Starbucks is apparently good for something

I was doing uni research, and read this article by the guy who first coined the term 'disruptive innovation', Clayton Christenson. He wrote this in an article called "Disruptive Innovation" from the journal Leadership Excellence (2007), and I thought it was interesting:

"...Starbucks came into the middle of the market and disrupted sit-down restaurants. The job people hire Starbucks to do is to help them to sit and have a conversation or informal meeting without spending much time or money."

I was really interested in the thought process Christenson would have gone through to get to that. What he's done is go, "Okay, restaurants are selling food service, duh. But that's not the end of it. What other service might they be selling?"

Then you look at the demographics, etc, what people use it for. He's right. They don't just go there for food.

It's like somebody said, people don't always buy your product for what you think you're selling it, and that's possibly why you need to make sure that your business doesn't depend on one principle (source: I am not a business student).

The trick is to apply this concept successfully before somebody else does.

Not really planning to write an essay on this or anything, but I think it's an interesting exercise in thought. The idea that the product itself which is being sold and bringing in the revenue might not really be the reason why people are buying it is definitely an odd one which appeals to my sense of irony.

Obviously there are a lot of people who HAVE to have their specific DoubleDeath Syrup Latte (I've never been to a Starbucks, but Gloria Jeans works on the same principle), and that's the more obvious market. But my point is, it's interesting to try and examine things you see in every day life with the specific thought that 'what I see might not be actually what is happening'.

I'm sure this is common business school knowledge to do with analysing demographics, etc etc, but to me it's a relatively new concept and one I think could be interestingly applied as a writerly thinking exercise.