McDonalds Instead of Starbucks: Brand Heresy?
Posted in Branding and Advertising Rants | Customer Experience
Written by: Howard Kaplan
I know my audience. Or at least I thought I did. My bet is that this audience sits right in the Starbucks demographic sweet spot.
I just read this in an article from Bloomberg:
Marc Greenberg, a Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. analyst in New York, reduced his target price for Starbucks shares to $32 from $37 today, saying that positive consumer reaction to McDonald’s brew poses a threat to the coffee chain.
Yesterday, Jason West, a Deutsche analyst in Boston, upgraded McDonald’s shares to “buy” from “hold” on its “expanding beverages opportunity.”
Will you be going to McDonalds for your coffee instead of Starbucks?
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Written by:Howard Kaplan
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Starbucks 4 life
I am a traditional coffee drinker, cream and two sugars. I really hate that Starbucks is on every corner of Manhattan, but I completely agree with Howard. No one is leaving their beloved Starbucks, just because the king of fast food has an “expanding beverages opportunity.” See ya at the Starbucks across the street, but which one?
Peter: It’s funny/ridiculous, but that actually happened to me once. So, if you ever plan on meeting someone at “the Starbucks at Astor Place” (NYC), do yourself a favor and go to the McDon…
Actually, you might just wanna grab an iced coffee from the deli around the corner
Honestly, McDonald’s new coffee drinks taste awful compared to Starbucks. The only one that is worth getting is the latte, and that’s the plain one with no flavor added, if you are a fan of those–because you pretty much can’t screw that up. The flavors are very cardboardy. It’s convenient to run through the drivethru on the way home from work, but it just doesn’t compare. I don’t think Starbucks has anything to worry about.
It doesn’t matter what the coffee tastes like (so long as there is not a huge disparity), these brands are miles apart.
McDonald’s aren’t aiming for Starbucks customers - they are simply trying to offer parents something for when their kids pester them enough to get a trip to the Golden Arches. This is just about selling more to existing customers or their hangers-on.
Starbucks is about coffee without kids. It’s a place to sit and enjoy coffee (they have couches not hard plastic seats - they want you to stay!). If there are baseball caps then they are the right way round. It’s about reading the paper, it’s about Fairtrade, it’s about spending the same amount of time it takes to stuff a Big Mac down your throat, just letting the coffee aroma amble up your nostrils.
Sure, McDonald’s will sell gallons of their new brews - but it won’t be at Starbucks expense.
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