Folgers Coffee, n. apocryphal, euphemism.
“You don’t want to end up like a Product Manager at Folgers Coffee”. As a way of encouraging and warning Product Managers that their role in not only in resisting commoditization – but also not being enablers of it – was vital, I would often relay what I presumed had happened at Folgers with Product Managers there stumbling around the office and mumbling into their coffee:
“Well, it’s just a commodity” while overlooking a thriving Starbucks …. Well here’s a view of Folgers HQ and the Starbucks across the street that they may well have looked over … and over-looked:
View of the Starbucks opposite Folgers Coffee’s old HQ in San Francisco.
Part 1Â of a series of escalations about commodities.
