#218: Frappuccino – Not A Brand???

Starbucks was having a students going home issue and needed to keep selling coffee, so they copied and perfected as Seattle treat. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [Maven Roofing Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I'm Dave Young alongside Stephen Semple. And man, this topic takes me back. I feel like in the early days of the Empire Builders Podcast, we talked a lot about coffee and coffee products. Stephen Semple: We did. We did. Dave Young: And today, you told me we're going to talk about Frappuccino. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: And my big question is is that a brand? Stephen Semple: No, it's a name. It's a product name. And it's actually owned by Starbucks. And yep, Starbucks, I looked this up, Dave, guess what episode Starbucks was? Guess how far back we got to go? Dave Young: I don't know, single digits? Stephen Semple: Yes, episode five. It's like four years ago we talked about Starbucks. Dave Young: And they own the word Frappuccino? Stephen Semple: They own the word Frappuccino. No one else can use the name. They didn't create it. And it's funny, when I learned this, I went, "No, no, no." Because Tim Hortons and things like that, they use Frappuccino. And then I noticed they don't. It's called things like frozen caps or frozen cappuccinos. No one actually uses the name Frappuccino, even though in my mind they did. Dave Young: I feel stupid. You don't hear why? Stephen Semple: Why is that? Dave Young: It's a portmanteau of frozen and cappuccino. I never figured that out before. Stephen Semple: Well, it's actually not quite that. Dave Young: Isn't it? Okay. Stephen Semple: No, it's going to be something a little bit more interesting. You're close, but it's a little bit more interesting than that. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So it's kind of an interesting story, and it's a huge category in Starbucks. And in fact, when the idea was first introduced to Howard Schultz, he hated it. He was like, "No, we're not doing this. I'm a coffee purist. We're not doing this frozen drink thing with the star and all this other crap." But our story actually starts with the relocation of George Howell from Berkeley to Boston in the early-1970s. Because George is a real coffee nerd. I mean real coffee nerd. There's stories of George pulling into a diner and wanting to have a coffee and smelling the burnt coffee in the diner. And basically, he'll ask for a pot of hot water and he'll pull out his beans, pull out a coffee grinder, and his French press, and to start to make coffee. And people would gather around, like, "What the hell are you doing?" Dave Young: To show them how to make coffee. Stephen Semple: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it's the 1970s, and there's not much of a coffee culture yet in United States. But there was in Berkeley, which he just left. And Berkeley was kind of ground zero for the coffee culture in the United States. Dave Young: I see what you did there. Grounds, zero. Stephen Semple: I didn't even think about that. And he's moving to Boston. Now, ironically, Boston is kind of the starting point for coffee consumption in the United States, but it's really still not good coffee. George wanders the Boston area visiting literally every cafe and ordering coffee, and it's terrible. He tries all of them, and he's continually disappointed. And George not only misses coffee, but the culture of coffee,