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While the Starbucks is Away….
  by:  |  Feb 26, 2008
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Last updated on September 22nd, 2017 at 11:03 pm

As noted in this post by Andy Semovitz, Starbucks is engaging in a novel advertising stunt.  According to the Guardian, almost every Starbucks location will close for 3 hours today to learn how to make better coffee.  The party line reason for this from Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, quoted in the Guardian is so “Starbucks partners will have an opportunity to connect and deepen their passion for coffee with the ultimate goal of transforming the customer experience.”

The inevitable other shoe to drop is the response of Starbucks’ competitors.   As Mr. Semowitz noted, Dunkin Donuts, who has been attempting to make inroads into the coffee house market, will be offering free coffee during the time period that Starbucks is closed.  They are not the only company to make this offer.  As noted by the Guardian article, Coffee Klatch, a small Los Angeles company will make the same offer.  The Guardian also offers the following quote from the owner of Coffee Klatch, Mike Perry who stated: “I’m not sure why it’s going to take them three hours to learn how to press a button.”

The benefits to the competitors in trying to steal customers from Starbucks are obvious, but what is Starbucks getting from this?   Are they really going to spend three hours learning how to press a button?  Obviously not.  The important issue, from a marketing standpoint,  is what this says about the company’s view of itself.   The campaign seems designed to show that Starbucks is so committed to customer service that it is willing to lose money to make its product and employees better.    The problem to me is that it come across less as a genuine act by the company and more as a transparently obvious bit of hype.

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