Gather For Coffee

The place crowded as usual, probably 30-plus people either in line to order, waiting for their orders or, like me, sitting, eating, drinking, watching, reading, talking. YOu can see that the demographics of the customers ranged from pre-adolescent girls and boys, complete with mouths full of braces, drinking their double vanilla crème frappuccinos, to a quartet of coffee drinking seniors well into their late ‘60's, probably mouths full of dentures, as well as all ages in between.

Pretty impressive to see an age and gender range as broad as that gathered in one store, particularly one whose primary product is coffee.

That doesn't happen at any CE store or for that matter at clothing, grocery, sporting goods, shoe, jewelry stores or other restaurants or bars or at the same movie or concert, all whose primary products are arguably sexier than coffee. A broad swath of the population can be found at fast food restaurants, banks, dentists and the like, but in all those cases most consumers visit in spite of the venue rather than as a direct result.

Well, as with precious few other products, Starbucks has created a community, in this case based on coffee and related products, whose importance transcends the product itself. Now that's marketing!

No doubt Starbucks understands the value in this, but they don't appear to have yet figured out how to take maximum advantage of this unique asset beyond the average $4 per person, per visit they now harvest from their customers. Don't yet know how they can expand upon this tangible asset without (forgive me) spilling the coffee.