What Makes Starbucks Succeed in China

This morning I read several articles about the strategies Starbucks applies in China.
http://www.Forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-Starbucks-did-to-get-china-right/
Here is the Chinese version of the same article.
http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2012-8-24/0NMDQ1XzUwNTI0NA.html

I think it is very inspiring and it really leads me to think about more global brands that did excellent job in China, such as KFC, IKEA, Pizza Hut.
Being a Chinese person, I believe several "ingredients"that these companies have in common in their marketing strategy is adaptation and localization.
 

Chinese people do not really buy the whole idea of pure standadization. That's is why McDonald's China has lost so much market share to KFC China.It is the same story for Starbucks.
In someway, the entrance of Starbucks did indeed change the Chinese people's drinking pattern. The majority of Chinese people, especially the younger generation tends to drink both tea and coffee. The product adaptation nodoubtly contributed greatly to this coffee evolution.

To quote Forbes.com,
"The next thing Starbucks did was to capitalize on the tea-drinking culture of Chinese consumers by introducing beverages using popular local ingredients such as green tea. This strategy has effectively turned potential obstacles into Starbucks’ favor. Chinese consumers quickly developed a taste for Starbucks’ coffee, which was essential to Starbucks’ success in China."

Another thing about Starbucks' great success is localization.
China is not one homogeneous market. There are many Chinas. There are 56 peoples in China. And even within the major people, Hanzu, the culture from northern China is very different from that of the east.So it is actually really important for each Starbucks regional branch to partner with a local business.