Remember those emails sent around 1999? "Please forward this email and Bill Gates will give you $1,000," it said. Something about an experiment Microsoft was conducting.
Starbucks unwittingly conducted an experiment in the forwarding behavior of its employees in the Southeast U.S., offering a coupon for one free iced coffee (between noon and 9 p.m.) via email. The email said to "try your coffee iced" and encouraged employees to forward the printable coupon to families and friends.
Some of the family and friends, evidently, have eBay seller accounts and printed out multiple coupons to sell. As the Oregonian noted, you could buy a pack of nine Starbucks free iced beverage coupons -- redeemable for anything from a regular iced coffee to a Frappuccino. While the AP is saying that Starbucks has rescinded the offer, according to the Oregonian, many stores were still honoring the coupons -- good through September 30, according to the fine print.
Starbucks can hardly afford to lose sales this month given its poor results last month, but what's worse: the small impact of those still forwarding the emails (and the few dozen being sold on eBay), or the negative PR of pulling a freely-given coupon?
Best & Worst in Money 2008: Most shocking financial collapse
Closing Bell: Stocks slump as AMD, AT&T, GM and Merck decline
Global Q&A: A rocky road, but profits ahead
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-30-2006 @ 1:59PM
Joe Los Angeles said...
Starbucks should be embarassed. How could they not forsee that such a "coupon" would not be viral-ized throughout the Internet community?
Further, they have store employees telling people that the coupon is no longer being accepted because "it was just a scam."
Shameful. Honor the coupon; it is only a small coffee and office workers of the world travel in large packs to Starbucks at all hours of the day. Not all of them settle for a small, iced coffee; even if it's free. Starbucks could have done a little extra business for the month of September.
8-31-2006 @ 5:16PM
NSWorldwide said...
Starbucks could have also used basic DRM software that can allow these coupons to be printed and watermarked, but prevents them from being forwarded beyond thier intended recipient. Readily available products include Essential Taceo (http://www.essentialsecurity.com), Adobe LiveCycle (www.adobe.com) and others.
I agree with the previous comment that Starbucks should honor the coupons through the end of the day. They could turn a mistake into a great PR campaign. The amount of money people spend on pastries and other drinks when picking up thier iced latte i'm sure will more than cover thier costs.
I agree
9-13-2006 @ 7:37PM
jenny70 said...
I do think that the lawsuit is an angry, childish and stupid game to play against company like Starbucks. Only bored with life person, with nothing better to do could go for that trip for free money like that.