I do not understand why Starbucks feels the need to challenge McDonald's with an huge ad campaign. Starbucks is not in the coffee business, they are in the experience business. If they choose to go into the coffee business against McDonald's and instant coffee manufactures they will be extinct. I heard an ad for Nescafe the other day touting how there instant coffee is four times less expensive than the new kid on the block and they have been in the business much longer than the upstart from Seattle.
Starbucks has succeeded in bringing attention to the instant coffee market and the fact that McDonald's serves coffee. Coffee Wars is a doomed strategy for Starbucks.
