Thursday, December 24, 2009

No, I Don't Believe the Starbucks' counsel Who Said: "Chinese Customers Refill Cup With Coffee From Other Brands"

Mark Aoki-Fordham, director and corporate counsel at Starbucks Coffee Company said something ... well outlandish:

We are still trying to educate Chinese customers about why our coffee is a good beverage to drink at all times of day -- and we’ve found that they are not the most loyal,” Aoki-Fordham noted. “They love our brand; they’ll come in and buy a cup of coffee, and they’ll keep the cup with our logo facing forward as they walk, but they’ll refill it throughout the day with other brands of coffee!

If you buy a cup of coffee from another brand you will get it in a cup from that brand. Then it is just too much of a hassle to change the caffeinated liquid to the Starbucks cup.
So I don't believe that Chinese customers are trademark counterfeiters on a not so commercial scale. Do you believe him?

Read
the Knowledge Wharton Marketing article called 'From Venti Lattes to Spider-Man: Adapting Global Brands for Success in China and India' here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like they are just being eco-friendly to me. Why use multiple disposable cups in a day when just one will do? And I appreciate the sentiment since the air is filthy enough as it is.

IP Dragon said...

Yes, that is true :-)
And besides, coffee shops should make it cheaper if you bring your own cup, even if it is from another brand.
Their must be a more environmentally sound way to clean sustainable cups. Because now the impact on the environment of the cleaning of sustainable cups is comparable to that of recycling/destroying the plastic cups. Of course in case of the non-sustainable cups, the best thing would be bio-degradable cups.

Thanks for your comment Anonymous.

Cheers,
Danny