Question

Topic: Student Questions

Redesigning A Campaign. Starbucks

Posted by Anonymous on 11/22/2010 at 7:52 PM ET 250 Points
Hello,

I am a first year advertising student, and would really like to hear your opinions and advice on redesigning a pre-existing advertising campaign.

Using STARBUCKS, how would you redesign their Holiday Red Cup campaign?

Since the red cups are so familiar to the consumer, they will remain part of the new campaignbut the slogan and designs of their (mostly print) advertisements need to change.

The objective is to increase 10% of sales.
Target market is males and females with an annual income of 60K or greater.

I was considering the slogan "Regift the Red" as STARBUCKS is big on giving back to the community, and awareness of this is important to the campaign. Taking from the idea that the Barista handing over the cup to the customer is a "gift", and that some money from that purchase is given to others (hence the regift).

I'm a little concerned that the word "regift" may be taken negatively, but I'm confident I could get my message across successfully.

Your ideas and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

T
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 11/23/2010 at 5:45 PM Accepted
    Dear Tara,

    You might want to step back from this for a moment
    and consider the exchange of goods and services and its impact on your goal of increasing sales by 10 percent.

    A transfer of an item from vendor to shopper for fiscal return is a transaction, not a gift.

    Were the vendor to offer two cups of coffee for the
    price of one, THEN there's an element of giving (i.e. a discount), but even then, the discount is an offer, it's not a gift.

    If, on the other hand, the coffee is FREE, then it's a gift.

    However, when vendors give away their merchandise without limit or control in order to drum up new business, they lose money and go eventually file for bankruptcy.

    Not good.

    So a tactic to employ in this situation that DOES result
    in a sale and that DOES impart an element of giving is the tactic known as "gift with purchase", whereby the coffee is free, PROVIDED the customer buys a cookie, or a muffin, or some other item of higher perceived value than the cost of the initial goods on offer (meaning the value of the muffin or cookie to the buyer must be equal to or greater than the value of the coffee—both financially and as far as desire is concerned.

    Only then does the cash register ring for both the vendor and for the customer.

    As for the red cup? Thou shalt not touch the red cup! Change nothing!

    As for the ads? Here, forget about the ads. Don't think
    about making ads. Instead, focus on messages and stories. Ads turn people off. Stories pull people in.

    Oil and water I'm afraid: never the twain shall mix!

    So create messages and stories of value, benefits, giving, and getting more for less. By going with "mostly print" you're missing out on a golden opportunity to use social media and to leverage its ability to push messages into the realms of marketing miracles—by which I mean viral status, where the messages multiply BECAUSE people pass them on, unlike most ads, which die because most people ignore them.

    An ad that is ignored is a waste of time, space, money and (if it's in print) perfectly good trees.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
    Wilmington, DE, USA

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