I just read an article about Starbucks expanding their offering in certain stores to offer beer, wine, and more food in the evening.
As a marketer, I have deep misgivings about this. Starbucks is supposed to be about coffee. I worry about brand dilution. As a consumer who enjoys coffee and beer, I do not see those two things living in the same space.
But as a change agent, I love this. It is critically important to be uncomfortable from time to time. It’s a good indication you’re trying something new. After all, if it has already been done then you already know how it will play out – nothing to be uncomfortable about there. Starbucks is adding an extra shot to their current offering. That’s terrific. If it works, great. If it doesn’t work, then they will have learned something useful.
Either way, kudos to them.
Now I might humbly offer them some advice. I LOVE coffee flavored beers. (Dogfish Head Chicory Stout, Southern Tier Jahva, Dieu de Ciel Peche Mortel…) Why not develop your stores as THE place to enjoy these beers? It could transform your business. It will definitely transform my Starbucks Gold Card!
So many articles and blog posts written to get people to do something different or differently, begin with the same conceit: the world is changing and we better get on board. I’ve made this argument myself more times than I care to count. It seems obvious and yet so many people refuse to change.
The truth is, I’m not so sure that the “world is changing” conceit is the right way to think about the world. Actually, I don’t think the world is changing. People have been proclaiming that the world is changing since day two of the world. I don’t think we can call it “change” anymore. That sense you have that something is different today than it was yesterday, that thing you see that you didn’t see before, that’s not change. That’s just the world. That’s what happens. That’s what has always happened. No forecasting, trend reports or crystal balls are needed. You’ve seen this movie before about a billion times – you’re not allowed to feign surprise at the ending anymore.
I’m not amazed by peoples’ failure to contend with change. I’m amazed by the failure of so many people to contend with what has been true forever.
You know it’s coming. Not you think it’s coming. You know it’s coming. What are you doing about it?
There are many reasons why we don’t act to make our world better. One of them is the belief that someone else will do it. Someone else will give up their seat to the pregnant woman. Someone else will help that elderly man pick up the bag he dropped. Someone else will allow that car to merge into the lane. Someone else will pick up that piece of garbage.
We can go about our business and someone else will take care of it.
I’d like to suggest that we think differently. I’d like to suggest that we pretend there isn’t anybody else. If someone else was going to do it then the pregnant woman wouldn’t be standing in the aisle and the garbage wouldn’t be lying on the floor. There is no someone else.
You be the someone else.
See how much change happens then!
