Comments on: Aroma-first thinking

By: Moof

Moof — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:33:30 +0000

I love walking into the Chocolat Factory store in Palma. It’s a store you have to walk down a ramp and through a perfectly-timed sliding glass door to get into, there’s still some sunlight, but it’s muted, as the store is about a metre under pavement level, it’s air conditioned (naturally), and it’s full of stuff that is incredibly bad for you, in a good way, and stunningly packaged, to boot.

http://www.chocolatfactory.com/

The thing is, I don’t have quite the same attachment to the other two chocolat factory stores I know, one in a shopping centre in Palma, and one in Barcelona airport.

And I worked out why when talking to one of the store clerks. As you walk in to the shop, you get this overpowering smell of chocolate. It actually comes from some stale chocolate sitting in a fondue pot out of the way behind the counter, which gets replenished every now and then. It’s a rich, heady aroma, that promises good things, and means that the fact most of the products are prepackaged doesn’t affect you so much.

The ones in the shopping centre and airport have constantly open roller blinds, so people don’t have to open a door when walking in, it’s part of the house style of both of the places. As such, they either don’t have the melted chocolate in the background, as it annoys the traders next door, or the HVAC is far too efficient.

It’s just not the same. I certianly don’t spend anywhere near as much there.

By: Paul (from Idea Sandbox)

Paul (from Idea Sandbox) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:56:12 +0000

Thanks for finding Idea Sandbox, and commenting and linking to the post about Starbucks and Aroma.

You’re right… You can’t quantify the ROI of scent, nevertheless… Appealing to all the senses possible to surround your customer in a pleasant experience has a dramatic impact.

(By the way… while most of Starbucks coffee isn’t Fair Trade, Starbucks trades fairly with its farmers. It’s a mis-perception that the only “beneficial” coffee is Fair Trade. Fair Trade coffee isn’t necessarily good or quality coffee, either.

Starbucks, from the beginning, has always treated farmers as partners.

Fair Trade was invented to protect farmers from the HUGE coffee roasting companies (Maxwell House, Folgers) who used to buy coffee sight-unseen for as cheaply as they possibly could.

It’s hard to protest Maxwell House (where do I stand with my protest sign, Aisle 8 of the grocery store?)… So Starbucks became an easy target.

Starbucks hasn’t done a good job telling their coffee story. They should have announced that Starbucks Coffee is Fairer Trade… or Fairest Trade coffee and that Fair Trade is a great company, but that customers can feel good about every cup of every coffee at Starbucks because they treat the farmer as a friend and partner, not someone to exploit.

Fact.

I worked for Starbucks for 9-years and was always disappointed that they didn’t blare the story to the world.

Thanks for the link, Vero!