Couple of very interesting posts made by Ben Young (You wonder why Star Bucks is struggling) and Ben Kepes (My Thoughts on Coffee) on Starbucks in the New Zealand market, regarding their lack of success due to an over-Americanised experience (the former) and consumer disbelief of quality due to their brand attributes (the latter).
I started writing the below as comment – however I got kind of passionate. So like Mr. Kepes, I believed it deserved a post of its own.
I generally avoid Starbucks stores like they harbor rabid dogs in the place.
It is not so much the coffee – the few experiences where I have had Starbucks coffees (when forced by pestering or politeness) the coffee has not actually been that bad.
What makes me walk past is that there are always other cafe’s around, owned by local operators, who deserve my money more than Starbucks and their mint soy caramel frappe’s, heh.
In addition, the ethical consideration of where the coffee beans come from bothers me. No matter what the website says, consumers concerned with issues around ethical business (which is probably a minority – but a larger minority in New Zealand than elsewhere) are more likely to assume that Starbucks follows other stereotypical patterns of large-corporate globalisation of taking advantage of 3rd world nations’ poverty (desperation) and resources (land). This subconcious association between a brand and the pursuit of lower cost coffee at the expense of other countries is less likely for a local cafe.
So I think this is all a piece of the puzzle started in the above two posts. Starbucks showing shakiness in the New Zealand market is possibly due to a combination in each consumer of:
- the rejection of Americanisation of the coffee experience by the New Zealand public
- the perceived lack of quality due to these American brand values / messages / atmosphere
- the willingness of New Zealanders to support local business over multi-nationals
- the ethical considerations of buying from an American corporate when so many substitutes are available that don’t have so much of that ‘icky’ feel
Related to this – there is a confession on Financial Confessions relating to Starbucks – and look at the response. 23 slaps, 5 hugs.
I recommend everyone to give local businesses your patronage. There is a cafe owned by someone trying to serve good coffee and create a viable business in the local economy about 100 meters away from that Starbucks store. I promise.
Hi there. Interesting comments but not sure if I agree totally. Firstly, isn’t Restaurant Brandz (licensee of Starbucks in NZ) a local company? Also, how about the jobs that are created locally? I see that as supporting local communities and economy in different ways. Friends of mine work part time at Starbucks or McDonalds and that helped them through uni.
Hi, thanks for reading and your thoughts.
You are right – Restaurant Brands NZ is a New Zealand company, however what I expressed above was more a reaction to the brand itself, as a consumer, not so much the actual ownership of the company.
You are absolutely right – companies such as Starbucks to create many many needed jobs within the New Zealand market – hard to fault them on this.
It is just my personal opinion, and perhaps I didn’t put things into context enough in the above, but seeing an overtly American brand in New Zealand (such as Starbucks) just drives me to go to someone I subconciously know is local. This could possibly be down to my nature… I am after all a small web entrepreneur and we would like people to come to us instead of using a Microsoft application