Page 154 - The Starbucks Experience

Embrace Resistance

so that we could make it from matcha tea powder, which was
traditional for Asian tea drinkers, and then pump in a melon
syrup, which appealed more to Western palates. If someone
didn’t want the sweetness or didn’t want the melon flavor,
they could skip it and just get closer to that original interna-
tional product. With all that work in product development,
we took the two types of green tea into testing and we found
that we had hit the nail on the head on the first try. It was
highly unlikely, but we made it happen.”
While Starbucks leaders’ first thought may have been to
plunge directly into the Western market with green tea prod-
ucts, they instead listened to customers in that market to learn
more about their preferences. Because Starbucks took the
appropriate steps to address its customers’ concerns ahead of
®
time, green tea Frappuccino blended crème and green tea
latte had a hugely successful introduction. 139
No matter how convinced we may be about the probable
success of a product or service, we are often too close to our
own ideas to objectively evaluate their viability. When con-
fronted with red flags, many managers either ignore the
warnings or convince themselves that the warnings are
wrong. Successful leaders understand that careful evaluation
of resistance often makes the difference between success
and failure.
While some products can be changed to catch customers’
fancy, others can’t be modified to live up to their initial prom-
ise. Rather than continuing to present these resisted products
to the consumer, there comes a time to reconsider the offer-
ing. This is something I have experienced personally. My son,
daughter, and I were visiting a Starbucks in my hometown
when we noticed a sign for “Chocofino.” It was offered as a
sipping chocolate. Fortunately for us, the store was giving out