In response to my recent post Is The Starbucks Busine
ss Brand Declining? many commenters talked about relationship marketing and experience marketing.
It was an interesting conversation. Thanks to Ben Jones, Chad, Karen Swim, Evan Hadkins, Vivienne Quenk and Dina Lynch Eisenberg for joining in and sharing your insights.
Karen Swim said
The Starbucks brand-consumer relationship started off as ardent lovers and midway Starbucks decided "we're just acquaintances." They diminished brand equity and suddenly many people realized they were paying $4 for coffee, experience be darned.
My thoughts:
I love the "ardent lovers" to "we're just acquaintances" transition analogy for the Starbucks brand-consumer relationship.
Dina Lynch Eisenberg said
Starbucks fell victim to its own creation. They created 'experience marketing' then failed to create an evolving experience. After 2 or 3 'half caf, soy milk lattes' the thrill of getting just what you wanted is gone, sadly.
While I still believe experience marketing is a viable strategy, we all should be reminded that we're only as good as the last experience to the fickle public. The experience doesn't have to be new, just remarkable enough to hold their interest and instill loyalty.
My thoughts:
The difference between "new" and "remarkable enough to hold their interest and loyalty" is an interesting one, as things can't be "new" forever.
How About You?
- How could Starbucks do experience and relationship marketing more effectively?
Tomorrow, I'm going to take a look at ING Direct and see how it uses experience marketing, even though it doesn't have any physical branches.
You have to take your hat off to ING Direct for knowing their market and for business savvy... and for taking some of the best things from the Starbucks model.
» ING Cafe Direct - An Experience Marketing Success Story from SmallBizMentor
ING Direct, the banking group, knows how to do experience marketing successfully. Some Small Biz Mentor commenters feel Starbucks have lost their way with experience marketing, so ING is an interesting case study as it offers coffee as well. Yes,... [Read More]
Tracked on: July 14, 2008 7:28 AM | Permalink to Trackback