Starbucks Expanding into China

As you know, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world. People don't only go there for the great tasting coffee, but they also come there for the experience. Starbucks does off a great experience for many of its customers and is now hoping to bring the company over to China. I was reading an article the other day on how Starbucks plans to do this. I thought it was strange that Starbucks would think China would be a great place to market their products and services. Chinese people enjoy drinking tea rather than coffee. They grew up on tea, and for generations now, they have stuck to that tradition. It would be difficult to alter their taste and change their preference within months. China does not care about Starbuck's signature product. Their culture has been to drink tea for centuries, so Starbucks definitely has its work cut out for. 

The first step Starbucks has taken was to give out samples to the Chinese customers. This is a very important step for Starbucks because they have to let the product become more well known and make the coffee look like a luxury. The problem Starbucks is facing is whether they should change Starbucks to appeal more towards the China culture, or should they try to change the taste of Chinese consumers. I honestly thought that Starbucks should try to appeal more towards the China culture because it would be more of a gradual change that would get the Chinese people's attention. Starbucks decided to take the other route and want to change the taste of Chinese consumers all together. This is a big risk, seeing as how China's 1.3 billion people do not care for coffee, according to the article I read. 

Companies in the U.S. such as KFC and General Motors have adapted their businesses toward the Chinese culture. This is why these companies have become successful in the past. Now, Starbucks has to compete with Chinese teahouses. Many managers of teahouses do not feel threatened by Starbucks because they believe that the people will never be interested in converting to coffee. It is in the Chinese culture that Chinese people do not like sweet tasting foods and drinks. Coffee contains a high amount of sugar content. Starbucks hoped that the experience of drinking coffee and sitting outside would be enough to convince Chinese consumers to join the bandwagon. The Starbucks in China has not had high sales or profit. They have been struggling to convert the consumers' taste. Not to say that EVERYONE does not like the taste of coffee. Starbucks have gained long term customers that enjoy the taste of coffee and even consider it "addicting." Starbucks hopes that these consumers will spread the world and increase loyalty throughout the country.  

My personal opinion is that Starbucks should try to accommodate China's culture into the company. With taking everything in the U.S. and bringing it overseas, sooner or later, all countries will be just like the Western World. There will be less diversity and a less distinct culture difference.

The Persuaders

Song Airlines is being developed and launched at a time where the airline industry is suffering. This may not be the best time to start this company in hopes for getting a profit. I like how they used a focus group to gather ideas and research. It gave great insight and a deeper understanding of women and other consumers. I like the fact they want to know their target consumers on a more personal level and form a connection with consumers. They want to benefit the consumer in a beneficial and emotional way. The Song Airlines commercials could be their downfall. They are very risky because it will not show anything about the low cost airfares or anything about the travelers. The risk is that you are hoping to get the consumers to understand the message and drive the consumers to buy the product. Song Airlines wants to be different from all the other airlines. I am not sure how well the risky commercials will play out. This could result in a huge loss for the company. One thing I like about Song Airlines is their slogan. "We are not an airline, we are a culture." It creates a bond and an emotional connection with the consumer. I do not like the fact that Song branding is confusing a lot of people. People do not understand that Song is an airline. They are seeing their ads, but not understanding the message.

Consumers are driven by unconscious needs and impulses. People try to make up something that makes sense when buying goods. For instance, he uses the example that people buy Hummers to go shopping in Manhattan, which is very unnecessary, but people do this all the time because they make unconscious decisions when making purchases. His 3 step technique involves past reason, through emotion, to the primal core. Past reason is an introductory phase where he asks simple questions to get the focus group to think. Then for emotion, Rapaille wants the people in the focus group to tell a story based on the word given. This stage confuses the focus group, and this is exactly what Rapaille aims to do. In the 3rd stage, Rapaille wanted everyone to get comfortable and think back to their primal urges. He wants you to return to the first experience with the associated word and he wants you to discuss the experience with him. By using these 3 techniques, Rapaille feels that a lot of valuable information can be found.

One of Rapaille's findings is that "Reptilian" always wins. Once you crack the code, that is when you accomplish yor goal. Dr. Rapaille is trying to crack the code on the word LUXURY for one of the automobile clients. Absorbing the code and understanding the code will help companies become more competitive. With every word, there is a mental connection, an unconscious message in the brain that help people make decisions. Every word has a meaning. Every culture has a different meaning for each word as well. For example, the word "coffee" in France does not have the same meaning as "coffee" in America. Both cultures see that word in an entirely different manner.

Learning More About The Consumer

After reading the “Kenna’s Dilemma” chapter, I was really interested to know more about Kenna’s life. He seems like such a fascinating person that has gone through many ups and downs with his music career. I like the fact that Kenna’s style of music is different, not in a bad way, but just different from other artists.

Market researchers have to find a way to get into the consumers’ minds. This is not an easy process by any means. I have always thought that asking consumers directly would give you all the answers, but after reading this chapter, I definitely think differently. One lesson I have learned is that when people are asked a question directly, that doesn’t necessarily give you factual information and you shouldn’t rely on it 100%. (pg.5)

Market researchers playing a clip of Kenna’s songs over the phone to find out if it was what consumers wanted was probably not the best solution. I thought this was particularly important because it puts the emphasis that people are so quick to judge. They are so quick to like or dislike something without giving it a real chance. I admit that I sometimes fall into this category as well. I am a huge movie freak. I rent movies almost every weekend. A lot of the times, when I put the DVD in, if the first 30 minutes doesn’t interest me because of the slow plot, I immediately turn it off. I judge the movie too quickly just on the first 30 minutes. Recently, I have watched the entire movie, regardless of the slow plot, and it turns out, that these movies are AMAZING. For the past year, I have been missing out on some great films. This relates to the whole Pepsi challenge. In a taste test, people chose Pepsi over Coke. Coke was more of a well-known brand at the time, and because people only had a sip, they did not have the chance to drink an entire glass. By drinking the entire glass, which changed a lot of opinions.

Also through sensation transference, I believe that marketers should study this concept thoroughly in order to gain insight from current or potential customers. This concept is based on the packaging of the product. It has been studied that the way the product is packaged, ultimately makes the product. (pg. 8)

Another lesson I find very helpful for marketers is they should learn to become experts in their specific fields. When I mean expert, I mean know the ins and outs of EVERYTHING that they are researching. I think this will help greatly. (pg. 17). If you are researching whether people would like a certain television show, this takes a lot of expertise. You have to know what sells, why people watch what they watch, what is entertaining, what gets the ratings up, etc. It takes more than just watching the show and saying you like it. There is so much background knowledge that marketers need in order to gain insight from current or potential customers.

At first, I was honestly dreading to read this 22 page chapter, but I surprisingly found it very interesting. It is neat to see that consumers’ minds are so complex and market researchers have to be creative in understanding the way they think.