I’ve posted here before about the importance of defining your ideal customer and how that also means defining the group of potential customers that you don’t serve. Tim Berry does a great job of making this point in his recent post No, Starbucks, Don’t Try to Please Everybody.
I’d sure like to know the thinking behind Starbuck’s "tests" related to this $1 coffee. I’m a big fan of testing things out, failing fast, and finding out what customers really want. I could guess at reasons why this might be an idea:
- less likely to have to finish off lukewarm coffee
- smaller portions for those of us who conduct several meetings per day at Starbucks
- more convenient to try new flavors
Of course, I have no idea what the real reasons are, so I hope they share their thinking and findings with us after the test is completed.
Bill Brelsford Small Business Marketing Consultant
