Starbucks' "Pledge to Do Some Green" Campaign

Just stumbled across the new Starbucks Canada marketing campaign, and I think it has a lot going for it.

Here’s how it works: You log on to the Starbucks Canada's Facebook page, “PLEDGE TO DO SOME GREEN”, and get rewarded with a free tall cup of Pike Place Roast coffee. Sounds pretty good, right?

To redeem your coffee, you need to fill out a pledge form outlining what act of green you’re planning to carry out for your community. These range from using a reusable mug every time you visit Starbucks, to planting a children’s garden, to donating to the partner charity, Evergreen. After submitting the form, you’ll get an e-mail coupon for your coffee. It’s a great idea for Starbucks to give away a cup of coffee this way rather than just handing them out in stores. Every pledge form filled out contains a customer’s address, and other personal information. To the person filling out a pledge form, it’s 2 minutes work for a free coffee. To Starbucks, this campaign will create a valuable source of demographic information. My guess is that if x number of people in your now Starbucks-starved neighbourhood are taking the time to fill out this pledge form, you can expect a new café springing up sometime soon. Also, I’m sure a lot of people redeeming their coupons for a free tall coffee are going to splurge on one of those pizza-size cookies or the signature lemon cakes. And I can’t blame them, that stuff’s delicious.

Starbucks is moving marketing dollars onto social media (much like Pepsi and other major corporations), focusing on green marketing, and including a free giveaway. All smart moves! I also like that that the company has partnered with a Canadian charity, Evergreen, in rolling out this campaign. If the national angle wasn’t enough, they’re encouraging you to get involved in doing green in your community. It’s a good idea for Starbucks to get its Canadian customers thinking they’re doing good in Canada and in your own neighbourhood. It’s a stretch to think people will start identifying Starbucks as a local coffee shop rather than the international megalith it is, but I think this initiative and others like it could get Starbucks a little more credibility with the “I live green and shop locally” crowd. Note: Those guys drink a lot of coffee.

And imagine the future advertising opportunities that this campaign produces: The amount that Starbucks manages to raise for Evergreen will be impressive. I’m sure there will be tree plantings and community beautifications inspired by this, and that certainly creates buzz.

All in all, this thing makes a lot of sense.

The Friday Breakthrough: How To Find Love, Ruin Starbucks, or Creep Around Toronto

The Friday Breakthrough is a weekly roundup of the internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office.

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Is Starbucks making itself obsolete with its recently-launched instant coffee brand? An anonymous poster at Adrants.com thinks so… Starbucks trashing its own brand with VIA.

I didn’t see Bruno in a theatre. Is that because Twitter told me not to? This article does a good job of dispelling some of the hype around Twitter’s ability to impact box-office receipts: Forget Ebert: How Twitter makes or breaks movie marketing today.

I did not receive any free products to write this blog. Now, if I were in the United States, I would be legally required to tell you. Of course, if you have some free Nikes lying around, I would take them off your hands… FTC cracks down on blogger payola.

Canadians love Streetview. It’s only been live for a week now, but apparently, that’s all the time we need to point out some hilarious sights on the streets of Toronto... Check these out.

Don't forget to tweet your favourite online marketing articles to @marketingottawa for inclusion in next week's Friday Breakthrough.

Sneaky Starbucks

Starbucks has taken a surprising new step towards world domination. They have opened a new coffeehouse (obviously this is not the surprising part). The new coffeehouse is called 15th Ave. Coffee & Tea. This is an attempt by Starbucks to "create a distinct, bespoke, of-the-neighbourhood coffeehouse"... all qualities that you wouldn't associate with your run-of-the-mill Starbucks. Blogger Peter Merholz believes this new venture by Starbucks is "doomed to failure, because there's no way a corporate coffee chain can create an authentic neighborhood coffeehouse experience." I would agree. I feel bad for those coffeehouses that ARE authentic. Not only do they have to worry about regular Starbucks outlets, but now they have to worry about Starbucks outlets masquerading as neighbourhood coffeehouses!

Even here in Ottawa, there are at least 27 Starbucks outlets. I must admit, when it gets a bit colder outside, I frequent Starbucks for their pumpkin spice lattes. I'm reminded of when I'd bring a Starbucks cup into my graduate classes at Carleton University, much to the dismay of my socially-conscious classmates who saw this as a major faux-pas. While I do think it is great to support local businesses and less great to support a faceless, super-powerful corporation, you can't fight the fact that they serve some delicious beverages! However, while I can't help but love Starbucks, I think they should stick to what they do well and not try to take what little the little guys out there have left.

Apparently People Don't Want to Buy Music at Starbucks. Who Knew?

When you want to a buy a new CD, where's the first place you go? Is it Starbucks? Because if so, you're going to be very, very disappointed.

According to reports by the Seattle Times and Silicon Alley Insider, it seems that Starbucks will be dramatically cutting back on its CD and DVD sales, with the coffee chain dumping most of its impulse-buy CD and DVD racks by September.

Seems that Starbucks finally realized they should stick with what they know (overpriced coffee), and leave the selling of music and movies to companies like HMV. You know, actual music stores.

A wise lesson for any business, really. Just because you can shove it in their faces when they come up to the cash register doesn't mean the customer will buy it. People go to your store for a certain reason -- to Starbucks to buy coffee, to McDonald's to buy a burger, to Holmes Heating to buy heating and air conditioning.

The products you sell help to create your company brand in the mind of the public -- and there's no reason to ignore your strengths and your history in an attempt to cash in on the latest trends by offering products and services that you have no business offering in the first place.

Now, I'm not saying that businesses should never try something new. But if you're going to expand into new markets, maybe it's best to keep it in the same atmosphere as what you're already known for. Apple Computers starts selling music players and cell phones? Okay, sure, it's all electronic stuff. Makes sense. Starbucks starts selling CDs? Sorry, not really seeing the connection ...

Sigh. Looks like we won't end up with the Starbucks as depicted in the movie Idiocracy, where it was a combination coffee shop and brothel. Oh well. Perhaps that's for the best.