A follow up to the blog post I wrote about Starbucks riding the election coattails to achieve word-of-mouth:
AdAge is reporting Starbucks gave out 568,000 cups of free coffee at a cost of $170,000 to the company. That’s a tiny cost for some serious goodwill. Of all the companies trying to figure out a way to ride the election wave November 4th, Starbucks really parlayed this public affairs event to its advantage.
Image Credit: AdAge
Rewarding customers for voting, an American responsibility, is being a good corporate citizen. But more importantly, it equals being a good community citizen. That’s key for customer loyalty.
I like the fact that Starbucks got back to their brand DNA with this move. Giving away free cups of coffee to customers was a way to connect with customers and show customers they care about them. Starbucks again became a neighborhood place.
Simple…but I think it is a marked shift from trying new products and cross-marketing new items that made Starbucks too corporate.
Election Day has its perks.
