Page 155 - The Starbucks Experience

PRINCIPLE 4

samples and asking for our reactions. My daughter and I
thought it was heaven-sent, while my son thought it was too
rich and sweet.
Little did I know that our market was a test site for a prod-
™
uct that was later rolled out as Chantico drinking chocolate.
I enjoyed the drink and even liked the improved name (Chan-
tico is the Aztec goddess of the home and the domestic
hearth). I felt that Starbucks had made another brilliant deci-
sion to offer a delicious product that could attract people into
its stores in the evening hours.
Despite a seemingly excellent product breakthrough, how-
ever, Chantico drinking chocolate did not capture the pas-
™
sion of enough Starbucks customers, and ultimately the
product was discontinued.
Instead of viewing the introduction of this beverage as a
140 mistake, however, Starbucks, in its classic style, saw it as a
learning opportunity. In its formal communication announc-
ing the discontinuance of Chantico drinking chocolate,
™
™
Starbucks indicated, “We don’t see [Chantico drinking
chocolate] as a failure. We see it as an opportunity to lever-
age what we’ve learned from our customers to provide choco-
late beverages that we’re going to be excited about.” With
™
the end of Chantico drinking chocolate came the announce-
ment that Starbucks would be offering two new chocolate
drinks. It is the rare business leader that knows how to lever-
age setbacks and losses into future gains.

Errant Perceptions and Taking
Valid Responsibility
In a world in which information moves globally at the speed
of light, misinformation can become a monumental source