First, let me get the disclaimers out of the way. I love technology. My MacBook Pro is virtually an extension of my body. It’s an old (in internet years) friend that I can’t imagine living without (until the next model is out, anyway). I am in no way a modern-day Luddite ready to shirk technology in favor of the simple life.

That being said, let me now say: I really hate email. More accurately, I hate the assault on communication that email is being used to perpetrate. Email is a good and noble idea that has been twisted into a tool which confuses more often than it clarifies. At least that has been my experience recently.

I work for a small health food company with fewer than 50 employees. Communication shouldn’t be a problem, right? However, the owners of the company (not particularly tech-savvy individuals) insist that every item be emailed to every officer (all family members) and manager in the company, no matter how mundane or unrefined. This results in a log jam of responses to what, in most cases, are simple questions or idea seedlings. Uninformed participants waste time and energy being brought up to speed on issues that will ultimately have no effect on their areas of operation.

I can send a simple email asking about the standard shipping cost for a large order (which in another company would only need to be sent to the shipping manager) and I am immediately buried under a blizzard of emails from the Controller, the CFO, the Network Administrator and other employees who should have better things to work on.

“Are we charging enough?”

“We aren’t getting ripped off are we?”

“What are shipping charges?”

ARGHHHHHHH!!!

What’s a guy to do? Well, maybe I’ll take a break from the email treadmill for a while. As I’ve pointed out, it’s a small company, the walk isn’t very far and I could use the exercise.

I recently read No Logo by Naomi Klein. The villain of this little tome turns out to be Starbucks. According to Klein, Starbucks has used it’s powerful marketing machine and all-pervasive brand to drive small, neighborhood coffee shops out of business. If this isn’t evil enough, Starbucks has the audacity to hide it’s predatory practices behind a mask of social responsibility. Oh, the humanity!

This would be much easier to get angry about if I liked the product less. I also think her argument against Starbucks is about as watertight as the SS Titanic. Starbucks almost single-handedly created the true neighborhood coffee shop. I’ll probably get some flak from New Yorkers or other uber-urbanites over this assertion, but before Starbucks there were no “mom-n-pop” coffee shops. Sure, there were “mom-n-pop” restaurants and cafes that sold coffee. They may have even had the words “Coffee Shop” in their name, but their passion certainly was not coffee. Coffee was just the complement for your egg salad sandwich or piece of lemon pie. Starbucks has a passion for great coffee, it shows, and they created a new industry.

The other point Klein misses is that competitive advantage comes from having a superior product. Starbucks might have a seemingly all-pervasive brand image, but a real passion for great coffee and comfortable, well-appointed stores have made Starbucks the corporate superpower that it is. As unpopular as the idea may be in marketing circles, marketing alone will not build a successful company. Great marketing comes from great companies, not the other way around.

Well, I’d love to go on but I don’t want my Vanilla Latte to get cold. Until next time.