Marketing Spoonful

Earlier today, we posted about traditional advertising’s nearly nonexistent role in the Starbucks brand-building success story.
Still, the Starbucks cup has become an icon, a symbol of status and state of mind for millions.

At lunch, we were reminded of a similar icon, the Chipotle burrito.

Two simple icons. Very little “push” advertising. Immense success.
Maybe there IS something [...]

Tags: Borderless Branding, Chipotle, Consumer Preference, Starbucks, the anti-advertising

The Banana Chocolate Blend is tasty. The blend of the two flavors is nearly perfect. The consistency is very smooth, somewhat viscous, but not quite as much as panna cotta. It goes through a straw quite nicely.
The Starbucks store was all decked out, complete with writing on the windows and sidewalk chalk drawings heralding the [...]

Tags: banana, blend, chocolate, differentiation, fortified, health, me too, nutrition, smoothie, Starbucks

It will be interesting to see how the latest round of drink menu augmentation goes for Starbucks and their competitors.
The coffee purveyor and “third place” proprietor is serving up a new batch of “healthy-sounding” smoothies, designed to compete with similar offerings from Dunkin’ Donuts and others.
Now, the Spoon loves a Venti Caramel Macchiato as much [...]

Tags: 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Dunkin' Donuts, Food, food blog, health, Krispy Kreme, McDonald's, meal replacement, nutrition, Ries, smoothie, Starbucks, Trout

By now most of us have heard about Starbucks closing 600 stores and laying off thousands.
Here is an excellent Harvard blog post on what we can all learn from Starbucks’ hubris and obsession with having more retail locations than any other chain.
Never sacrifice brand equity for revenue. Never. Just ask Krispy Kreme, which denigrated its [...]

Tags: brand equity, brand value, hubris, Krispy Kreme, low carb, Starbucks