InnovationCreation

This last May I wrote about my experiences with Starbucks' "Get more of what you love with a Starbucks Card" campaign (my post). I believe they have gotten this straightened out now. When I order a soy mocha, I don't need to remind the barista that my card is registered and they don't have to figure out how to process the card. Order, converse with barista, pay, done.

However, there is one part of this campaign that does still irks me ... This campaign is not accepted at all Starbucks. Huh? What do you mean not all Starbucks? Aren't all Starbucks alike? No and here's the rub.

There are Starbucks that are what I call "company" stores. They are Startbucks stores owned and operated by Starbucks. These stores are in the vast majority that people see. Then there are those that are "fake" Starbucks. They look, taste, and smell like any other Starbucks. Except they don't have to accept all the same promotional campaigns that Starbucks as a corporation is running. For example, the Starbucks in the Indianapolis Airport or the Starbucks in the Las Vegas Convention Center are not "real" Starbucks.

True, the employees dress and act like Starbucks employees. They have the same products and marketing material. They both even take the Starbucks store card! But that airport or convention center Starbucks do not participate in the "Get more of what you love with a Starbucks Card" campaign. I don't know why and I really do not care. What irks me is that Starbucks has me so trained on their brand that when that brand fails me I feel miffed, let down, abandoned.

Abandoned? Ok, this may sound a bit harsh. But those "fake" Starbucks are ruining the Starbucks brand: I have come to expect a certain level of service, consistency, process, and taste with what I order (tall decafe soy mocha, extra hot). I am a regular. That regularity is reinforced with my Starbucks card and my actions to register it (registering it gets me free soy milk, knocking off $0.40 each drink). When that regularity is disrupted then that causes me to feel like I have been cut off, shown to the door, not part of the culture. When I order a tall decafe soy mocha, I expect to have the price of the soy removed. And when that does not happen I will, on the next order, now have to monitor the drink making process. This requires my time and attention that I really would prefer to spend elsewhere.

So if you are thinking about brands and how to allow those brands to be licensed out / franchised, insure the plan includes education of the impact of drifting from that brand and what could happen to the revenue. Don't make licensing / franchising your brand result in a flesh burn for your customers.

Labels: coffee, culture, information, marketing, product, risk, starbucks, trends

About three weeks ago Starbucks rolled out their "Get more of what you love with a Starbucks Card" campaign. Simple enough: register your Starbucks card and get free syrup and milk for your coffee. Since I tend to get soy mochas this meant saving 40 cents every cup. Easy sell for me.

So I immediately registered my card. That was easy.

But these last several weeks has been a poor experience for me. At every Starbucks since (about 8 to 10 times since registering), I have had to remind the barista about the program. Three times I did it after they rang it up, not realizing that the register card program does not go all the way to Starbucks point of sale system and "know" to not charge me for the soy milk... Each barista was very helpful and refunded the 40 cents, but the process took about 5 min because of the "refund to card" process.

After three times I started to advise the barista that I had a registered card before the sale. This confused several baristas as they did not know about the program. After I showed them the promotional material sitting on my side of the cash register, they had to figure out how to ring up the order then account for the soy milk being "free". This took several minutes and in some cases a manager/team lead had to assist. At least twice the barista gave up on the process, refunded the whole drink, and gave it to me on the house.

This is not an "Ah Ha" innovation but more of an incremental innovation. The design of the card campaign is not that revolutionary. Certainly it will capture more customer loyalty and data about people from the registration. And it offers real value over time to the customer at little cost.

However, this straight forward incremental innovation fails in the experience. I dread having to tell the barista about something they should already know. I feel irked that the technology of the card should already "know" my card is registered and make the transaction invisible. And for the baristas the experience is one of frustration as they try to live up to their mission ("Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.")

Innovation score

• concept: great
• design: good
• execution: so so
• experience: irk-some
  

Labels: coffee, design, experience, innovation, starbucks