• Entrepreneur.com, Friday, January 26, 2007 12:45 PM

With four books about Starbucks either recently published or set to come out this spring--and four more already on bookshelve--there's plenty of insight as to why Starbucks has become such a successful brand.

Starbucks didn't franchise its locations and therefore retained control over operations, points out Joseph Michelli, author of "The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary." "And unlike traditional marketing, where you'd use a lot of ad dollars, the brand has leveraged itself without advertising," he says.

Starbucks' early leaders were also distinguished by their exceptionally high-flying entrepreneurial visions. "Aspirationally, it was always huge," says Michael T. Moe, author of "Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow."

If you read all the books and distill them into a single idea, however, it's this: If you create happy and motivated employees, you create happy and loyal customers.

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