Let’s pretend … you live in a small town, population 1,200. You operate a BBQ joint open only on Saturdays in this small town. The townsfolk describe your brisket as “transcendent meat.” By the early afternoon you’ve sold all 300 pounds of the meats you smoked. Your day is done and your customers are happy. Business is manageable, profitable, and more important, enjoyable.

Then all of a sudden your unknown BBQ joint gets praised as BEST BBQ IN THE STATE.

People now drive hours from all over the state to taste your BBQ and by 10am, all the meat you smoked has been sold. Then you start smoking 1,000 pounds of meat instead of your regular 300 pounds, but still sell out by mid-morning.This isn’t pretend, this is real.

Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, TX was anointed by Texas Monthly as the best BBQ joint in Texas. Since being lauded, Snow’s BBQ has been swamped with out-of-towners. The first Saturday after being featured in Texas Monthly magazine, I made the trip out to Lexington, TX to taste the ”transcendent meat” at Snow’s. No go. All gone. I was too late, even though I arrived at 10:45am.

As Snow BBQ’s pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, says, all this attention has “blowed our business out of proportion.”

When faced with a similar situation where demand outstrips supply, most businesses would welcome the opportunity to blow their business out of proportion and simply expand to better meet demand. Expansion is the easy answer. The more difficult answer is to not expand.

Snow’s BBQ doesn’t want to expand because its owner, Kerry Bexley, worries that his and Tootsie’s passion for their Saturday BBQ gig will dry up under all the demands that come with being a bigger business.

These are perplexing times for Bexley and Snow’s BBQ. Sure, business is booming and the attention is good for the ego. However, is being too good actually bad for business? More out-of-town customers mean fewer folks in Lexington can enjoy the meats at their hometown BBQ spot. Tootsie is having to dramatically ramp up her early morning meat smoking duties, which adds intense pressure for everyone involved. It’s not uncommon for Snow’s BBQ to sell out of their meats by 9am which means loads of customers arriving after 9am leave disappointed. Again, is being too good actually bad for business?

Kerry Bexley told the Austin American-Statesman he’ll consider shutting down the business if it becomes just that … a business. “My concern,” says Bexley “is we don’t get so big that she [Tootsie] doesn’t enjoy it. But when it does, well, we’ll quit.”

Wow, that’s a refreshing take ... a business that puts passion and enjoyment before revenue and growth.Learn more about Snow’s BBQ from this NPR story and this review from Chowhound.

As many of you know, I will occasionally ask if you would miss a specific company if it went out-of-business tomorrow. (It’s part of my Would You Miss series inspired by the book, MAVERICKS AT WORK.) The question is totally hypothetical, but the answers you’ve given are highly emotional.

This “Would You Miss” question is a great one to ask of any business because it tells us how well we have formed relationships with our customers. If a business has formed unfailing relationships with its customers, then customers would truly care if that company went out of business. On the other hand, if a business hasn’t formed meaningful bonds with customers, then customers wouldn’t care if that business ceased to exist.

With the recent announcement of Starbucks Coffee closing 600 under-performing locations, we get to witness this “Would You Miss” question in action. If the SaveOurStarbucks.com website is any indication, lots of people will miss Starbucks when their location is closed.

"Now that it's going away, we're devastated," said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for software company SunGard Financial Systems who recently learned of a store closing in New York City. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal article]

Wow! “Now that it is going away, we’re devastated.” That’s the best thing a company could hope to hear from customers when it is dealing with severe business issues. Hmm ... would your customers be DEVASTATED if your business closed up shop?

Just finished reading Pete Blackshaw's book about "running a business in today's consumer-driven world." Those of you deep into word-of-mouth marketing and social media will already know much of what Pete shares. However, most of your business buddies will learn a lot from Pete's book. (And some of you could use a refresher course on why transparency and credibility matter immensely when citizen marketers are in control.) It's a worthy read.

One of the most worthwhile sections in the book deals with CREDIBILITY. Pete says credibility isn't on a company's balance sheet, but it should be because it is the only true resource a company has when the marketplace conversation is controlled by consumers. Pete continues by saying ...

Credibility rules the day, and if a company’s story doesn’t foster trust, if it doesn’t convey transparency and authenticity, if it isn’t informed by listening and responding to customers, and it isn’t positively affirmed by what consumers are saying to one another, then it’s just another phony story. And consumers will see right through it.” [“TELL 3,000” | pg. 39]

Right-on. Smart stuff.

