Today, it's all about coffee

So, what's a direct marketing blog doing talking about coffee? Well, it was on my mind today and the more I browsed around, the more coffee news I came up with, and felt the compulsion to share with you.

You've probably all heard about Starbucks' offer to give everyone who votes today a cup of joe. For free. Without requiring any proof of voting. I love that! We've been faced with so much depressing economic news (and don't get me started about the overkill on the election coverage...), that news about getting anything for free, especially one of my favorite things, puts a grin on my face. Kudos for Starbucks for being good to their customers and encouraging us all to vote. Oh, and kudos to them for garnering all of this good press and building customer good-will at the same time.

While I'm on the topic of Starbucks, check out this DM News article about their launch of a new loyalty program. If you spend more than $5/week at Starbucks, you will definitely find value in this card, even though it's not free. You know my take on this, as a database marketer--I'm drooling over the opportunities to mine the customer data and figure out new ways to sell more things and grow customer loyalty.

Here's an overview of the program, straight from the article:

The new Gold program, which goes into wide release on November 4, offers a 10% discount on most in-store purchases. Gold membership costs $25 annually and offers its own card, which users are encouraged to register for additional benefits such as complimentary beverages on their birthdays. Starbucks Card Rewards, the program that launched earlier this year, provides members with free drink customizations and WiFi hours with the use of a pre-loaded Starbucks card.

And, if that wasn't enough coffee news, take a look at this item (also from DM News) that talks about Caribou Coffee's launch of a mobile marketing campaign. I can see how this channel could be ideal for retailers like Caribou--catch your demographic (in this case, they wanted to boost sales to 18-34 year olds) when they're out and about and shoot them a valuable coupon ($1 off a large drink). Nice application of mobile marketing, wouldn't you agree?

So, there you have it, an update on direct marketing of coffee--with some loyalty ideas thrown in at no extra charge!

Gotta go--need to drink my Venti!