Opinion: The Starbucks Experience – Will it work?

Well, I too, was excited to try out Starbucks. The store offers a wide range of standard Starbucks beverages along with a large variety of food items catered to the Indian taste buds like the murg makhani pie and mutton seekh in roomali roti. The price points are between Rs 80- Rs. 200 similar to the already established competitors that cater to the price conscious consumers. Being a flagship store, it has a well decorated ambience of an Anglicized dhaba with jute ropes, cemented walls and the rustic wooden furniture which makes it different from its competitors like Barista, CCD and Costa Coffee. However, all you see is people clicking pictures at practically every place in the store! The store, currently, is noisy, cramped & over-crowded. Are customers actually enjoying the “STARBUCKS” coffee or is it just for namesake that “You know I went to STARBUCKS”?

Starbucks is not the first foreign player in the coffee market in India. Established players like UK’s Costa Coffee and US’s Coffee bean & Tea Leaf are already present in the country. But the brand of Starbucks make it an entirely different game. Consumers have seen Starbucks on tv, in Hollywood movies like Sleepless in Seattle, Devil wears Prada among others and are curious about it. This has resulted in a cult following for the company. The consumers don’t mind waiting in line or paying the premium. For them, it is the larger than life experience.