Starbucks Goes All Out in Via Instant Coffee Launch

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Today is the national launch of Via instant coffee, and Starbucks is throwing itself into promoting the new product. Via first appeared in Chicago, Seattle and London stores several months ago, but now the coffee is making its debut across the U.S. and Canada.

The official pitch is that Via is comparable to fresh-brewed coffee — in fact, it’s supposedly so superior it should hardly be considered as being in the same product category with existing instant coffee brands. As CEO Howard Schultz put it, Via will “transform the coffee industry.”

Starbucks has spent more on promoting Via than on any other product in its history. The company has bought television ads and created a mini web series, and it’s sponsoring taste tests across the country in an effort to prove that customers will be unable to distinguish between Via and Starbucks regular coffee.

Starbucks needs Via to take off; the economy hasn’t been nice to Starbucks lately and, though neither company will openly admit it, McDonald’s has become a direct rival with the rise of McCafe and its bargain-priced lattes.

But Via could be a tough sell. Starbucks has to persuade people not only to drink instant coffee, which is typically seen as an inferior good, but to pay more than they would for other instant brands. Then again, Starbucks has already raised the bar for coffee quality in America; it’s not out of the question that it could do the same for instant coffee.

And though Schultz declined to give details on how well Via performed in its three test markets, he did say it “exceeded expectations.”

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Tags: Starbucks Corp., Food & Beverage, Branding, Manufacturing, Marketing, Katherine Glover

Katherine Glover is a Minneapolis-based print, radio and online journalist. She's written for Salon.com, Sierra Magazine and many others, and she does a weekly blog on immigration issues for MinnPost.

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asifrauf@...

09/29/09 | Report as spam

RE: Starbucks Goes All Out in Via Instant Coffee Launch

This is the beginning of an end ! Starbucks is writing its own obituary.
the big "sex" appeal of Starbucks is not the coffee, but the presentation of the store and the presentation of the starbuck's coffee mug.
recycling the logoed cup with free office coffee brings the same satisfaction and the sex appeal.

what can save this Brand is - is the axis of loyalty, Suppliers Loyalty, Employee's loyalty that will lead to Customer Loyalty.

as a student of Customer Loyalty through Organizational Quality Excellence, i will be observing objectively with an open mind!
2

wadehi

09/30/09 | Report as spam

RE: Starbucks Goes All Out in Via Instant Coffee Launch

What this really represents is the death, or at least another major potential knife cut into the SBUX brand promise. The company has stood for years as the last bastion of coffee purity. It did not sell chemically flavored ground or bean coffees like other large packaged brands. It hewed to a dark roast to enhance flavor (tho' thats been weakened by the Pike Place blend). It made coffee drinks but that was the European influence transplanted to America. It prided itself on being a "last best place" to relax and enjoy coffee. Even as it moved beyond into other line extensions it still seemed for a time not to have lost its soul. Then the baristas were being replaced by automatic espresso machines and the microwaves were heating breakfast sandwiches so it seemed like it was lost...but Schultz came in to the rescue and seemed to understand what was needed...a return to the core SBUX experience. NOW, we get instant coffee...the bane of most die in the wool coffee drinkers. Yes, its popular worldwide..mostly in poorer, less sophisticated countires absent the coffee shop installed base. But, in most cases once that starts to take hold then home brewing becomes an option consumers embrace...whether by French press or whatever. Instant or "water soluble coffee" as we called it when I was a Nestle Brand Manager was definitely not the direction of the industry...even as Nescafe and Taster's Choice brands brought in millions in revenue. I will wait and see how the product delivers but it will need to be GREAT to supplant the reality and image of instant coffee. Maybe they will deliver an innovation that changes the playing field? As a longtime stockholder under water with my SBUX stock I guess I hope so...but it isnt the direction many if not most of us expected when Schultz rode back in on his white horse.