Howard Schultz tells Starbucks shareholders to stay tuned at low-key annual meeting

Starbucks wants people to know that it is the nation's coffee expert, and it's not going to let the competition get away with bad-mouthing it without a fight.

"We're going to take the gloves off and really differentiate those who are making claims from Starbucks," CEO Howard Schultz said at the company's annual shareholders meeting today.

Many companies that sell coffee do not roast it themselves, and their employees do not even know where the coffee comes from, he said.

"We're not going to be silent too long," he promised, without giving specifics about what form Starbucks' campaign might take.

Schultz hinted that it might advertise more and showed several TV spots that the company aired in the past year. Historically, the coffee chain has eschewed traditional advertising, relying instead on word of mouth and other avenues for brand awareness.

Currently, Starbucks is airing TV spots in Chicago to promote its new instant coffee, Via. It is comparing the results in that market with Seattle, where it began selling Via a couple weeks ago but does not have an advertising campaign.

It was a low-key shareholders' meeting for Starbucks, which in the past has hosted celebrities including Tony Bennett and k.d.lang.

Even Schultz's typically charismatic tone was subdued. He rarely smiled and, in contrast to the fire hose of announcements he made at last year's meeting, regularly told shareholders to "stay tuned."

One area for "staying tuned" is Schultz's plan to dispel the myth that Starbucks coffee costs $4.

"Starbucks Coffee Co. has become a poster child for excess," he said. "We have been silent and allowed other people to define us. Their myth is not going to stand for too long."

To set the record straight, Schultz said half of Starbucks' beverages cost less than $3, and a third cost less than $2.

Shareholders should "stay tuned" for what the company is going to do about that, he said.

Although the Seattle Department of Transportation advised that as many as 7,600 attendees might clog the roadways around Seattle Center for the meeting, there were not enough people to fill McCaw Hall and Starbucks did not have to use its overflow room for the first time in years.

Attendance was smaller partly because hundreds of employees watched the meeting live from Starbucks' headquarters building south of downtown, a spokeswoman said.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com