Following up on my list of things I feel Starbucks should sell, I would like to address something they do sell, I actually buy, but it appears many others may not – a 5 lb. bag of Starbucks Pike Place roast coffee beans.

Last year Starbucks announced it would be brewing a new coffee called Pike Place roast. Named after the location of their first store, it was touted as a more mellow roast and it would be served all day, becoming its new house roast. Its announcement was part of a string of things that came from the Seattle coffee giant, including mixed sales results and that it would close all of its stores one afternoon to retool and retrain. As well, it was announced Pike Place roast would be offered in 5 lb. bags. Typically Starbucks offered its coffees in 1 lb. or smaller bags.

When I heard this, I had to try it for myself, as I like to buy coffee in larger quantities because I drink a lot of it. I had tried Pike Place roast by the cup and I thought it was good, but not great. I figured it would be worth a try to brew it myself, a little stronger as I tend to usually do with any coffee. And I liked it! For me, the combination of a large bag and the ability to brew it to my liking, this offering from the coffee giant worked for me.

And maybe just me. I have gone into several different Starbucks stores in the Chicagoland area, and when I purchase the bag, I usually get the same reaction from the people who work there – surprise. Apparently, I am one of the few, if any, customers who buy the 5 lb. bag from stores. The baristas have told me they infrequently or have never sold one, and customers who are in line with me or nearby the counter are surprised to see me walking away with a huge bag of coffee. Whenever I see the looks of awe in faces, I ask people if they are aware of this offering, and most people say no.

One question I am asked is how long a bag of coffee lasts. As you can see by the accompanying photo, I opened it a few weeks back and so far it has lasted 4 weeks. You will also notice the bag itself is almost as big as my coffeemaker!

Thinking about this more, it caused me to wonder if there is anything I am offering in my business Dunkirk Systems, LLC that I am not actively marketing. So I have to ask – are you offering anything in your business your customers may not be aware of?

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As the holiday season is well behind us, it’s time for me to look back on it and take notes for the next holiday season, with this year’s planning to commence in the summer.

The Dunkirk Card

Once again I worked with the creative director of Blue Bag Horse to create the Dunkirk Systems, LLC card. As I work with a select few graphic designers, I always thought it nice for them to receive a card they did not design themselves. Also, I am lucky to be working with Blue Bag Horse in any form, so the card is it. When I sat down with them, the only “theme” I could only think of one theme – reindeer. This most likely came from my trip to Finland for Nokia OpenLab and reindeer are big there, both for Christmas decorations and for dinner. As a result here is the design of the front of the card.

They came up with a clever snowflake design comprised of reindeer.

I decided once again to make a charitable donation in lieu of gifts to clients, partners and friends, and this year’s recipient was YouthBuild Boston, a pro-bono client of mine and a great organization that teaches kids real skills in construction, as well as providing them and the community with a stronger foundation. I was proud to feature them and their logo on the back of the card as shown:

Visit YouthBuild Boston’s Web site for more information on this great organization.

It’s better to give than to receive

As for the numbers, I sent out nearly 100 cards, and 2 were returned with bad addresses. I am tracking these people down now. How many did I receive? 7, as in seven.

This number does not include e-cards, for which I probably received a dozen but I didn’t count them specifically, or print out anything. I cherished and hung up the cards I did receive with care. But I cannot say those who didn’t send cards are not nice people! Some people don’t send physical cards – they are not necessarily cheap or environmentally friendly – and in a down economy people may be cutting back to only the essentials. And some people don’t deal with physical, paper cards and prefer to send email or e-cards.

But I did not send cards just to receive them. And I do believe in personal notes and cards to people. In this age of getting bombarded with email and other messages over the Internet, it is nice to get something tangible that you can hold in your hand, and surely stands out from the crowd.

Looking ahead

So what to do for 2009? One of the challenges with sending physical cards is getting a physical address to send them to! Many people do not have their address on their business cards or Web site, and some investigative work and queries were required. I may expand beyond paper cards with an e-card or some holiday greeting online. But as it stands now, I am not planning on abandoning sending hand-personalized, paper holiday greeting cards.

What are your plans? Feel free to share your thoughts by commenting to this post.

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As a Starbucks frequent customer - and shareholder - I am not looking to jump on the “bash the ‘bucks” bandwagon. However on some recent trips to the coffee cafe giant, I thought about a few things they should add to their mix of products, things that would be a true win-win between Starbucks and its customers. These things could help Caribou Coffee or any local coffee shop as well.

In no particular order:

Printing – There is no shortage of computing power in a Starbucks, but no place to print something. A setup similar to a hotel where you connect to their central printer could help when people really need a hard copy of something.