The following Money Quotes presentation shares an interesting angle from the recently-published, TOY BOX LEADERSHIP. As the title conveys, this book takes classic childhood toys and extracts basic leadership lessons we first learned at a young age. It isn't a must-read book, but it is an interesting book.

Sample some of TOY BOX LEADERSHIP by learning how playing with Slinky Dog taught us a lesson on how leaders use their vision to pull followers along for the ride.

I’m not as unsettled about Starbucks selling smoothies as I am about Starbucks approving this billboard: LOCATION: Northbound & Southbound on I-35 (near Temple, TX)Sadly, this is another decision the company has made which has “… lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand." [SOURCE]

As marketers, we know there is not a faster, better, or cheaper route to commoditizing a brand than using unemotional language like: Newer … Faster … Better … Cheaper.

Back in the day, Starbucks marketers were coached to: (1) NEVER communicate like a fast food company; (2) NEVER convey a new and improved mindset; and (3) NEVER allow a tactic to take priority over the company’s heritage and personality.

Today is a different day. However, if Starbucks is to truly transform itself back to what in once was … it needs to also transform the language it uses.

I dusted off my “No Business is Perfect” essay and gave it new life with new context. It’s on the Keppler website … READ ARTICLE.

CZ Marketing interviewed me about SBUX, WOM, and OTHER STUFF … READ INTERVIEW.

Jeffrey Kluger's book on why simple things become complex seems interesting. Read a review today in the National Post that sparked my interest. The money quote from Araminta Wordsworth's review is ... "Simple things can be more complex than they seem, and complex things more simple."

>> Read the review
>> Learn more from Amazon

Continuing my “Would you Miss” series ...

What say you?

Post inspiration | Mavericks at Work

Over at the Idea Sandbox blog, Paul Williams breaks down the perverted oddities in this Burger King promotional tray liner. Really, this is just odd. Look at the rubber glove-wearing Pickle and the pants-down Onion. Now read Paul's breakdown.

ONE | FREE-DUMB?
“Shopping at sales is just one of the ways I fool myself when it comes to money,” writes Alina Tugend in the NY Times. Her point is that getting stuff for free, such as 2-for-1 sales and Free Delivery, isn’t bad. However, it can lead us to make dumb decisions. Provocative stuff. > READ MORETWO | Three or Three-Thousand?
Pete Blackshaw, long-time watcher of consumer-generated media, chimes in with his smart take on how companies can better succeed in this upside-down consumer-as-marketer world. In the just-published, “Satsifed Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Rell 3,000," Blackshaw says, “Credibility may not be on your balance sheet, but it’s the best asset you have.” To make the most out of amping up a company's credibility meter, Blackshaw says businesses must max out these six drivers: Trust, Authenticity, Transparency, Listening, Responsiveness, and Affirmation. >> LEARN MORETHREE | Tequila Shots
To celebrate a worthy team accomplishment, the crew at BRAINS ON FIRE down shots of Tequila. It’s become part of the company vibe at this Greenville, SC identity marketing shop. As their Marketer-In-Residence, I’ve experienced first-hand the unique approach BOF takes in shaping a company’s brand identity to ignite a movement of loud and proud customers. To help shape their identity with employees, BOF put together a list of 12 ideals they believe in. More companies should do this, that is … write a manifesto of company beliefs. Get an inside look at how BRAINS ON FIRE thinks by reading their “Tequila Shots” belief book.

Big news went down yesterday. Starbucks is closing 600 existing locations, cutting new store openings even further, and significantly reducing its workforce. This is on top of recently announcing a major reduction in their Starbucks Entertainment foray.

It’s official … Starbucks is no longer in growth mode. They are in PRUNE MODE.

We’ve talked about the need for Starbucks to prune its unwieldy garden before. And that vintage post from March 2007 takes on new relevance today. To better understand why Starbucks is in PRUNE MODE, re-read this post from the Brand Autopsy archives…first posted: March 17, 2007

Maintaining the Starbucks Garden
Paul’s analogy to restoring the Starbucks brand luster, like one would restore antique furniture, got me thinking about gardening. Paul and I once played around with this gardening analogy back in the day. We were probably chomping on a Briazz sandwich at Starbucks HQ when we began drawing the connections between the role of gardener and our role as marketers.

