the road may be tough and there are obstacles, but if you really put effort into it, you can do whatever you want.
I mentioned the rich – define rich? To me, $100k, $250k isn’t rich…. $500-750k? Okay, I think that is pretty close… but these days when most houses are $400k for even a half-acre of land, $100k doesn’t go far. Especially when you also have 2 cars, likely a college fund or two, etc – your fortune? GONE pretty fast. An interesting read about millionaires: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2009/11/what-real-millionaires-do.html and what they spend their money on. Hmm, doesn’t look like they spend it like most pro-sport athletes and actors spend their money.
“Those poor children – they will grow up poor and dumb because we didn’t pay for their schooling.” We already pay $10k per student per year for a PUBLIC EDUCATION. A crappy, low-standards, education. Heck, some colleges are cheaper and you live and eat there for 9 months. Anyways – I know how much I make per month at my job, if I want to buy something new that I can’t afford I either A) save for it, B) looks for a cheaper model, or C) live without it. I can’t go to my boss and be like “Hey Gary… I need an extra $1k per month this year… and yeah…. If you DON’T pay me more I won’t be able to do my work properly…” How do you think that would go over? Yeah… exactly – I would be on my own earlier than I had planned. The Government (all levels) needs to learn how to do the same thing. Learn to live within their means. Education and public safety can’t be the only programs to cut – those are the programs that we need most, so that is why they cut them — so we HAVE to pay up. I have worked for Government all my life. I’ve worked in local government and education and I have seen waste first hand… it’s everywhere. The amount of money wasted is INSANE. Some of it is due to stupidity, some of it is due to politics and egos and some of it is due to people just not caring about where the money is coming from.
So in conclusion, I do think that we need to change how businesses are taxed, but I think the state went TOO far. I also think the Government should live within their means. Once our unemployment rate hits 15% I hope someone tries to repeal these taxes…. But will it be too late?
Welcome to the new Blog!
Dec 23rd
Welcome to the new blog – I like the look and feel of the WordPress system a lot more than Blogger… stay tuned while I write some posts.
