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Last week, when I first read that Starbucks encouraged staff to write customer notes about coffee cups such as “You’re Amazing” and “Seize the Day,” I was kidding. I thought so.
But no. It turns out that the company has a completely serious plan to cultivate a “connection moment” with its patrons.
Customers may also be handed a cup with smiley face. Or, if it looks familiar, you say “Hello, hello.” It’s all part of a turnaround strategy hatched by the latest CEO Brian Nicole, and it’s drooping sales. Nicole, former director of the Chipotle Burrito Chain, will become Starbucks’ fourth boss within three years and hopes he will succeed for the 360,000 people he employs around the world .
However, it is hard to imagine that writing this kind of message would be filled with joy, so I am pleased that the idea of cup writing has been limited so far to Starbucks’ North American business. I think so.
For one thing, it takes time and another part of Nicole’s turnaround plan assumes that the customer will be handed over coffee within four minutes.
Even more rarely, the message is dishonest. I’m not generally surprised. Even if I was there, would a stranger know behind the Starbucks counter?
Similarly, obviously unlikely, the next time I buy a coffee, it is possible that I have already tried my best to grab that day. In any case, I don’t need to be encouraged by people I don’t know.
Nicole’s strategy is based on his fear that some customers, especially Americans, feel that Starbucks’ experience is “transactions.” However, a quick and courteous, successful money exchange with the item is the transaction I want when buying coffee.
If you’ve ever taken an Eurostar train at St Pancras Station in London, that’s about the same. When I’m waiting for the train, I’d like to hear an announcement telling me when I’ve arrived and which platform I need to go to. There’s not much to listen to the Eurostar slogan of a company that launched in 2023.
So I wasn’t surprised to read a complaint on social media from one regular passenger, Politico journalist Jon Stone last week. “Stop it,” he wrote. “It’s incredibly frizzy.”
That’s certainly and annoying. It is difficult enough to divide the meaning of the Barble Station announcement. There’s no need to mess them up with special corporate blathers.
Luckily, Eurostar says its staff is not expected or required to issue a slogan. Announcer Stone Heard chose to include the day, told me. “But there is no additional incentive or impact to do so.”
I don’t know about slogans like “Go with me” yet. You can’t actually go EuroStar with or any other way more than where the ticket allows.
But at least the idea had a purpose. Eurostar was trying to highlight the fact that its network had expanded to five countries: the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
The same cannot be said about the incredible magical part of marketing that emerged in Australia last month.
For the past 36 years, the country’s national athletics institution has managed to get a completely wise name for Australia’s athletics. This has the advantage of easily and accurately telling you what your organization is and what it is doing. This always helps with the name.
However, Lo issued a news release at the end of January to announce that it is entering 2025 “with a bold new identity.” Going forward, the name will change from Australian track and field to Australian track and field.
“The brand isn’t just about a new look,” said CEO Simon Hollingsworth. “It’s about rethinking what track and field means to Australians.”
Sadly, this is gold medal waste. The advantage was that this movement was distracting. In fact, since 2015, when Western Sydney University declared it would become Western Sydney University, I rarely saw such bold anti-maximal marketing.
pilita.clark@ft.com