When you look at it, the Starbucks business resembles a garden landscape. Hear me out …

The seeds of the business were first planted in 1971 with the three original founders of Starbucks playing the role of company gardener. As company gardeners, they carefully worked with the soil in the Pacific Northwest until it became fertile ground. At first, the soil wasn’t fertile enough for the roots of the company to take hold and grow. But after years of dedication and daily nurturing, the hard soil became fertile and Starbucks began to not only grow deep, healthy roots—it also began to blossom. By 1992, the Starbucks garden landscape was thriving with new growth happening. Throughout the 90s, Starbucks flowers were always in full bloom and its garden landscape was growing, and growing, and growing.

Today, the Starbucks garden is still growing, but its growth is unwieldy. Company gardeners are having a hard time managing the garden’s growth. An increasing number of new plants have sprouted in the Starbucks garden that do not belong there. Coffee plants have always grown in the Starbucks garden but today, there are more and more plants in the garden that resemble nothing like coffee. The Starbucks garden has become so cluttered by wildflowers and weeds that it’s hard to recognize where the coffee plants are. Because of the wildflower and weed clutter, the Starbucks garden has lost its identity.

It’s become apparent—the Starbucks garden needs major maintenance. It needs pruning.

Pruning promotes healthy growth. By pruning, gardeners are able to remove unwanted, unneeded, and unhealthy plants as well as limbs from trees. This reduction of plants and tree limbs will allow for more light and air into the garden, thus allowing for wanted and needed plants to grow in a healthy, sustainable manner.

To promote healthy growth, Starbucks needs to prune its business by removing unwanted, unneeded, and unhealthy elements from its business. Prune its Merchandise assortment. Prune its Entertainment division. Prune its New Store expansion. Prune its Automation Efficiency projects. Prune its partnership with Jim Beam. Prune everything that is causing Starbucks to lose its identity of sourcing, roasting, and serving the highest-quality coffee.

These pruning efforts will allow for Starbucks to rejuvenate its soul and refertilize its reason for existing. Then, and only then, will the Starbucks garden be able to grow in a much healthier, sustainable manner. *** Read the full post here ***For those seeking extra credit, read the entire SOLVING STARBUCKS PROBLEMS series of posts.

Those in the medical field understand AMNESIA is a profound memory loss, usually the result of a traumatic event. Patients suffering from Amnesia have severe difficulty learning new information as well as remembering facts, events, and past experiences. Amnesia isn’t fatal. However, memory loss can be severe enough to require daily supervision from a caretaker. Coping rather than healing is the best case scenario for those suffering from Amnesia to live a somewhat productive life.

Marketing practitioners understand businesses can suffer from BRAND AMNESIA. When a business forgets its identity, disregards past learnings, and fails to learn new information … it has contracted BRAND AMNESIA.

I’m reminded of this marketing affliction from reading Janet Adamy’s dissection in the Wall Street Journal of Starbucks attempt to introduce a milder everyday coffee.

Earlier this year, as part of its much-discussed Transformation Agenda, Starbucks revamped its brewed coffee offerings. The Wall Street Journal explains the changes this way …

Pike Place Roast is a milder coffee compared to the bolder, earthier blends and single-origin coffees Starbucks formed its identity from. Loyal Starbucks customers have voiced their displeasure for the daily coffee that some have called, “… weak, watery, and no substitute for the bold.”

While Starbucks doesn’t admit it, the focus on milder everyday coffee is in response to the encroaching competition of Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s. Taste tests show Starbucks bolder flavors are polarizing and McDonald’s coffee has a more appealing taste.

As a marketing practitioner who has kept a detailed “Starbucks Marketing History” folder, this sounds like Déjà-Vu all over again. In the late 90's, Starbucks was hearing the same comments, mainly from the East Coast, that their bolder coffees were too polarizing and to acquire new customers, the company needed to address the “Charbucks” issue.

In response, Starbucks introduced Milder Dimensions in 1998. According to then Sr. Coffee VP, Mary Williams, Starbucks “… created Milder Dimensions(tm) in response to customer requests to experience a lighter Starbucks coffee. The milder flavor profile of this family offers the perfect introduction to Starbucks, as well as providing more coffee options without compromising quality."

