周一，无意中从阿北同学的博客上看到一篇他翻译的文章，一封总裁Howard Schultz（霍华德・舒尔茨）写给星巴克CEO并抄送众高管的备忘录，题目是”星巴克体验的廉价化”。

这篇文章其实是今年3月的事，只不过我才发现，足可见我这个在互联网里生活的人离互联网有多远，自嘲一下。

最近在找装修公司，每个设计师给你的感觉都是不一样的，但是真正能留住你的是让你觉得在帮你省钱、为你着想的那个设计师。让我也反省了一下自己的工作，好的销售人员或者是市场人员，永远应该是客户第一位。虽然咱心里首要的是公司利益，但是和客户沟通的时候一定要让对方感觉他才是第一位的。保障客户利益，才能实现公司的目标。看完这封信，我更加坚定这一信念，任何一个公司、企业，如果能做到客户至上，那么也没有任何困难能够阻挡他的发展，因为他和客户永远是站在一条线上。

邮件原文：

February 23, 2007

Starbucks chairman warns of "the commoditization of the Starbucks experience"

Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz wrote this to CEO Jim Donald earlier this month. The memo's authenticity has been confirmed by Starbucks.

From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor

Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.

Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.

阿北同学的翻译版（转载自阿北博客）

题目: 星巴克体验的廉价化

在你们准备08年战略规划的当口，我想和大家分享一些我的想法。

过去的十年里，为了达到从不到1000个店到13000以上个店需要的增长、发展和规模，我们不得不做出一系列的决定。回头看，这些决定导致星巴克体验的注水淡化，或者像有人说的我们品牌的廉价化。

很多这些决定在当时可能是对的，而且本身不会产生品牌的稀释；但情况是，加起来总和变大，不幸比每个部分单独的危害大得多。比如，启用自动咖啡机的时候，我们解决了服务速度和效率方面一个很大的问题。但同时，我们忽视了一件事实：我们会失去很多之前伴随手动机器的浪漫和现场感。这项决定损害更大的是，几千个店里新机器的高度遮挡着客人以前亲眼看咖啡做出来的视线，以及和咖啡师之间的亲密体验。这一点，加上每座北美城市和每个国际市场对鲜烤咖啡的需求，推动我们做出屈从封味包装需求的决定。又一次，正确的时间正确的决定，我也又一次相信我们忽视了在我们的店里密封香味的原因和后果。我们得到了鲜烤袋装咖啡，但用什么代价？失去的是香气－－可能是我们在我们的店里拥有的最强大的非语言信号；失去的是我们的人从罐里铲出鲜咖啡豆后在客人面前鲜磨：又一次从店中剥除传统和我们的传承？然后轮到店面设计。的确为了获取规模效应、达到销售对投资的投入产出比来满足我们的生意里财务一面的要求，我们必须流水作业完成店面设计。不过，后果之一是，店不再有过去的灵气，比起邻里店的温暖感觉更像一串连锁店。有人甚至说我们的店光亮呆板、一个模子出来，不再显现我们的创始人对咖啡的热爱。实际上，我不敢肯定今天人们还知不知道我们是自己烤咖啡的。你只进到我们的店里一定觉察不到。咖啡与其说技术不如说是艺术，这种商品已经离我们能做的商人很远，就是那种起码能支撑我们的咖啡传统的商人。有些店没有咖啡磨、Bodum的法式咖啡壶，甚至没有咖啡过滤器。

现在我已经列出我相信需要解决的根本问题，不过我一开始就应该说我们都参与了这些决定。我自己负全责，但是我们急迫地需要照照镜子，看清楚是时候回归核心，做出应有的变化来维护我们的承传、传统和我们大家对真正星巴克体验的热情。虽说现在的状况基本上是自找的，但是带来了各种竞争：大小咖啡公司、快餐经营者、夫妻店都在定位来争夺星巴克老客人的知晓、尝试和忠诚。这一定得根除。

我已经说了20年我们的成功不是天赋特权，现在证明这是事实。让我们更聪明地使用我们的时间、钱和资源。让我们回到核心。推动创新，做需要的工作重新让星巴克与众不同。我们采购最高质的咖啡。我们建设了世界上最受信赖的咖啡品牌，我们对我们的前人和现在150,000个仰仗我们指引的伙伴和他们的家庭都负有巨大的责任。

最后，我想感谢你为星巴克所做的一切。没有你的热情和坚持，我们不会有今天。