In Customers First
Check out this NY Times article about Starbucks’ decision to source their coffee mugs domestically. It’s the tale of how Starbucks, a company with 200,000 employees, started doing business with American Mug. Here’s the Cliff Notes version:
American Mug was a company that was headed toward closure.
American Mug was a company that was headed toward closure in a town full of businesses that were similarly in trouble—or already closed.
American Mug is a ceramics company. The ceramics industry has floundering badly domestically due to competition with China.
Starbucks chose American Mug as their supplier rather than go with a Chinese source even though the American-made mugs are more expensive.
Do you see what they did there?
Right in front of your very eyes, Starbucks has tapped into the power of a contemporary cultural story and leveraged it to strengthen their brand dominance and customer loyalty.
Let’s talk about that contemporary cultural story bit first. As people, we all experience problems—all kinds of problems, all of the time. We have big problems and little problems. We have problems that affect us very, very personally, and some that don’t seem to bother us at all. We identify with the problems of others—of our friends and neighbors, colleagues and countrymen.
All of these problems create a level of tension within us. Tension is no fun. It makes us uncomfortable. It makes us unhappy. We’re strongly motivated to relieve these tensions and we’re keenly aware of and generally resentful about situations where we feel ourselves powerless to effect any type of change that would relieve the tension we’re experiencing. It’s the drive to relieve tension that causes us to seek solutions to our problems.
Cultural stories are the narratives we’ve built up collectively to record and relay relevant information about the best way problems can be solved. Cultural stories contain the solutions to problems, acting as a guide that we can use when making decisions.
Robin Hood and Starbucks
In a time of great hardship and gross economic disparity, people embraced the tale of Robin Hood. He took from the rich, especially those deemed to have wealth unjustly, and gave to the deserving and virtuous poor. Cultural stories are extremely powerful forces in a society. It’s important to understand how these tales influence the listener. Does exposure to Robin Hood result in generations of children who grew up to be bandits? Or do we get, instead, generations of children committed to the idea that inequality must be challenged?
If we look at British society today, and we look at British society at the time when Robin Hood tales were first told, we see that while the situation is by no means perfect, things are a whole lot more equal than they used to be. The arrow may not have hit a utopian bullseye, but it’s on the target.
When we talk about contemporary cultural stories, we’re talking about the tensions and pressures our customers are experiencing right now.
Starbucks’ best customers are feeling a sense of economic oppression right now. Even if they aren’t in a tough situation themselves, they know and easily identify with people who are. This creates an internal tension: anxiety and worry about one’s economic security is very unpleasant. We are strongly motivated to resolve our internal tensions, but who do you blame for an omnipresent sense of economic peril?
There are a lot of answers to that question, but “Unfair Competition From China” is a very, very popular one. Unfortunately, there’s not much one person, as an individual consumer, can do to impact the balance of global trade. This adds a sense of hopelessness and frustration to the internal tension.
And here comes Starbucks to save the day. Like Robin Hood, they snatch up the gem—the lucrative mug contract—from the Chinese, perceived to be unjustly rich in terms of manufacturing contracts, and award it to the struggling American industry. They’re the hero in this coffee talk.
For the typical Starbucks customer, the mug sourcing change will not affect their lives in any concrete way whatsoever. But by frequenting Starbucks, and allying themselves with the brand, these customers now have their chance to stand up and join with Robin Hood. They’re supporting the company that’s fighting back against China—and they can do it without making any change in a routine they already enjoy. They become heroic by association.
It’s a smart strategy. To be a hero is a noble thing, an appealing prospect. When we act heroically, we feel better about ourselves. We like who we are. Starbucks has created a way for their customers to tap into that powerful emotional experience vicariously. We think it’s a good move, in the right direction. What do you think?