However, it seems that smart consumers are actually starting to push back on all this agency inspired crap. There’s a really interesting post on Reuters “Entrepreneurial” blog about how Starbucks is opening “stealth” Starbucks – Stores without the Starbucks name over the front door – These are starting to appear in Seattle, its hometown, and London. Like the other stealth outlets, these have antique-style furniture, retro lighting, and not a Starbucks logo in sight.
Even though Starbucks would never admit it, this has to be a fucking crisis for them. When a brand is forced to hide its own identity, doesn’t this imply that its name – the core of the brand – has lost value? Why is Starbucks beginning to act like a small business? As the Reuters piece points out… The answer rests with communities and consumers. Over the last several years, a quiet but emphatic shift in buying patterns has taken place. Is the unthinkable happening? Are smart consumers starting to reject brands?
Via Will There Be a Branding Bullshit Reaction? – PSFK.
A friend of mine told me about this during the summer and I remember thinking to myself how crazy hard companies try to make sure competition doesn’t eat at their profits. Therefore the obvious solution is to create your own “competition” to let it be the only thing that cannibalizes your business.