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After announcing this past June that it would close 600 stores, Starbucks has turned a 180 since the time, over two years ago, when its expansion scheduled one new store per day. As Robert Pasikoff points out in his Brandweek article on the subject, Starbucks lost out to its competitors when its brand began to ignore all the things that made its customers loyal. Opting for greater speed and store capacity the chain removed its comfy couches, ceased grinding beans on premises and stopped hand-pulling shots. “It had walked away from a successful brand position and a differentiating recreational experience and toward a door marked ‘Lifestyle Brand.’” In a 2007 memo Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz noted, “Stores no longer have the soul of the past.” The story of Starbucks is a reminder of the value of a brand.