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星巴克:改变中国人的饮茶习惯

级别: 管理员
Starbucks' Road to China

China -- On bustling Nanjing Lu, the main shopping avenue here, Kevin Lin and his researchers camped outside a potential Starbucks storefront with hand-held counting devices, tallying the number of likely customers.

A 20-something couple wearing fashionable jeans walked past. "They're definitely a click," said Mr. Lin, vice president of the coffee company's joint-venture partner, Shanghai President Coffee Corp. Next, an unlikely prospect -- a woman in her 50s wearing sweatpants -- strolled by. "Actually, she'd get a click, too," he said, noting that she had peered into the window of a nearby upscale boutique.

Just how many clicks it takes to justify a Chinese Starbucks is closely guarded. That's because the secret to Starbucks Corp.'s plan to open hundreds of cafes in the coming two years in greater China -- a country steeped in 4,500 years of tea -- isn't just fresh coffee, it's the location.

As Starbucks rolls out its aggressive expansion campaign, its famous location-scouting skills will be tested. The goal: Build hip hangouts that deliver new tastes to China's emerging middle class, and do it without hurting customers' wallets.

Even with 69 stores in China, Starbucks is hardly known here. Yet the Seattle company said recently it would increase its stake in its Shanghai and Taiwan joint venture with President Coffee from 5% to 50%.

The China push may be the ultimate test of the brand's low-budget marketing. Starbucks China doesn't plan any advertising or marketing aside from sponsoring an online coffee club and occasionally offering free tastings in lobbies of office buildings or inviting employees of a single company to attend a tasting. Instead, the company will select high-traffic café locations. "Our main advertising media is the store itself," Mr. Lin said.

But in fast-changing Chinese cities, finding the right location is more like gambling than science.

"In the U.S., if you see a mall, it will probably still be there in two years," says Ernest Luk, vice president of finance at Starbucks Coffee Asia-Pacific. "A year passes by in a Chinese location, and you almost won't know your way around there anymore," he says, referring to major development that can alter a neighborhood in a matter of months.

Selecting a location is based on an analysis of pedestrian traffic, research on up-and-coming trendy areas and local real-estate savvy. A team searching for hot spots figures out where potential customers live, work and play, then scouts locations that intersect with all three. A map on the wall of the Shanghai Starbucks office plots current and potential sites. (The map is so top-secret, Starbucks won't allow a reporter a peek.)

Along with scoring prime locations, Starbucks will adjust the furniture, store layout, artwork and menu to appeal to Chinese customers.
But Starbucks faces another huge challenge: selling an upscale, Western lifestyle that is both in demand in China yet meets resistance among those unfamiliar with the taste of coffee. Indeed, many Chinese consider coffee too bitter. Shanghai Starbucks customer Charles Lo drinks tea at home but coffee in public. "I prefer the taste of tea," he said, but he likes the image that drinking Starbucks coffee conjures up: relaxed affluence. "It's an attitude," he said.

Yet after Starbucks opened a store in Beijing's hallowed Forbidden City in December 2000, outraged local media reported that 70% of people they surveyed preferred not to patronize the cafe. They didn't want an icon of American imperialism plopped in the center of Chinese history. Starbucks said it has worked to blend in with the surroundings by reducing the size of its logo, among other things.

"The Starbucks proposition in China is huge. But people don't go there for the coffee. They go there to present themselves as modern Chinese in a public setting," says Tom Doctoroff , North Asia managing director of advertising firm J. Walter Thompson.

The local Chinese customers who make up 70% of the chain's business come for business meetings, dates or shopping breaks to sit -- unlike most Americans -- for extended periods, says Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific President Pedro Man. While Chinese restaurants tend to rush diners, Chinese Starbucks have extra seating to accommodate customers who want to linger.

With a price tag of 20 yuan, or $2.65, a medium-size latte takes a huge bite out of the monthly disposable income of an average three-person household in Shanghai, about $143 in April 2003. But Starbucks is counting on customers viewing coffee as an affordable luxury. "Keeping up with the Zhangs costs money and the vast majority of the 'newly affluent' don't have a lot of cash on hand. So they are highly selective," says J. Walter Thompson's Mr. Doctoroff.
星巴克:改变中国人的饮茶习惯

下面这种监测人流的方式怎么样?在上海主要的商业街、熙熙攘攘的南京路上,林盟钦(Kevin Lin)和一群研究人员正在监测一个潜在星巴克(Starbucks)店址外的过往人流,他们手持计数器,计下每一个可能成为星巴克客户的路人。

一对20多岁的时髦青年走过了。林盟钦说,他们肯定会计入潜在客户中。下一个人看来不会,这是一位50多岁的女士,身著休闲装在闲逛。但林盟钦表示,她实际上也应该算上一个。她正在浏览精品时装屋的橱窗,而星巴克能够吸引住那些喜欢冒险的人士。林盟钦是星巴克在上海的合资企业上海统一星巴克咖啡有限公司(Shanghai President Coffee Corp)的副总裁。

研究人员没有透露,要获得多少个潜在客户人数才能证明开设一间中国星巴克店是合理的。其原因是,星巴克咖啡国际(Starbucks Coffee International)计划在大中华地区开设数百家咖啡店,其秘密武器在于,它并不是单纯提供咖啡,而是提供一个场所。

