Wake up and smell the coffee
When I first visited Korea in 2001, there were only a couple of Starbucks outlets, one in Apgujeong-dong and the other in Ehwha University. I was told then it had just crossed the Pacific. Not that Korea needed another coffee shop, most street corners in Seoul are literally saturated with coffee shops, then and now, but it has become curious to me, after relocating here a year go, what made Starbucks so popular here that many Koreans now enjoy their coffee in more than, by one count, 200 stores just in Seoul. I don’t have any idea how many Starbucks there are on the island of Manhattan alone, but I’m guessing probably around 200. In Japan there are more than 500 Starbucks outlets nationwide. So, going just by the number, Korea is one big piece of pie to Starbucks, or, at least, becoming one.
Just a quick glance at the company fact sheet reveals that Starbucks has just more than 6,000 company-operated stores in the United States. But worldwide, it has 1,511 and 2,256 stores, both company-operated and joint-venture, respectively. It’s not so difficult to find a Starbucks on a busy street in Seoul anymore. One would find one just as easily as in Manhattan.
This, however, comes to me as a surprise because, as I see it, Korea is not an easy country to crack. Winning the hearts and minds of its people has been one tough business strategy for any foreign business. A year go Walmart declared a battle lost and took its business out of the country completely, losing it to E-Mart, a Korean supermarket business modeled after Walmart and Cosco. Of course, one is easily tempted to explain the phenomenon by attributing it to the trend currently sweeping the entire globe by Starbucks. A friend of mine who regularly visits France told me that Starbucks is also making inroads into the highly caffeinated French market. In France! Could anybody have guessed that the capital of cafes can come to its knees on their own turf?
Of course, it’s really less about the coffee than about its experience and culture. I’m not really sure what this culture is but it seems a lot has to do with a fundamental human desire: to come together with other people. Because brands promote social cohesion it imposes a certain participation on the part of customers. This explains in part why Koreans and Asian countries at large are especially sensitive to this global trend.
Just a quick glance at the company fact sheet reveals that Starbucks has just more than 6,000 company-operated stores in the United States. But worldwide, it has 1,511 and 2,256 stores, both company-operated and joint-venture, respectively. It’s not so difficult to find a Starbucks on a busy street in Seoul anymore. One would find one just as easily as in Manhattan.
This, however, comes to me as a surprise because, as I see it, Korea is not an easy country to crack. Winning the hearts and minds of its people has been one tough business strategy for any foreign business. A year go Walmart declared a battle lost and took its business out of the country completely, losing it to E-Mart, a Korean supermarket business modeled after Walmart and Cosco. Of course, one is easily tempted to explain the phenomenon by attributing it to the trend currently sweeping the entire globe by Starbucks. A friend of mine who regularly visits France told me that Starbucks is also making inroads into the highly caffeinated French market. In France! Could anybody have guessed that the capital of cafes can come to its knees on their own turf?
Of course, it’s really less about the coffee than about its experience and culture. I’m not really sure what this culture is but it seems a lot has to do with a fundamental human desire: to come together with other people. Because brands promote social cohesion it imposes a certain participation on the part of customers. This explains in part why Koreans and Asian countries at large are especially sensitive to this global trend.
