Saturday, March 13, 2010

Crowds and Strategy

Scotland versus England – RUGBY Match!! Yep it’s a big deal and it happened today in the stadium that’s right down the lane! Ask me, coz when I went out a while ago and I was headed towards the market, I chose absolutely THE wrong moment to do so and THE wrong direction coz the public was headed towards the stadium which is in the opposite side!! It was like walking against a tide of people. Usually you get to walk down the street here with an odd passer-by passing by you every ten minutes or so and suddenly today it felt as if the entire population of Scotland and a good portion of the population from England had stepped onto the streets and everyone was headed towards the stadium.

People were milling in from every side street, as if there was a pied piper playing at the stadium. There were people in traditional attire of the Scottish kilt, people in good cheer screaming on top of their lungs in support of one of the teams, people with families, friends, children, elders…….reminded me of India a lot. The spirit was so infectious that it soon had me in a good mood. It’s so nice to see so many people all in good spirits looking forward to something :)

By the way, came across this nice article on Starbucks coffee, which talks of its history and how a plastic salesman was behind the vision of selling coffee as an experience!!

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Starbucks-Made-Coffee-History&id=613405 – check it out.

Reading this article had me wondering when is Starbucks coming to India ? As per media accounts, its already tried twice and gotten irked, by our “lack of transparency in rules governing FDI in retail.” Hmmm…it would be interesting to figure out IF starbucks were to make an entry into India and if it did so with a JV with Kishore Biyani of Future group as it tried to do so earlier, then what would be their strategy here? Would it be positioned as a premium brand or would it be coffee on the go brand as abroad? I guess time will tell, although my money would be on the premium brand positioning strategy. :)

2 comments:

  1. I feel the best strategy for star bucks would be to partner with CCD, that way they get the millage and with co branding Starbucks could be the premium product but also selective products sold through ccd and Starbucks only at premium locations ? what say

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  2. whoa, kill the market with partnership huh...interesting thought, but whats in it for CCD, they are already the marketleaders?

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