Starbucks (SBUX) has begun a series of podcasts dedicated to the exploration and appreciation of coffee. I've just listened to the first one so that you don't have to! Using podcasts (and blogging) as tools to educate your consumer base is nothing new, and Starbucks actually does very little of it. This series is tied in with the company's 35th anniversary, and will run weekly this month. Yep -- that "fad" company from Seattle is, in a couple incarnations anyway, thirty-five years old. They've run a short "promocast" of this series, that Frank Barnako of MarketWatch listened to and described as "lukewarm." So I ignored that and dove right into the full-length premiere today. Well, full-length turns out to be only twelve minutes long, so I don't know how much time I'll be saving you here. Say, nine minutes, if you read fairly fast, but every little bit helps ...
This episode has segments with a coffee farmer and a professional taster.
The two co-hosts start off with directions on where to go to download an episode -- which makes me wonder how in the world they think I could have made it so far on my own. Next we have a couple more minutes about what the series will be about (instead of just getting on with it) and an email address to send questions to. Since there are not email questions yet to deal with, the hosts say they will start with one the get "allllll the time": what is a coffee master?
Really? Maybe internally they get this question, but it sounds like company lingo to me, and hardly the kind of thing gourmet coffee drinkers are itching to know. Suffice it to say a "coffee master" is someone in the company who wears a black apron, not a green one, and is, well, expert in coffee. And Starbucks has 25,000 of them worldwide. Just ask to speak to the resident coffee master at your local outlet.
What follows next is a segment called "Coffee College" and again, instead of just getting on with it, the hosts first pause to explain the kind of thing that will be covered in this and future segments of "Coffee College."
All of the above is run over by a bouncy middle-of-the-road-jazz soundtrack, and the bubbly yet-stilted speaking style of the hosts: "well as you know, Scott, coffee is so versatile -- just like your triple americano." Things liven up a little when a sound byte of a coffee farmer in Kenya is played. This background noise here sounds like this interview was held in a public place, perhaps a restaurant, a much much more natural setting than the dreadful jazz studio-format of the rest of the podcast.
A demonstration of a coffee-"cupping" process (akin to a wine tasting) is also interesting, because the taster seems to enjoy explaining the process. Call me squeamish but the sounds of slurping, spitting, and splattering, are a way too visceral for me.
The overall feeling of this piece of marketing, is that it is in fact just that -- a piece of marketing, and about as subtle as a 1960's Taster Choice commercial. They'd have done better to just open the mike to some regular employees to talk about coffee. Throw out the script and create something that is more than just a podcast in name only. That might make the potential audience for this kind of thing sit up and take notice. Something this audio equivalent of an advertising circular doesn't even come close to doing.
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-05-2006 @ 11:24PM
Mr. noitall said...
Michael,
I'm glad you listened to the podcast, so I didn't have to, thank you. I almost puked just from reading your description of it. It sounds like a lame attempt to keep the "fad" alive. By the way, two days ago I almost went to a Starbucks to buy 10 cups of coffee, but I changed my mind and decided to waste my money on a non "core" item, gasoline! instead.