Starbucks Experience Explored in Taipei - …

1 Starbucks Experience Explored in Taipei Dr. Kuang-Tai Liu, Associate professor of Chung Hua University, Taiwan Mr. Jung-Cheng Huang, Doctoral Student of Chung Hua University, Taiwan Dr. Wen-Chin Chen, Professor of Chung Hua University, Taiwan ABSTRACT. Abbott (1955) noted that what customers actually want are not products, but pleasant purchase experiences. A person experiences an emotion connected to a product, service, brand, company, people, or idea through interaction and memorable experiences by experiential marketing. The traditional marketing concerns sell a product's features, functions, and performance but experiential marketing concentrates on the fantasies, feeling, entertainment, fashion and sense of excitement of the customers. The traditional and experiential marketing is analogous to the difference between the brain and the soul contest.

2 Starbucks seeks to sell its coffeehouse Experience by making the coffee buying Experience not just about the coffee, but about the warm and inviting atmosphere of its shops, the interior spaciousness of its floor plans, and quaint touches such as its blackboard menus and countertops designs- all designed to be perceived as part of the art, aesthetics, and humanities of selling coffee. This study applies Kano two-dimensions method by Schmitt's framework to understand how Starbucks emotional appeals or touchy-feely, is visceral to sell an Experience that connects with customer's psyche and lifestyle therefore buying products to have another appropriate choice for customers. INTRODUCTION. Motivation and Purpose Abbott (1955) commented that what customers actually want are not only products themselves, but pleasant purchase experiences; Pine and Gilmore (1998) said successful experiences are unique, memorable and retainable over a period of time beyond the ordinary customer Experience .

3 In 1998, Pine and Gilmore the term Experience Economy in an article Welcome to the Experience economy' from undifferentiated to highly differentiated (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). The article proposed that the progression of agricultural to industrialized manufacturing to service or servitization economies, would give way to an Experience economy where the purchasing Experience would add value to the product itself. Because customers have short attention spans, the best marketing campaigns make an immediate impact and hold the attention of potential customers. Schmitt argued that the concepts of experiential marketing and the knowledge economy had converged to make affiliated experiential marketing the mainstream around the world (Schmitt, 1999). For example, Singapore Airlines dressed its flight crew in batik clothing and created mini suites in the first section of their airliners to market a flight Experience , as opposed to traditional marketing which saw Procter & Gamble strengthens its detergent cleaners or the whitener in its toothpaste but Singapore Airline campaign says nothing mundane; McDonald added playgrounds to its restaurants to sell more than just "happy" meals for children.

4 Holbrook (1982) suggests that in the context of consumption situations, a marketing campaign must be a synthesis of not only advertisement or packaging campaigns, but also must prioritize the customer's experiential satisfaction. The traditional marketing concerns sell a product's features, functional characteristics and performance but experiential The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, Vol. 8, Num. 2, December 2012 107. marketing concentrates its efforts on the fantasies, feeling, fun, entertainment, fashion and sense of excitement of the customer. The dichotomy of traditional and experiential marketing is analogous to the difference between the brain and the soul. Starbucks brilliant twin-tailed Siren green logo has communicated a sense of a special Experience to millions of customers in its more than 18,800 coffeehouses by establishing a unique interaction over coffee between its baristas and customers wherever one cup coffee at a moment in the world they find themselves within Proust scenario or existentialism context.

5 Schultz, Starbucks CEO, provided not only high quality coffee, but enthusiastically embraced diversity, which valued the potential for human connection in a place removed from both home and office, but still imparted the familiarity of a good neighborhood relationship beyond perfectly made beverage. As the author and professor Leo Buscaglia, also known as Dr Love, put it, Too often underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around Buscaglia (1985). Starbucks sought to retail its coffeehouse Experience by making the coffee buying Experience not just about the coffee, but about the warm and inviting atmosphere of its shops, the interior spaciousness of its floor plans, and quaint touches such as its blackboard menus and countertops designs- all designed to be perceived as part of the art, aesthetics, and humanities of selling coffee.