中国的饮茶历史已经有近5,000年,中国人还没有养成喝咖啡的习惯。因而星巴克在中国积极进行扩张之际,其寻觅场所的技巧和营销策略将经受考验。星巴克的目标是:为中国的中产阶级提供一个风格清新的时尚社交场所,在这里,人们可以关注别人也同时被人关注,而不必花费巨资。

Charles Lo就是这样一类人。他说,他更喜欢茶的味道,他在家里喝茶,而在公共场合则喝咖啡。在星巴克咖啡店中,Lo购买到咖啡的同时,也买到了时下在中国非常需要的一些东西,而这些东西正是星巴克善于营造的:一种体验、一种生活方式。Lo表示,这是一种生活态度。

星巴克在中国只开设了69家咖啡店,还不大出名,但是它决心大干一场。 这家总部设在西雅图的公司上周宣布,它将增加其与统一咖啡在上海和台湾合资企业的股份,持股量将从5%提高至50%。在其他的地方,星巴克将在今年晚些时候在大陆第三大城市广州开店,今后两年内还计划开设数百家咖啡店。 星巴克在中国的积极扩张最终将考验这一品牌以生活方式为导向的营销手段。目前,星巴克中国(Starbucks China)除了赞助一个网上咖啡俱乐部以及偶而在写字楼提供咖啡品尝之外,没有计划进行任何广告、促销或采取其他营销策略。相反,星巴克依靠选择这种高访问率、高客流量的咖啡店场所,作自我营销。林盟钦表示,星巴克最主要的广告媒介就是咖啡店本身。

但是在快速变化的中国城市中,寻找可以体现这种生活方式的场所,更像是在赌博,而不是依靠科学手段。星巴克的特长是拥有世界范围的房地产业专门知识,但星巴克可以利用以计算机处理的地图数据库在美国每一个街角寻找潜在场所,而在中国城市却行不通。

星巴克咖啡亚太区(Starbucks Coffee Asia-Pacific)的财务副总裁Ernest Luk说,在美国你看到某个商场,两年后它可能还在那里。但是在中国,一年后你再经过一个场所,你几乎都认不清附近的道路。

最终决定是否开设一家新店,将综合考虑交通流量分析、场所附近的人流密度和对当地房地产的了解程度等因素。星巴克派出一个寻找热门地点的小组,他们在连接潜在客户生活、工作和娱乐地方的道路上行走、拍照,并列出理想地点的名单。据星巴克咖啡亚太区资产发展部经理P. J. Tan透露,在上海星巴克(Shanghai Starbucks)办公室中悬挂著一张地图,绘制了星巴克目前和潜在的店址。形象高级的咖啡店可以帮助星巴克建立客户基础和受到广泛的重视,在图上用特殊的符号标示,而能够为开设新咖啡店提供场所的建筑物,则用另外的符号标出。(这张地图非常机密,星巴克甚至不让记者看上一眼。)

当然,星巴克在拓展业务过程中也遇到了困难。在中国,区分时尚和西方生活方式不是一件容易的事情。星巴克在2000年12月份在北京紫禁城(Forbidden City)内开设一家咖啡店,不久愤怒的当地媒体就报导说,接受他们调查的人中有70%不愿星巴克在那里开店。

甚至对于中国的中产阶级而言,星巴克咖啡也是一种刚刚能消费得起的奢侈品。一杯中杯咖啡的价格也要人民币22元(合2.65美元),相对于一个上海三口之家的月平均可支配收入143美元(2003年4月份的数字),也不是一笔小数目。星巴克没有降价的计划,并且还表示,它在上海进行的一次调查中,大多数星巴克客户对价格表示满意。

零售商们表示,在中国城市进行营销的一个最有力武器是,对大众消费品制定高价格,因为在中国,消费品的价格被看作是品质和高级的代名词,中国消费者的侧重点与美国的雅皮士们不同。林盟钦说,40几的中国人几乎不喝咖啡,但是如果环境优雅而咖啡味道不差,他们是会光顾的。店内家俱、店面设计、摆放的艺术品和提供的食物,都使中国人对星巴克店感到亲切,但是店中的核心供应品仍是咖啡。

广告公司智威汤逊(J. Walter Thompson)的北亚区董事总经理汤姆?多科特罗夫(Tom Doctoroff)表示,中国的星巴克一族数量庞大。他们光顾星巴克不是为了喝咖啡,而是在公共背景下表明他们是新潮一族。他认为,与此相反的是,高档内衣制造商Victoria's Secret将在中国败走麦城,因为价格昂贵的内衣无法展示。他表示,中国人喜欢炫耀自己。

林盟钦大力推广的"星巴克体验"不仅仅针对咖啡,因而他并不担心来自一些类似咖啡店的竞争,比如台湾的Dante Coffee,日本的Manave Coffee,甚至麦当劳(McDonald)的McCafe。他表示,有更多的咖啡店存在是一件好事情,可以帮助人们了解咖啡。但他认为,星巴克提供高质量和高品质的服务,高端的咖啡消费者仍会光顾星巴克。

不过多科特罗夫表示,培养喝咖啡的习惯并非易事。经常喝咖啡花钱不少,而绝大多数新富起来的人手中并没有太多现金。因而他们是具有高度选择性的。从长期来看,咖啡会成为中国人真正喜欢喝的饮料吗?
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