Viral Dis-Marketing
I was delighted to learn recently that my local Borders converted its coffee shop area into a Seattle’s Best, one of my favorite caffeineries.
But my first visit was a tragedy. The tall drip (no-room) I ordered was two-third’s fresh and one-third dregs from a container that had only 10 minutes left on its digital timer, lending it the flavor of burning tires.
In a conversation with Paul Martinez, our seminary’s director of development, the disturbing feelings generated by such disappoints began to acquire some vocabulary. (Good friends, and good sermons, help us articulate what we’ve been sensing, but may not have ever expressed.)
What is really bothering me about the declining quality of my visits to ‘Bucks (and now SB) is not the brew, but the baristas. There was a time when the best part of a coffee stop was watching the brilliant people behind the counter, people who could be doing lots of other things, doing this. I often wondered about their personal stories: what brought them to ‘Bucks, why did they seem to treat their job as a calling, what were their dreams of the future?
These over-achievers sold me on the brew, not the other way around. It was viral marketing at its best: a good impression formed one person at a time. They made every visit a form of theater, starring the evangelists of caffeine, coffee missionaries commanding attention and respect. Watching baristas in the “zone” became the most important part of the trip to their store, making it worth going inside when the drive-through would have been more convenient.
Things have changed. This is not to say that the staffer who handed me the bad cup of Seattle’s Best (who also had to check a price list before using the register) is a loser. It’s just that she did not have the same high level of ownership in the experience as did the old-school barista.
A couple of conclusions that Paul and I kicked around about some things that seem to be forgotten in the “viral un-marketing” that now plagues Starbucks:
1. People are crucial to the value of product: There is no coffee good enough to replace an outstanding barista show. Watching someone who probably ought to be in medical school concoct a world class cappuccino and then call your name right out loud is the best two minutes in the business. Without this little immersion in Starbuck’s culture, I might as well grind their beans at home.
I am reminded of ministries that spend so much time on the “production” side of bringing the message to their community that they assume the quality of their people will just take care of itself as long as the show goes on Sunday morning. A well-trained, fully-invested person of integrity is the ultimate message and the ultimate production value.
2. Quality is crucial to the meaning of growth: Starbuck’s astronomical expansion in the last few years seems to have outstripped the pool of suitable talent. Are there only so many folks on the planet who have the temperament to become a coffee missionary, or is ‘Bucks now lacking some key trait needed to attract these people? I once overheard one of their store managers interviewing (and being interviewed by) a prospective employee. It was clear that the manager was not looking for a worker, but for a certain kind of person. Is that interview still happening?
I recall the many unenthusiastic greeters I have met in my church travels, and the sermons delivered by people who do not have a primary communication gift, and the deacons elected mainly because they manage a hardware store, and the mania for growth at almost any price. In a recent email, for example, one minister confessed that his rapidly expanding ministry is being almost completely driven by transfers from other churches, but this fact is off-limits among the leadership. So what does that kind of “growth” really mean?
While the new Reduced-Fat Orange Crème Coffee Cake does cover a multitude of sins, Starbucks better start paying attention to its people again. Are they still the kind of organization to which great people want to belong?
That’s an important question for Christian organizations, too. It’s not about being better or worse, ordinary or extraordinary, but about discipleship, personal investment, and accountability. In other words, featuring gifted people doing things in a way so compelling that others would not only want to be where they are, but might even consider putting on the green apron themselves.
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Excellence does not scale. Which explains why mass produced, mass marketed, large scale anything will always trend toward mediocrity.
Which means the only way to have excellence in the Church on a large scale, is to have lots of little ministries that are uniquely excellent. Which is, I think, somewhere, part of what Dr. Creps is trying to say.
-SHP
On the mission field I was once asked to do a seminar on small groups; there was a pastor that was intent on growing his church. The seminar when well and small groups were started. About three months later, I was called back in to help with a problem that developed. Small group leaders were squabbling among themselves and competing for people in their small groups.
The problem was the pastor was not pouring into the small group leaders; the pastor did not feel he had the time to spend with the leaders. The pastor was not training and loving his small group leaders. The small group leaders sensed success was to have the biggest group.