Long story made short … despite its heavy in-store and out-of-store marketing attempts, Starbucks Milder Dimensions became a footnote in the company’s history. Customers never truly embraced the softer and simpler taste profile of this lighter-roasted coffee. Worse yet, Starbucks Partners (employees) never fully embraced the Milder Dimensions coffees because they believed the company’s identity is about bolder tastes and not lighter tastes. By 2003, the Milder Dimensions category was discontinued.

Ten years later, Starbucks repeats itself by introducing an updated version of its failed Milder Dimensions coffee—Pike Place Roast. As noted in the Wall Street Journal article, Starbucks customers have voiced displeasure with this softer and simpler coffee. And negative comments from Starbucks Partners litter the StarbucksGossip blog.

Marketing and medical practitioners know one’s history foretells one’s future. Milder Dimensions didn’t work in 1998 and Pike Place Roast isn’t going to work in 2008.

With hints of marketing dementia, Starbucks executives are declaring Pike Place Roast a success because drip coffee sales are on the rise. However, my unofficial Marketing Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests reveal fissures in Starbucks thinking.

Since Starbucks rarely promotes brewed coffee with in-store signage and out-of-store advertising, a reasonable assumption is that brewed coffee sales would increase even if it was Sumatra being promoted and not Pike Place Roast. The economic downturn also comes into play. With a sluggish economy, consumers are finding ways to trade down to lesser expensive options. It makes logical sense some Starbucks customers are forgoing their $4.25 Latte for a $1.80 cup of brewed coffee.

Furthermore, if indeed Pike Place Roast was a success, the company wouldn’t be backtracking and re-introducing bolder brewed coffee options in the afternoon.

Let’s circle back to the BRAND AMNESIA affliction. Businesses that suffer from Brand Amnesia experience profound memory loss, most likely from a traumatic event. Its clear Starbucks forgot its past history with the failed Milder Dimensions coffee line-up. Was there a traumatic event that caused Starbucks to begin suffering from Brand Amnesia? Traumatic doesn’t begin to describe how Starbucks has seen its stock price lose more than half its value in the past year, its earnings greatly diminished, and most traumatic … a significant drop in the number of customers visiting Starbucks in 2008 compared to 2007.

Here’s hoping Starbucks finds daily caretakers that are fully aware of the company’s history and can help the company cope with the onset of BRAND AMNESIA.

We know about the MyStarbucksIdea website, which Starbucks positions as a catch-all blog, customer feedback site, and social networking website. The reality is that website is an unfocused slush pile for customer generated ideas.

But how many of us know about Starbucks V2V? It’s a full-fledged social networking site to promote volunteerism with customers and Starbucks partners (employees). It’s under the radar at this point — participation solely by invitation — and has only been mentioned officially by the company as an update entry on MyStarbucksIdea.

Think Meetup meets LinkedIn and there you have Starbucks V2V (Volunteer 2 Volunteer). You can post a cause, an event, or an activity and have others join you. Easy enough to understand and simple enough to make happen.

Starbucks V2V has real promise. It’s clearly community-focused with a drive to making positive contributions to small corners around the world. By having profile pages for participants, it feels much more personal than does the way-too-sterile MyStarbucksIdea website.

If you dig a little deeper you’ll learn Starbucks V2V began in Brazil using technology developed by Comunitas. In a way, this is an International “best practice” that has been adopted by Starbucks North America. Cool.

My hope is Starbucks uses this full-fledged social networking site to endorse and develop a long-rumored “Starbucks Alumni” website. For years Starbucks has talked about setting up an Alumni network, but the job was always too daunting to begin. The technology clearly exists and the online usability is sufficient … which makes this Starbucks Alumni idea totally doable in 2008.

Why nurture relationships with ex-employees?

Well, many new hires at Starbucks were influenced by former Starbucks partners. Most ex-Starbucks employees had a positive time at the company and they’ve said good things to their friends about Starbucks. And for some of us, including me as a former Starbucks partner, we shared a common bond during our days at Starbucks. Reconnecting with former Starbucks colleagues on a company-endorsed website could potentially reignite the passions we all once had for Starbucks. That reignition of passion is something Starbucks could benefit from as it suffers through its “mid-life” crisis.