starbuck executives hope such innovations will help surmount their toughest challenge in the home market: attracting the next generation of customers. younger coffee drinkers already feel uncomfortable in the stores. the company knows that because it once had a group of twentysomethings hypnotized for a market study. when their defenses were down, out came the bad news. "they either can't afford to buy coffee at Starbucks, or the only peers they see are those working behind the counter," says Mark Barden, who conducted the research for the Hal Riney & Partners ad agency (now part of Publicis World wide) in san francisco. one of the recurring themes the hypnosis brought out was a sense that "people like me aren't welcome here except to serve the yuppies," he says. Then thete are those who just find the whole Starbucks scene a bit pretentious. katie kelleher,22, a Chicago paralegal, is put off by Starbucks' Italian terminology of grande and venti for coffee sizes. She goes to Dunkin'Donuts,saying:"Small,medium,and large is fine for me."