Boring Market

Today was a groundbreaking day for Starbucks, they had their most important and inspiring annual shareholder meeting to date. Howard Shultz was upfront and honest with the past year and the lagging sales due to the slowing economy while being optimistic about the future. I was able to attend this year’s meeting and watch as Howard Shultz unveiled the much talked about five transformational initiatives for 2008.

• Mastrena, the new era of the espresso machine. This semi-automatic espresso machine performs like an old style manual with a consistent flavor profile that enables this machine to pull perfect shots every time. I personally got to see this machine in action and the height alone was something to enjoy, the height was significantly shorter then most machines with the hoppers flatter enables baristas to interact with customers more.

• Conservation International Partnership. CI’s website explains, “True to the company’s history of trailblazing environmental business solutions, Starbucks is announcing the next phase of its 10-year partnership with CI and will be the first corporation of its caliber to promote the protection of forests as a solution to climate change.” Starbucks will focus on sustainable sourcing of coffee beans and climate preservation.

• Starbucks wants to reward loyal customers. Starbucks is going to roll out in April a rewards program that will cater to its loyal customers. This program works by focusing on the customization of customers drinks by giving customers modifications like syrup or an added shot on the ‘house’. This means that with a registered Starbucks cards individuals who get a drink such as a tall soy hazelnut latte will only be charged the price of a tall latte. Complimentary Tall beverage of choice (including Frappuccino® blended beverages) with the purchase of one pound of whole bean coffee and free refills on brewed coffee will be two new additions to the rewards program.

• MyStarbucksIdea.com , do you have a suggestion? Now there is a new social network that revolves around Starbucks and if spearheaded by Starbucks. It is a gathering place where people can submit ideas, suggestions, and concerns in a digg-like fashion by voting up an idea which 48 Starbucks partners from all departments act as social commenter by answering questions and putting top ideas into action. This is a genius application and is a StarbucksGossip.com killer. Now individuals who comment and are apart of the conversation over at StarbucksGossip.com can now give constructive criticism and get direct feedback from Starbucks Partners.

• Pike Blend Roast, the new taste of brewed coffee. Acclaimed as the highest quality blend of coffee Starbucks has ever created will be brewed daily beginning in April. This blend will be freshly roasted then shipped with little or no time in warehouses, and when brewing the batch cycles of all brewed coffees hold times will be cut in half from one hour every batch to thirty minutes.

There is one more transformational initiative that I predicted which would provide the back-to-basics focus on coffee brewing, but I didn’t think would happen so soon.

• Starbucks acquires Clover. Starbucks acquired Seattle-based Coffee Equipment Co., maker of the Clover. The wait is over. The reason why this is such a big deal is because a Clover does not produce quantity, but rather quality which there is a high demand of and individuals are willing to pay a higher price for. The passion the founders of Coffee Equipment Co. shows through their highly sought after machines which resides in all the busiest independent coffee shops across the country. Starbucks made the right decision in purchasing this remarkable company with a remarkable machine and a remarkable slogan, “Coffee. We believe in it.”

Tags: Comeback·Meeting·Shareholder·Shultz·Starbucks