Books – Where there may be newspapers for sale, why not books. They sell CDs, why not a selection of books for those who come by and have nothing to read.

MP3 Players – How about a Starbucks-branded iPod loaded with a selection of songs?

Cable Locks – The last I checked, most people don’t secure their computers when at a coffee shop. Maybe its because there’s nothing to secure them too? Yea, there would be a need for cutting holes in tables and reinforcing them with steel to make some money off from cables.

Travel Mugs to Match the Sizes of Coffee Sold – Starbucks is all about its Tall, Grande and Venti, but what size is the travel mugs they sell? Come up with 3 sizes, or one with marks for each size, and you’ll probably reduce the paper waste in your stores.

Networking – Just looking around your average Starbucks you find an eclectic looking group of customers, but who are they? It could be as easy as a chalkboard on the wall where people can sign in if they desire, from which people can seek out others to chat, network or collaborate with. It’s common knowledge that entrepreneurs meet at coffee shops; what if these same places could be the catalysts for new ventures?

These are just a few thoughts that come to mind. Do you have any others? If so, please join the conversation and post a comment!

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Recently a couple of my vendors had changes in staffing. Where people leave all the time, in these cases it affected the level of service I received from these vendors.

Why did this happen? Why did the service-level change because the people change? The products and services of these vendors remained the same. In thinking about this, it came down to the fact that the true business relationship I had with the vendor was with these people, and not with the vendor itself.

So what did happen you may be asking? Both cases are unique, but have some similarities.

The first case involves an international company. When I started doing business with them, I was assigned a rep who was nothing short of top-notch. He initiated a phone conversation when I signed on with them, and would keep in touch often as to my needs involving their services. If I ever had a question, he would be on it, and would apologize when his replies were just more than a few hours from my inquiry or when he had a day off!

Then the vendor got acquired by another company that offered similar services, and the rep emailed me to let me know he was leaving for a better opportunity. Initially there was no word at all from the vendor, and then a repeating cycle started. I would receive a call from a new rep, introducing themselves and offering me a “package” deal on their products and services that did not make sense to me. A few months later, I would get a call from another new rep, and the same thing happened. In all cases, the rep was outside of the US, only left a long distance number and the only way I could reach them by phone was by placing an international call. One day when I needed to reach them, I tried several times by email, and that was a couple of months ago and I never received a call back. As their products and services work and I don’t need a rep to place an order, I am still with them. However, I am seeking out alternatives.

The second case is with a local vendor. When the manager left, service dropped. Where I was known on a first-name basis and the manager and we frequently discussed how their services could help my business, the new manager took the longest time to know my name, and has yet to sell me on anything. With the previous manager’s departure there was also a departure of other staff, and new hires were less than stellar. I am still with this vendor as it would require a big change to switch from them, and in the meantime I am able to “get by” with them.

In both cases, I still receive the core of what I am paying for, but I am not a happy customer, and would not refer business to them.

You Are Not Alone

Not surprisingly, I am not the only one thinking about this. Marketing Over Coffee featured a presentation over the summer by Dr. Allan Weiss where he talked about business relationships. In it, he talked about just this – a relationship between employees of a business, and not between the businesses itself. I highly recommend you listen to it.

Unless you’re dealing with the direct owners of the business, in most cases you are dealing with an employee of a company whose departure can change or even hurt your business relationship. Keep this in mind as you form new business relationships.

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Did you know domain names are case insensitive? Had you even thought about it?

This is a question I have been asked a few times, so I thought I’d write about it and share with all. From a technical standpoint, domain names ignore case. Therefore, it you are typing in a domain name in a browser, you can use uppercase or lower case letters and it won’t matter. For a more technical description, read this article from the Internet Engineering Task Force on domain name case.

Why this question comes up is when people are presenting a domain name in print, whether in paper form or on a Web page or a PDF document. Typically this is if they want to capitalize one or more names that make up a domain name. For example, the domain name for The Hot Iron can be presented and entered into a browser as thehotiron.com, TheHotIron.com, theHotIron.com… you get the gist of it.

URLs May Be Case Sensitive

Despite the domain name being case insensitive, a URL may be case sensitive. The domain name portion will not be, but on some Web servers, the remainder of the URL may have both uppercase and lowercase characters, and you will need to be careful to enter them properly.

If you are planning on displaying a domain name on a billboard, be as creative as you’d like and mix character case all you want. If you are planning on displaying a URL on a banner… well, on second thought get another domain name to redirect to that URL.

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Domain Names • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink