Starbucks stole our idea to build a chain of Viennese coffee houses. Yes, Maxwell House of “Good To The Last Drop” fame, had a strategic plan to invest in a chain of coffee houses in the U.S. in 1982. We didn’t do it , but Starbucks did and it has been the best thing to happen to coffee consumption since the discovery of caffeine.
Because of Starbucks, coffee is cool again and you should definitely serve it as part of your supper club dinner party.
I worked for Maxwell House in the early 1980’s and coffee wasn’t cool. Baby Boomers didn’t drink coffee. We were the “Pepsi Generation”. We had found another way to get our caffeine. Besides, our parents drank coffee and they certainly weren’t cool. I can remember sitting at dinner with the President of Maxwell House when coffee was being served and telling the waiter I didn’t drink coffee. The President said to me: “Kid, have him fill the cup, its all about consumption”. Maxwell House was desperate to get baby boomers to drink coffee.
The chain of Viennese coffee house was a brilliant idea…way before its time. We made our pitch of the strategic plan and got shot down by General Foods (Predecessor to Kraft) upper management for two reasons: The concept was:
- “outside of our strategic core” and
- “it wouldn’t play in Paducah”.
Back in that day, the Harvard Business School was preaching to have companies focus on their strategic core. In other words, stick to what you are good at. And, General Foods certainly didn’t know anything about Viennese coffee houses. We also got a speech from the then Chairman that he didn’t care what would be popular on Manhattan’s east side (Where many of our marketers lived). But rather, he wanted strategic plans that would be a hit in Middle America. Maybe this paragraph explains why the mainstream of American Food Processors are having the problems that they are having today.
Besides, You have to question General Foods marketing genius knowing that our two major marketing personalities were Jell-O’s Bill Cosby (Who knew) and Cora also known as the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Margaret Hamilton, the actress who played Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz was also Cora, the Maxwell House lady from the 1970’s. Twenty-twenty hindsight is a wonderful tool, but you might want to question GF’s people choices.
Fast forward to 2005. It was then that I knew coffee was back. We took our daughter Jennifer to New York city and she made a point of being seen with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hand. Coffee was cool again. Young professionals love coffee. Baby boomers while late to the coffee craze, certainly love their caffeine. You have to give Starbucks credit for the resurgence of coffee. They did a great job of making coffee cool.
Thanks to Starbucks, coffee is cool again and you should definitely serve it as part of your supper club dinner party.
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Interesting story!