Starbucks has jumped the shark

Starbucks seems in flail-mode now. Visions of big internal brainstorm and "what if" sessions abound the imagination. First, there was there half-hearted, corporate seeming social networking site - http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideas/ideaList.apexp . As the blog trade are claiming, it seems like a brainstorm idea executed in a vacuum, without the right context - customers. It comes at you from an angle of - "this is what we think you want", not "you shape how we give value back to you". Translation - transparency, relevancy and user centric-ness (if that's a word) are lacking. I posted an idea "how about you lower your outrageous prices?" which got taken down on day 2, yet, similar postings abound and are still findable through search (although mine was still not there) http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/search/SearchResults?searchType=1&sen=087&setLast=1&sbstr=prices . They need to embrace transparency and live it, not filter it. I once heard Mohawn Swami state "transparency is like being naked, it's all about what you have to show". Starbucks seems a little out of shape for the nude beach scene, they are covering up certain "bulges", like pricing and increasing corporate pressure.

And now, their latest epiphany is "pioneering" a new advertising space in magazines with Bon Appetit: the masthead. The May issue masthead page has individual publishing executives making comments about Starbucks coffee next to their names. This brings down both Starbucks street cred and Bon Appetit's integrity. Why not instead be relevant, say talk about infused tea cooking (Tazo/Starbucks) or coffee drinks/cocktails? About about readers send in their ideas for drinks at RealSimple using Starbucks products? Something that has value and is welcomed. Do we really care what the masthead people think of Starbucks? Only in a corporate brainstorm....