UK Consumers Characterize Starbucks as "Arrogant, Intrusive and Self-Centered

Starbucks to boost fair-trade image
By Matt Born
The Daily Telegraph (UK)

1/1/05

Starbucks, one of the pet hates of the anti-globalisation movement, is
aiming to reinvent itself as an ethically-responsible company.

The coffee chain, regarded by many as a byword for corporate
colonialism, has ditched its public relations firm and advertised for a
new one to raise its charitable profile.

Starbucks is still struggling to crack the British market, one of the
few to prove resistant to its marketing campaign, and is estimated to
have made losses of £50 million in the seven years since it launched
here.

The decision to look for another PR firm follows a recent survey of
8,000 consumers which found that Starbucks was seen as "arrogant,
intrusive and self-centred".

Scott Keiller, the company's head of corporate social responsibility,
said it wanted the agency to raise awareness of its involvement with
coffee farming co-operatives and other fair-trade measures.

Starbucks, named after the first mate in Moby Dick, started in Seattle
in 1971.

It now has more than 8,000 stores in 34 countries serving an estimated
28 million customers each week. There are 400 outlets in Britain.

However, its expansion has made it a target for protesters and in 1999
some of its outlets were attacked when the World Trade Organisation met
in Seattle.