An in-depth analysis of Starbucks'"customer driving" marketing rules

After reading the title, do you think the editor's article is very unkind? This is obviously an attack on Starbucks, an internationally renowned coffee brand. In fact, the purpose of writing this article is to let you know the details of Starbucks' marketing, how to drive customers away to increase sales, maximize profits, and explain Starbucks' success.

Starbucks targets consumers in white-collar groups. Note that in the positioning of Starbucks in China, white-collar workers are a state, not an identity. Starbucks stores in China are usually located in office buildings or business districts, and consumers are easily "bewitched" by Starbucks when they take lunch breaks on weekdays, take shopping breaks, meet three or five friends, and so on-go in and buy a cup. But Starbucks store settings never encourage you to sit all afternoon, and Starbucks marketing methods summed up by "saying one thing and doing another" are by no means excessive.

Starbucks' approach is to make customers uncomfortable. The decoration in the store changes the deep and warm hue of the cafe, but is simple and refreshing, with strong lines, which will not make people feel comfortable leisure scene. Seating arrangement has ulterior motives, specializing in the use of some wooden chairs, high stools, wall tables and other uncomfortable furniture, people can not sit for a long time. If you are careful, you can also feel that Starbucks' air conditioners are usually cooler than those in nearby stores, thinking that this is a benefit. Big mistake, in fact, it is uncomfortable, urge you to buy coffee and go. Starbucks in the United States has even added a new takeout window for autos. You might as well stay out of the restaurant. It's completely McDonald's.

In general, the restaurant meals in the cafe will provide customers with porcelain cups, which can not be taken away until they are finished, so customers will naturally stay in the shop for longer. Whether ready-to-eat or take-out, Starbucks is packed in paper cups, and customers can take the coffee away at any time.

So instead of defining Starbucks as a coffee shop, it is a coffee convenience store where far more customers choose to buy and leave than they enjoy in the store. In contrast, COSTA and Pacific, which are both large chain brands, have more people leisurely surfing the Internet and reading in the store.

Unlike Starbucks "say one thing and do another", many local coffee shopkeepers with literary dreams have been brought to the ditch by the leisure concept shaped by Starbucks. An industry source told the reporter that from the current market situation, three to five of the 10 coffee shops in the Chongqing market are losing money, only two are making a profit, and the rest can basically maintain their income and expenditure.

"it is true that this situation exists. Many people pursue the tone of literature and art and forget that they are opening a shop." Wu Jing, who has been in the coffee industry for many years, said that there are many people in the industry who devote their feelings regardless of cost to create leisure time. As a result, "how can a shop that allows customers to" have a cup of coffee for an afternoon "pay the rent?"

"the turnaround rate is very important to the profitability of coffee shops." Wu Jing analysis, for a coffee shop, rent and labor costs are rigid, the cost of a single cup of coffee is certain, sales determine the profit margin.

In fact, Starbucks'"bad tricks" have long been an open secret of the retail industry. "Starbucks is just doing what an operator should do." Hu Yu, founder of the bean sprout coffee chain, told reporters that Starbucks' practices are common in the retail industry. In the supermarket, soothing music is usually played when there are few customers, while when customers are concentrated, fast-paced music is played so that people can't help but speed up the progress.