Quote of the Week

"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils."
- Woodrow Wilson



Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Starbucks are Marketing Geniuses

How does a coffee shop become an international juggernaut of a corporation? Great marketing and okay coffee. Starbucks are masters at branding and using social media for free advertising.

The whole writing a customer's name on the cup is brilliant idea. Since a large percentage of Starbuck's customers are millennials who can't survive without attention; they post a picture of of their moco-latte-frap-a-whatever to Instagram and Twitter before they take their first sip. Instant free advertising. One person I know has a theory that Starbucks employee's intentionally spell people's name's wrong just to give them reason to share their branded cup on social media.

But the latest social media buzz around Starbucks is pure genius. Now that a major customer demographic is worked up over President Trump tightening up Syrian refugees from entering the US, Starbucks CEO makes the statement that Starbucks will hired 10,000 refugees worldwide over the next five years. 

With one simple press release. Starbucks is on the 24/7 news networks, talked about on talk radio, blogs about on blogs, and hash tagged the crap out of social media. The social justice warriors who smashed the windows out of a Washing DC Starbucks last week are now all #Starbucksisawesome on Facebook. The people who have never stepped foot in a Starbucks before, who are outraged by the announcement, are now going to boycott the coffee shop they have never been to. #StarbuckshatesMerica 

Everywhere you look, Starbucks and it only took on little press release of a statement that sounds big. But doesn't amount to much at all.

Let's take a closer look at that statement. 10,000 hires over a five year period. As of 2016, Starbucks has 24,646 locations and 238,000 employees. What does 2,000 refugee employees per year amount to? How long will do these new hires have to stick around to count? What is the average turn around of a Starbucks employee? Will the first ones you hire even still be working for Strbucks in five years when they hire the 10,000th? How will they keep track? How will they prove that in 2022 that Starbucks did indeed hire 10,000 refugees? Starbucks is an international corporation, who many of these refugees will be US hires and how many overseas? What qualifies a person as a refugee anyway?

Will anyone remember this statement from Starbucks five years from now and hold them accountable to show the world if they made good on their promise? 

Well, it gave Q1 2017 sales a boost. Starbucks are marketing geniuses.