Page 153 - The Starbucks Experience

PRINCIPLE 4

them better, great companies exceed the expectations of cus-
tomers, employees, and the communities they serve.

When Customers Say No
When you are faced with customers who thumb their noses
at your company’s product or service, there are two viable
options: either experiment with new ideas that might turn
customers around, or abandon the product altogether. When
®
green tea Frappuccino blended beverage, a popular product
in the Pacific Rim, was first introduced into Western markets
like Canada and the United States, customers resisted. Nancy
Poznoff, a product manager for Starbucks, states, “We tested
®
green tea Frappuccino blended beverage in Richmond,
British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. Richmond is a high
138 Asian density market. We had positive results among the
Asian population, but non-Asians weren’t gravitating to the
product.”
The challenge for Starbucks leadership was to find a solu-
tion that appealed to new customers, while not alienating the
original market. As Nancy reports, “This product is a really
good example of just how passionate people in this company
are. It also shows how important our people are to the suc-
cess of a product. Teams at Starbucks came together to brain-
storm how to help this product appeal to all of our
customers. How could we easily customize green tea to meet
the needs of Asian customers who’ve been drinking matcha
(precious top-grade, hand-picked Japanese gyokuro green
tea) in their tea ceremonies since they were babies, as well as
those who have never experienced green tea?
“After considerable effort, we didn’t just develop one fla-
vor, but instead created a delivery system for cooking the tea,