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Back in previous coffee review about Australia coffee culture, this time we try to find more useful reason about failed of Starbucks operation in Australia.

Said that Starbucks succeed in US because Starbucks is selling the coffee culture and not the coffee itself. But Australia already have their own coffee culture when Starbucks came in Australia. That`s why recently there are huge amount of Starbucks coffee chain beeing closed and failed in Australia.

Here`s another perspective to tell us about fail of starbucks to break Australia coffee market. Maurizio Corda said that Australia has got a sophisticated coffee culture, a simple thing that people at Starbucks did not fully understand.

“I never really felt the need to go to a Starbucks shop,” says Elise from Sydney. The coffee lover never really felt Starbucks had more to offer or more reasonable prices than its competitors.

“I have always felt like we had been invaded by Starbucks. The proliferation of the shops has been fast and intrusive in my opinion.”

Since the opening of the first shops back in 2000, Starbucks has never really breached the difficult Australian market. The general feeling is that they tried to sell a coffee culture which already existed.

Unlike the US where Starbucks is considered a ‘must’, and is far ahead of its competitors in terms of sales, Australia has always seen it as one of many, just one more competitor.

With a supposed expansion of the European market by the end of 2008, let’s hope Starbucks executives learned from the Australian mistake. Being a household name and having the resources to open multiple selling points is not enough, if there is no effort in understanding each country’s tastes and needs.

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Technorati Tags: australia, australia coffee culture, coffee, coffee culture, Starbucks

picture: http://www.dallasnews.com

You can have your coffee by pouring coffee in certain color cup of Joe.  Yes, different coffee cup color mean different one you chose. 7-Eleven is running its 7-Election presidential coffee cup poll. The rule is simple, 7-Eleven coffee cup presidential poll asking customers to vote by choosing the color of their 20-ounce hot beverage cup.

7-Eleven coffee drinkers voice their pick for U.S. president in the informal poll by simply pouring their coffee into a red cup if they intend on voting for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or into a blue cup for Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Poll starts in Wednesday and finish on Election Day, Nov. 4 2008. Anyone abstaining or undecided but still in need of caffeine can fill a regular 7-Eleven cup.

“7-Election is a warm-up for the real election on Nov. 4,” Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven president and chief executive, said in a statement. “While we don’t bill this as a statistically valid study by any means, it does reach Americans in their hometowns.”

The cups are tabulated at the register. National and state results will be posted daily at www.7-election.com.

In 2004, 50.7 percent of the U.S. voters picked George Bush, while 51 percent of 7-Eleven voters picked him. John Kerry received 48.3 percent of the U.S. vote, and 49 percent in the 7-Eleven vote.

In 2000, 51.2 percent of the 7-Eleven voters selected Bush. The U.S. vote was 47.9 percent to Al Gore’s 48.4 percent. Gore received 48.9 percent of the votes in the 7-Eleven poll.

7-Eleven says it sells more than a million cups of coffee a day.  7-Eleven says coffee is a nonpartisan beverage choice and notes it was named the national beverage by the First Continental Congress after the Boston Tea Party.

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Technorati Tags: 7-Eleven, barack obama, coffee, coffee cup, cup of coffee, elections 2008, John McCain