From what I have observed in foreign countries that have successful small group churches, pastoral leadership typically have about three hour a week meetings to pour into small group leaders. In the American context, how do you find small group leaders that have that can spend the needed time to become good small group leaders? When can the leader be brought together?
Hey Earl… if you’re ever in Greensboro, NC stop at the Starbucks I work at (on the Loop – S. Elm/Eugene exit)... it’s got the elements your local sbux seems to be missing.
I don’t like Seattle’s… a disinterested unbarista at our local store told me that they’re not allowed to sweeten the iced tea. Errr…. this IS the South, last time I checked!
I just ran across this summary of points from a book about sbux: http://tribalknowledge.biz/discussion-tribal-truths/
I found it enlightening to go through those points with church/ministry in mind.
My question is now, and will forever remain, why do we need big churches with small ministries? Why not have a larger community of smaller churches with more inter-connected ministry happen throughout? My personal feeling is that someone always has to be in charge, be “the big cheese” if you will. I just think the whole concept of mega-churches and/or these new meta-churches is simply overwrought. It’s ineffective on a personal level and I would know. Break them down into smaller, more effective churches instead of having one huge building with a lot of people who feel goosebumps but don’t really leave with anything substantive. Just a thought.
Years ago Dave Gable wrote an article on how churches age. He mentioned that the good ones all start with this sense of energy. One person or a small group of people excitedly got together to see what God was going to do next and how they could be a part of it. Then ministries or churches or companies age. I wish something could be written in their constitutions that when that happens to scrap the whole thing and start over.
I just read about your church plant adventures in Tom Rees’ newsletter, though I had already heard about it from a mutual friend. I used to work with Chi Alpha and heard you speak at Reach The U a few years back. I have family in Berkeley, so I hope to visit your church plant one day. I’m a church planter at heart myself, having been the worship leader at a plant :)
Anyway, if you’re a real coffee lover, you must visit Blue Bottle Coffee in Oakland. They are my favorite coffee roaster, and I always fly home with a suitcase full of Blue Bottle: http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/
I should have stated to try the Bella Donovan blend. That’s my fav :)
Good thoughts Earl. Enjoyed the insights about your fav coffee experiences. But then the article really isn’t about coffee, is it.
Doing ministry with excellence is crucial in the culture we live in, but when excellence becomes more the focus than people everything breaks down. Nothing ever replaces the personal touch. People touching other people as the extended hand of Jesus. We can lose this as the church grows and adds more and more people with more and more ministry to keep the people.
Personally I have nothing against large churches, they can do great things other churches can never achieve. What they need to do is stop every once and a while and remember what it is that made them grow in the first place. Before they had all the great minitries and cool buildings. To return to the simple pieces that made them a great people to join. Most likely it had something to do with the way they loved Jesus.
Thanks for the reminder to keep the simple pieces in place. Big or small, every church needs to remember that it is really all about loving Jesus and His love will spill over to loving those around us.
Maybe I should change my title from Lead Pastor to Lead Barista? Just a thought.The thing with Sbucks that I like is their Soy Green Tea Latte. I will visit occasionally for a SGTL, but usually I don’t make that my hangout. I enjoy Coffee Cat in Scotts Valley, CA. It’s a place that offers free WiFi, a great vibe to connect and baristas who remember your name.
earl 4 general superintendent!
It is pretty amazing to me that just this morning I was having thoughts about small Churches. I organized a Church that currently has 13 people in it and after a year of worship something wonderful is happening, namely we are bonding and enjoying non-traditional worship services. I thought about small churches in this way. Their is a restaurant near where I live that serves some of the best tasting American food I have ever tasted and one of the reasons for the quality of the taste is because they offer a menu of less than 10 main courses and that way they can better control the quality of the food. And as much as we welcome growth and plan for growth in our Church we do appreciate the quality that goes on in our small fellowship that can certainly compromised by larger fellowships if we are not careful. Frankly, what matters to me is not the size of the Church but the qualityof the fellowship.
Amen to that. So much could be said right here, but I must simply agree. Thanks for that…