(Side note: some people don't realize that in exchange for our sweet locations, the Corp pays rent to the university. Oh sweet Jesus, do we ever pay rent. It's a downside of being completely independent - almost 300 G's worth of a downside.)
I once heard a story that the Corp was mentioned by name in a Starbucks corporate document as an example of a competitor currently in control of a lucrative market. On a related note, the CollegeBoxes company has (more than once) offered to buy out Student Storage because we provide a better service at better prices, and that's not good for their business model. As far as I can tell, that consists of charging more in exchange for less. Same goes for Starbucks. But still, many students use these outside companies for on-campus services - why is that? The general battle the Corp fights for those hearts and minds is one of legitimacy and professional quality of service. We're winning in the storage game, and we can win in the coffee game as well.
A few ways to overcome that: first, word-of-mouth marketing. Many of your roommates and friends will default to whatever corporate solution comes up in a Google search for college summer storage instead of a better service that's local and reinvests in the Georgetown community. So tell them, and be honest about how good it is (very good). Same goes for our new coffee (!) and how 10% of what we pay will go to the Fabretto Foundation.
Second, we can just flat-out compete. I will not accept that Starbucks have better-tasting coffee, better-made drinks, or more consistent service. On all of those fronts, we are more than capable of competing with our existing practices or adapting them to be superior. We will have no reason to be worried about businesses encroaching on our territory if we dismantle every argument for their being better competitors.
And last, we're Hoyas, which means we share a culture, frustrations, and demands with our customers, and all of those should help us do our jobs better and make our fellow students more comfortable, satisfied, and likely to come back for more. Customer loyalty has probably never been as important to the Corp as it is today.
http://www.talkaboutcoffee.com/is_starbucks_evil.html
ReplyDeletefield trip to nicaragua to volunteer with Fabretta. Summer 2010. who is coming with me?
ReplyDeleteGood stuff! Thoughtful posts, and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying. What I think we need to do is make salient our status as the "home team" on campus, remind customers that we are Hoyas--students and members of the Georgetown community--just like they are and that we've been here for a long time. We are Georgetown. We have roots here.
Furthermore, I think we should emphasize the images of our individual coffee shops (Mug, MMug, UG) instead of the image of the Corp as whole. When customers see the UG logo, for instance, they think of the coffee shop they like to visit and their friends who work there; when they think of "The Corp," they think of a much more nebulous, face-less entity and remember the time they applied for a job at Snaxa and didn't get it. At least that's the message I seem to be getting from the non-Corpies I've been talking to.
Just my two cents.
Love will never be extinct!,
Oscar
I would like to start out by saying that I frequently support the Corp institutions.
ReplyDeleteBut, believe me: Starbucks coffee drinks taste better than Corp coffee drinks.
Espresso shots in Corp coffee shops often taste burnt and I have actually seen the workers leave them out for several minutes but still put them into drinks. Espresso shots "die" after about 30-45 seconds of air exposure if they are not mixed with milk.
Also, the brewed coffee at shops(especially MUG) tends to be lukewarm if you get it past 11.
Improve the product by making sure the employees prepare drinks correctly(and quickly) and investing in higher quality espresso machines. Then students will stop going to Starbucks.