Starbucks to try its hand at social networking

When Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) brought back founder Howard Schultz to revitalize the company's image, product line and customer experience, the coffee chain's edge had disappeared. It had lost customers, revenue, the niche and most important -- the overall experience -- to newer competitors. That was not to say Starbucks still was not king, but it become diluted in the race for newer growth.

Well, to heck with that. Schultz slowed down growth after re-emerging as the company's CEO early this year, deleted breakfast sandwiches from the menu, retrained the company's baristas and ensured that fresh-ground coffee smells were the number one priority for every customer coming in the door to experience. But Schultz isn't stopping there. He also wants customers to push back to the company using MyStarbucksIdea.com. In other words, the coffeehouse's own social networking site. Schultz wants to empower his customers to help shape the future direction of the coffeehouse he founded.

This is more than a blog or a forum -- customers can discuss ideas, argue about them, post new ideas, vote on ideas and form more opinions on improving the Starbucks experience. Well, I though this was exactly what Schultz was busy doing these days? Is he really interested in what every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks?

Will customers really give him all this feedback? I'm skeptical. I agree that balancing the customer's needs and the business's needs is critical -- one can't overpower the other. Still, will this even have an effect on Starbucks at all? If it really is this interested, it needs to market the MyStarbucksIdea website just as much as its mocha lattes. Give every customer notice that they can have a voice in this.