Today is the 11th anniversary of the grand opening of the first Starbucks (SBUX) store in Korea. To commemorate the occasion, Starbucks has staged events at stores around the world throughout the month to keep Starbucks in the news, and in the minds of Starbucks customers around the world.
A fake robbery attempt was staged to draw attention to a British Columbia Starbucks store. It had to be fake because how else can you explain why a would-be criminal would cut in line in front of two police officers in order to make money demands of a barista armed only with a menacing beverage?
Starbucks restrooms were quite newsworthy in July due to a live birth that happened in a Colorado Starbucks restroom, a Britney Spears hair extension that was left behind in a Calabasas Starbucks restroom, and a hidden camera that was set up in a San Diego Starbucks restroom (purportedly to record live births and superstar hairdressing mishaps).
Staged celebrity sightings created a bigger buzz than caffeine intake at Starbucks stores around the world in July when Zac Effrom and his papps grabbed a snack at a New York Starbucks, Nick Jonas cooled down with a frozen Bucks-a-ccino in London, and Kristin Chenoweth got hot under the collar and pitched a Twitter fit after a bad encounter of the barista kind.
Setting up an employee credit card scam to draw attention to a Jakarta Starbucks was a little bit extreme. The suicide jumper who plunged onto a busy Starbucks patio was definitely over the top.
Of course, Starbucks staged none of these events (that we know of), but certainly this eclectic mix of coffeehouse entertainment sounds like it could have been concocted by a creative and slightly demented press-mongering PR firm. To realize that these very odd events all occurred organically, and all in one month, makes you want to hang out more at Starbucks just to see what will happen next.
Outside of the coffeehouse setting, other newsworthy events were happening for Starbucks as well. At an Oppenheimer conference, Starbucks offered these business changes as the reasons why it the company has returned to profitability despite the lingering effects of economic recession:
- 1/3 of Starbucks stores are global stores, located outside of the U.S.
- 25% of Starbucks operating profit is now coming from Starbucks branded consumer products
- GAAP margins are higher than they've been in five years
- The percentage of licensed stores vs. company-owned and operated stores has increased by 6% since 2005
- Starbucks is now doing business in 50 markets, compared to 37 markets in 2005
And during an investor teleconference, CEO Howard Schultz talked optimistically about Starbucks' stores in China, where specialized product offerings like black sesame green tea frappuccino and black bean kiwi tarts are generating success.
Starbucks also generated Internet superstardom for itself when it gained its 10 millionth fan on Facebook, and officially became the largest corporate brand on that social media platform. It's impressive what a few well-executed pastry giveaways can buy a company in cyberspace these days.
The undisputed best thing that landed Starbucks in the headlines in July, however, was its decision to offer free WiFi to its customers. Not paid WiFi, not WiFi with a Starbucks card and a time limit, not spotty WiFi service from AT&T for existing ISP customers, Starbucks now has honest-to-goodness free WiFi for anyone who can beat off other laptop users for a table or an electrical outlet. It took Starbucks a while to concede that its customers deserve WiFi privileges for free, but the company did the right thing for its "guests" eventually.
Speaking of doing the right thing, there was an extremely eloquent editorial this month in the Huffington Post about how Starbucks has abandoned its own mission statement, and how the global chain has lost its essence in the pursuit of product prominence. I don't agree with the premise of the article - that Starbucks has forgotten the "why" of its business - but I do think the article makes a great case for why a "why" is important and what the consequences are when you lose it.
Its obvious from Starbucks' most recent financials that the company has turned the corner on its own turnaround, well ahead of the overarching retail industry recovery curve. People are still casting their votes for the Starbucks brand around the world every day, five dollars at a time. And it ain't just because the premium-priced coffee and black bean kiwi tarts are so worth it.
So, Happy Birthday, Starbucks Korea! Check out this video to see how the South Korean Starbucks stores compares to the U.S. Make sure to watch the video all the way through to the last verse of the song, which is in English and somewhat humorous.
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