7-Eleven's Transformation Helps I.T. Fit In

While reading about 7-Eleven and their new plan for sophistication, one cannot help but be reminded of the early nineties movie “Demolition Man.” The plot of this action packed, ridiculous film starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes is quite forgettable, yet one anecdote managed to find itself at the front of my mind. As I read about 7-Eleven’s intent to tone down their color scheme and adjust their product line to wine and fresh cut flowers, I could not help but recall the movie scene in which Stallone takes Sandra Bullock out to a five star, white table cloth dinner… at Taco Bell. While laughable at the time (even for a futuristic action film) this scenario seems to slowly be playing out as companies like 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart and even McDonald’s are revamping their images.

7-Eleven CEO Jim Keyes is restructuring his American convenient stores to be more like those found in Japan. By providing better technology programs, store managers are ultimately equipped to make better purchasing decisions for their specific market. Overseas 7-Eleven is hip and trendy, appealing to a broad range of market segments. However, past success has led American strategy-committee members to remain set in their ways. They still perceive the target market to be primarily “blue-collar, truck driving men.” The statistics prove otherwise.

Due to the ever-changing American market and lack of cigarette and gasoline sales, Keyes successfully implemented his “tech-transformation” and continues to target new customers. Focal lifestyle segments include “businessmen, urbanites and especially women.” This helps explain why the new 7-Eleven sounds more like Starbucks than a convenient store.

Apparently everyone wants to be more like Starbucks these days, as even McDonald’s is vying for the sophisticated yuppie crowd. They have designed new coffee cups with warmer, earthy tones and without traditional red and yellow. Even their commercials are directed away from children and mothers and towards the younger, health-conscious crowd. I take the Capital Metro bus to school every day and notice a McDonald’s ad on the side of each. Does it feature a burger and fries? Of course not! Instead there sits a simple graphic of iced coffee with a short sans serif bit of copy.

With our major retailers, food vendors and service providers all following the same trend, one cannot help but wonder what the future may hold. Will the American market become one great big toned down, health conscious, jazz loving coffee shop? Of course Adam Smith says no. A new method will surely find success before every corporation exhausts the Starbucks model.

Although it may be impossible to predict future trends for the retail or service industries, we can analyze the underlying factors of success today. For instance, technology has been one key element which each of the aforementioned companies can credit their success to. Without the “tech-transformation” 7-Eleven would not have control over suppliers (nearly Wal-Mart-esque) like it does today. This technology has also helped with another underlying factor of success: knowing your market. With data collection capabilities, managers are able to spot trends and make accurate stocking predictions based on their target segments.