Wednesday, January 30, 2002 |
17:47 - Now That's Targeted Marketing.
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Today in the seminar, one of my co-workers had a cup from Starbucks. I couldn't help but notice just how carefully engineered the cup's various features were:
- Printed on the side was a mini-story entitled "Caring For Those who Grow Our Coffee", describing how Starbucks sponsors a children's program in Kenya called "Pied Crow". I couldn't read all of it, because of the...
- Insulating sleeve made of rough cardboard, wrapped around about 1/3 of the cup.
- On the sleeve was printed, "This insulating sleeve is made from 60% post-consumer recycled materials, and represents 45% of the material that would have been used by a second paper cup."
- Both the sleeve and the cup itself had a message reading, "Careful-- The beverage you are about to enjoy is extremely hot!"
All-righty then. Let's recap: Starbucks can pretty much bank on the fact that its customers are: (a) Concerned about the rain forests and the plight of exploited third-world cultures; and (b) rich and prim and stupid enough to be a risk for suing Starbucks in case their coffee turns out to be hot, as with the infamous McDonald's Coffee Woman.
In other words, it's a coffee shop for Marketing Droids.
I knew there was a reason I could never stand being inside a Starbucks for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
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