by Lee Gibbons, CEO

If you haven’t seen Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness, please do.

by Lee Gibbons, Podango CEO 

At Podcast and Portable Media Expo, one of the bright, rising stars I had the opportunity to meet (thank you Scott Bourne!) is Leesa Barnes. In her October 19 Podonumics blog post, she joined in with the voices that have been booing Starbucks Coffee for their Coffee Conversations Podcast, which is now reportedly dead after just three episodes. (My purpose here is not to pile on, but to highlight Leesa’s post and riff on her theme, briefly…) Her post first explains that she actually listened to three full episodes of the podcast and that it really is that bad. (I also listened to all three, and yes, it is a great example of how not to do this type of podcast.) But true to Leesa’s classy style, she doesn’t just heap on negative, tearing down the Starbucks talent, etc. She nails the causes, gives some reasons WHY they are missing the boat, and shares some great ideas of what the might have done differently. Her super creativity aside, Leesa illustrates the kind of thinking that should go into the format of shows related to products. 

Leesa points out that a shift in focus from their product to their customers is what could turn the podcast around.  That is right. Pragmatic Product Marketing has been teaching for years the concept that “Inside-Out Thinking” is a bad thing. In the realm of product definition, the practice of thinking that the best ideas are going to come from inside your building (or head), and failing to engage the customer. I would diagnose Starbucks as having Inside-out Syndrome. They have assigned a very knowledgeable guy to teach us coffee. No one would say that he doesn’t know his stuff! Everyone but his Mom and whomever conceived of the concept for the podcast would unanimously agree that the concept sounds like it grew up inside Starbucks and does not reflect or connect with customers. 

In advertising 101 they teach “sell the sizzle, not the steak!” In other words, sell the experience of enjoying the stake, not the quality of the meat, how beef is classified for its flavor, or little known facts about the humaneness of the slaughtering process! That is what is missing here. And while they attempt that with the whole wine taster v. coffee taster approach of the one podcast, which BTW they managed to turn into a “this cow comes from South Texas, where they are grass fed, with plenty of roughage…,” The point is that selling the sizzle is NOT the point here. It is that Starbucks is missing the ultimate opportunity with podcasting. 

What they are missing out on is the inherent intimate, personal connection that podcasting delivers. This intimacy makes it matter a whole bunch that the message never reek of selling but of honesty and authenticity in extending the brand experience. I would go as far as to say that if you are struggling with a decision of what to include in your podcast, having choose between selling and being authentic, you simply don’t get, in your personal core, what your value proposition is: why people really buy your product.  

The take away here is people truly do want to connect with podcasts in a very personal way, even when it is being produced for business purposes. The lowest common denominator in successfully making that connection is authenticity and trust.  Great post, Leesa!