6 Details matter in experiential marketing and Starbucks leaves nothing to chance, crafting every aspect of its interiors from napkins to coffee bags, front doors to window seats, annual calendars to mail-ordered catalogs, tabletops to mugs-designed. All this attention to detail is designed to reflect not only Starbucks '. quality and reliability as a brand, but also calculated to maximize the fun, fashion, fantasy, entertainment, and excitement of the coffee buying Experience . LITERATURE REVIEW. Starbucks Background The firm's name, Starbucks , is derived from the young, thoughtful, and intellectual chief mate character in Herman Melville's great novel, The Whale or Moby-Dick. The novel tells the story of Pequod, a whaling ship commanded by Captain Ahab who seeks vengeance against a great White Whale. The name of the character from the classic novel invoked the romance of the early traditional seafaring coffee traders.

7 A. further association with seafaring is found in the Starbucks logo which is an image of a "twin-tailed siren"; a beautiful creature from Greek mythology, half woman and half fish, with a fully visible double fish tail and possessed of a charming song to lure unsuspecting sailors to be shipwrecked on island rocks. Starbucks -brand with twin-tailed Siren logo is known the largest international coffee shop beverage business retail chain in the world, with more than 12,500 in the United States, nearly 2,000 in Canada and Britain, and over 250 in Taiwan. All told, the company owns more than 18,800 retail store in 57countries world-wide with more than 149,000 employees all producing $ billion in revenue in 2010. The company was founded on March 30, 1971 at Pike Place Market in Seattle, by co-founders English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker.

8 The company sells a wide variety of products including filtered coffee; espresso pressurized brewed coffee, various coffee-based milk drinks, teas, sandwiches, salads and pastries. It also sells bagged ground coffee, brewing equipment, mugs and other coffee related gifts along with music and books. For instance, espresso pressurized brewing through finely ground coffee beans concentrated process more caffeine based other hot drinks such as caf Americano (prepared extracted coffee with hot water), caf mocha (milk with chocolate or cinnamon), espresso macchiato caldo or freddo (small amount of milk), 108 The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, Vol. 8, Num. 2, December 2012. cappuccino (hot milk with micrro steam milk fooam), and latt (steamed milk or o soy milk), prremium Tazo teeas- blessed by a certified tea shaman, s premiuum coffee beanss, Arabica instannt coffee VIA, other o hot and cold drinks suchh as Frappuccin no, fine pastries made from inggredients such as a flour, sugar, milk, butter, baking powder, and a eggs, panino o made with a bread b roll or sanndwiches, vegetaable or meat sallads, brewing equipments, muggs, tumblers and d gifts, and alsoo books and muusic service.

9 Enntrepreneur How ward Schultz, S. Starbucks CEO, was impressed with espresso bars b and coffeehhouse culture thhat he experiencced in Milan, annd served the first Starbuckss Caff Latte inn downtown Seattle. Starbuckks since the beeginning has d dedicated itself to t inspiring and d nurturing the human spirit, sserving the fineest fresh roastedd coffee, and crreating an extraaordinary custom mer Experience by establishingg a place separaate between hom me and office w where people caan meet for conv versation and Experience e a sennse of communiity with their neighbors and associates. An abstract a of visions and mission statements are high quality cooffee, passionatte employees emmbraced diversity, beyond perffectly made bevverage but humaan connection, the t third place always a full of h humanity, and reesponsibility to be b good neighboors.

10 Experiential Ecconomy E. Alvin Tofffler (1971) in n his book, Fuuture Shock kn known for its exploration off the digital, coommunication, corporate, and d technology revolution, com mmented that economists haad problems coonsidering alternnatives to capitaalism and comm munism, becausee they only conccentrated on scaarce resources isssues in the ecconomy. Toffler proposed expperiential industry could be based b on the production p of exxperiences and thatt consumers would w be willingg to pay much mmoney to have unique, u high quality. The idea of another type of o economy, the Experience econnomy, followingg the agriculturall economy, the industrialized i m manufacturing e economy, and the t service or servitization ecconomy was first f advanced ini an article "WWelcome to thee Experience Ecconomy" publishhed in 1998 by Pine and Gilmoore (Pine & Gillmore, 1998).