India, here comes Starbucks !

Personally, I didn’t like the Starbucks coffee. The French toast flavor available at office pantry is enough stronger for me. Today’s news is that Starbucks is planning to open its store in India by end of 2007. It’s their long term international expansion plan. I am doubtful about their success in Indian market as compare to the phenomenal success they achieved here in the US.

India is traditionally a tea drinking nation; thou Coffee culture has been getting bigger due to the students and working professionals. For that market we have already local brands like Café Coffee Day & Barista, which have their own aggressive expansion plan. Surely Starbucks will face competition from Café Coffee Day & Barista in India. They will have to customize its drinks for the Indian market, the way McD’ has Aloo tiki in their Menu. Most importantly, they will not be able to enjoy expensive pricing strategy with huge margin, which has been a factor in their success story.

On personal note I do remember my first date with my wife, which happened in Café Coffee Day, where we ordered one cup of International Coffee and spend most of the time without drinking even one sip. So these coffee shops are most of the time used as hangout place or as meeting place rather than for their drinks. I would certainly like to see Starbucks store in Himalayas.

On positive side, Being a global brand Starbucks has advantage of attracting elite customers. Here in the corporate world, we have fashion to hold Starbucks cup in our hand during those weekly meetings. It doesn’t matter even if it’s empty.

Oh did you notice that SRK was holding Starbucks cup in his hand quite a few times in KANK.