Hollywood Meets the "Third Place"

Can Starbucks replace your cable box?

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz describes their 10,000 or so US retail stores as "a third place between the office and home." Their purpose: synthetically recreate what used to be (and in other countries, still is) the role of independent coffee shops and pubs. Part community hangout, part momentary oasis in a busy day, these spots are ideal places to go for something more than refreshments, like brief interludes of music and entertainment when winding down and socializing.

With this in mind, Schultz took to the stage next to Steve Jobs in September 2007 at Moscone Center and announced a partnership enabling free access to the iTunes Wi-Fi music store at Starbucks locations. Starbucks subsequently hit a series of operational potholes. The partnership went largely radio silent, Schultz returned to his role as CEO to stem a major decline in sales and, evidently, re-evaluated what to do about music.

A couple of weeks ago he announced another try:  Starbucks Digital Network ("in partnership with Yahoo!") arriving in Fall 2010. Speaking about the Starbucks brand and the new portal:

"... [the Starbucks brand was] built quintessentially by the experience, and comes to light every day because of the sense of community and the trust in the physical environment, the coffee, and our people. Free Wi-Fi is, in our view, just the price of admission. What we want to do is create a proprietary way in which we're going to give access and new sources of proprietary information and content that you can only get at Starbucks."

Starbucks Digital Network could help solve a nagging and worsening problem: discovery of and engagement with media and entertainment. Thanks in part to the internet, music and television are massively fragmented markets. There's more content than ever and, Google notwithstanding, it's arguably harder than ever for consumers to make sense of it. Many simply don't bother. Plus there's the "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" problem of fidgety impatience and shortened attention spans, whereby people rapidly give up if they can't instantly find, access and consume media and information.

Starbucks can potentially create an important out-of-home setting which helps consumers in three ways:

(1) right time, place, and duration: at Starbucks, consumers will often be at a time and place in their day, mentally and physically, in which they'd be open to investing a few minutes browsing and sampling a convenient, non-overwhelming list of pre-selected media fare

(2) merchandising: less is actually more. Whether it's browsing hundreds of television channels, or a massive, cluttered iTunes catalog, sometimes consumers want guidance, opinion and fewer, better choices. This is analogous to the way a boutique or even department store pre-selects merchandise with a brand-related point of view. (More pretentiously, this is often known these days as "curating")

(3) simplicity and convenience: a button or app on an iPhone is an even more convenient way of consuming, say, Starbucks "Pick of the Week" music offer
than a small, physical coupon card and is likely to have much higher redemption rates.

Imagine this notion projected to television programming.

• A relaxed, out-of-home setting in which a consumer is in the mood to explore and, often, buy.
• A trusted, simplified set of current "trend-setting" offers, spanning an array of channels and shows.
• The ability to conveniently store, link to, bookmark or even watch a show which, under other circumstances, wouldn't come to the viewers attention or is easily forgotten and ignored.
• A setting in which viewers’ undistracted (or at least less-distracted) interest in new media discovery is made available, often more than once a day, and can set the stage for more in-depth media consumption later that day/evening.

Which cable box does this, again?

 

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