A couple of days ago I came across a post in Morgan Krechel’s blog (btw, Morgan had his Birthday just this Monday so Happy Birthday!) about Starbucks and the introduction of their Christmas cups this year. This post aroused memories of how Starbucks works and promotes itself in Russia.
In Russia, just as in many other countries in the world, everything that is said to be “American” becomes a hit right away. Obviously, Starbucks is not an exception.
Young people in Russia almost pray on Starbucks, which makes it incredibly difficult to compete with it. However, I find a little frustrating the fact that since Starbucks is so popular by default it doesn’t really have to do anything to appeal to foreign segments. That’s why when you enter Starbucks in Moscow, it would look exactly the same and it will sell exactly the same products as anywhere in the US or any other country (except prices in Moscow shops would probably be twice as high as in the States).
On the one hand, this consistency in providing products and services is good because I always know what to expect from Starbucks anywhere in the world. However, lack of unique tailored approach to various geographical segments makes the customer feel like he/she is not special.
Looks familiar?
Well, at least the name is sometimes spelled in Cyrillic
Why are people so crazy about Russian dolls? :)
And yet again!
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