coffee business strategies

A short article in the September Restaurants & Institutions Magazine discusses the latest tactics employed by Caribou Coffee, Corner Bakery, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and McDonald’s to refocus (or in some cases, build) their brand image in a depressed market.
I weigh-in specifically on the approach taken by Dunkin’ and McDonald’s to capitalize on the cost conscious [...]

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An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal looks at Starbucks new experimentation with Lean manufacturing principles, which just so happens to be the area of expertise of an old friend of mine.
Under a new initiative being put into practice at its more than 11,000 U.S. stores, there will be no more bending over [...]

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False alarm! Despite arriving in my inbox today tagged as happening in the United Kingdom, this article was actually from April 13, 2009 in Birmingham, Alabama U.S.A. (the US280 reference should have been a tipoff). Nevertheless, it’s clear that the marketing campaigns continue and my comments following the article are still valid…
Just [...]

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Last week amidst Starbucks’ Q3 earnings call and the unveiling of its semi-marked 15th Avenue Coffee shop concept, my phones were ringing off of their proverbial hooks with clients, institutional investors and reporters all trying to get some insight into what was happening with the business and its position relative to the specialty coffee industry.
Hawaii [...]

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The Seattle Times today released video of the interior of Starbucks’ new 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea concept and what’s most impressive about the design is that it, essentially, copies most other independent coffee shops started in the past 3 years. Take a look at it for yourself:

Note the “we ran out of cash” [...]

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