文 | Amy Ma
On February 16, many netizens said on social media that some Starbucks products have increased in price today, and the price of some coffee has increased by 1-2 yuan compared with before.
In fact, the price increase of coffee is not a new thing, after all, the price of vegetables and fruits will also rise, but why does Starbucks choose to increase the price on the cusp of the storm?
01
Starbucks on the cusp of the storm
In the past 4 days, Weibo has been frequently searched, and Starbucks has stood on the cusp of the storm.
On February 13, some netizens posted that "Chongqing Starbucks persuaded the police to leave the door of the store to eat" caused a heated discussion. Screenshots from online transmissions show that Starbucks employees saw the police officers who ate half of the food at the door, saying that it "will affect the brand image", so they persuaded the police to leave and complained.
Subsequently, the next day, Starbucks China announced the verified facts to the outside world, "At about 5 p.m. on February 13, four police officers came to the store, and the store arranged for the police to eat in the outdoor guest area." Later, because other customers wanted to eat in the outdoor guest area, the store partner and the police concerned caused a communication misunderstanding due to inappropriate speech when coordinating the seats", and stressed that "there was no situation of 'driving away the police' and 'complaining about the police' spread on the Internet during the incident." ”
However, Starbucks' statement has not been recognized by the majority of netizens, but has exposed many problems. Because, under normal circumstances, Starbucks clerks are busy, there is no time to arrange seats for customers, they are first to sit and sit at will, whether they order Starbucks drinks or food, no clerk will take care of them. Moreover, is it really possible that some customers do not go to the store to eat, but ask to be outside the store on a cold day, and they have to let the police who have eaten half of them go and eat outside by themselves.
This matter has aroused the attention and comments of a large number of netizens, as of now, the Weibo topic #Starbucks customer service response police at the door to eat box lunch # read has reached 520 million, the amount of discussion has reached 25,000 times.
Subsequently, there were few customers in the store involved, and many people outside the door sent coins and chrysanthemums, and broken eggs were thrown at the door. There are daily patrols by police near the store, and the citizens who come to deliver white flowers are advised to return. This is a contrast with the previous scene of the police being driven away, which is really ironic.
However, on the cusp of this storm, Starbucks has increased its price and once again appeared on the Weibo hot search list. As of now, the Weibo topic #Starbucks price increase has been read by 110 million people and discussed more than 11,000 times.
On February 16, many netizens said on social media that some Starbucks products have increased prices today. As can be seen from the official App of Starbucks, the price of many products, including American coffee and latte coffee, has increased by 1-2 yuan compared with before. Starbucks customer service responded that this time it was only adjusted for some drinks and food pricing, and it was a comprehensive assessment and consideration of operating costs and other factors.
02
Price increases may not be a good thing
Recently, due to the market environment, due to the rising costs of labor, raw materials, operations, etc., there are indeed many companies that have issued a "price increase" voice.
For example, Procter & Gamble executives said that prices will continue to rise throughout 2022; Xiao Xiong Electrical Appliances also openly admitted that the price increase of raw materials was forced to increase the company' prices; tea beauty explained the reasons for the price increase, raw materials and other costs on the market are rising year by year, and the dividends accumulated before cannot withstand a series of superimposed costs.
However, at this time, Starbucks's price increase may not be a good thing.
Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, once proposed a marketing mix method with 4Ps as the core, including four dimensions: product, price, channel and promotion. Among them, the price specifically refers to the development of different price strategies according to different market positioning, and the pricing of the product is based on the brand strategy of the enterprise, focusing on the gold content of the brand.
That is to say, if the brand side wants to create a more "high-end" brand image, then the pricing will often be much higher than similar competitors, because these products are the identity, face as the core purchase driver. At this time, high prices will become the driving factor for product sales, in other words, the brand side is more expensive, and the product is better to sell.
Luxury goods are one of the typical cases, a bag, a belt, a scarf, a watch... In essence, consumers are not only pursuing physical objects, but the psychological satisfaction brought about by the identity, status, and circle layer behind the brand logo.
Returning to Starbucks, the "high-end" brand image it shows is not only in the price of nearly 40 yuan per cup of coffee, its stores are mainly distributed in the core business district, high-end office buildings, high-end residential areas, and form a unique "coffee culture" - order a Starbucks latte, bring an Apple notebook or apple tablet, and become a "business atmosphere group". There have even been consumers who will take Apple notebooks to Starbucks deliberately to take photos and punch cards.
As everyone knows, Starbucks is just an ordinary water store in the United States, and the price is much lower than that in China. However, in terms of profit margins, Starbucks has dug a rich mine in the Chinese market. The data shows that Starbucks' profit margin in Europe and the United States is about 21.1%, and in Africa and the Middle East is about 1.9%, but in the Chinese market, Starbucks's profit margin has reached 32%.
However, in the past, when a brand of instant noodles competed with competitors for the market, the price was not reduced but the price increased, in order to create a "not cheap" and "better quality" image, and the final result was very successful. But in the case of Starbucks, which is in today's situation, price increases may not be a good thing.
On the one hand, for consumers, if they want to drink coffee, as well as Luckin coffee, even coffee, convenience store coffee and many other choices, Starbucks is no longer the only choice; on the other hand, the previous "Chongqing store Starbucks employees to drive away the police" has caused most consumers to be dissatisfied, and in the current hot flashes of the country, Starbucks, a "foreign" brand, can no longer get the preference of the people, everyone likes the local coffee brand more. Some netizens even said, "I will not drink it again in the future." ”
In short, as far as Starbucks has repeatedly searched in recent days, it is not excluded that its public relations team chose to raise prices on the cusp of the storm in order to divert the public's attention, after all, the price increase of 1-2 yuan is not much for consumers who often buy Starbucks.
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