The caffeine-crazed world is abuzz about the introduction of “Starbucks VIA Ready Brew,” going on sale in stores in Chicago and Seattle beginning March 3, 2009 (and available everywhere and earlier online).
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz promises the new offering will “reinvent the instant coffee category.” See his post at HuffingtonPost.com: “Staying Real in an Instant“.
The company has put up a promotional video on YouTube explaining the difference between “the old way” of making instant coffee versus “the Starbucks way” of making VIA Ready Brew. (The video concludes the nonsensical tagline, “Not Instant, Instant.”)
The company is certainly acting like the new offering is the real-real coffee deal. Consumers will of course ultimately determine if the offering conforms in both depiction and perception to their self-image as authentic coffee drinkers.
It will boil down to this: Is VIA really what Starbucks says it is, the reinvention of instant coffee?
And: Is VIA true to Starbucks, proud purveyors of the “third place”?
Before deciding, might we suggest first reading (or re-reading) the leaked Schultz e-mail, “The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience,” from February 14, 2007. (The irony of Starbucks’ VIA announcement coming almost two years to the day of Schultz’s e-mail is striking.)
Then vote: Is Starbucks VIA Ready Brewed…
Real-real: is true to itself; is what it says it is
Real-fake: is not true to itself; is what it says it is
Fake-real: is true to itself; is not what it says it is
Fake-fake: is not true to itself; is not what it says it is
We’ll stay awake, VIA in-hand, awaiting the results of your vote!
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