When it comes to merchandise for Via Ready Brew, Starbucks Japan is the mother-lode. They got all the cool schwag. It’s unbelievable. I’m so jealous and I do not understand why Starbucks plans tons of cool merchandise for Japan, but here in Seattle, we’re left out in the cold and rain. Thanks to Noboru Sakamoto the most famous Starbucks customer in Japan, StarbucksMelody gets a chance to show this merchandise off to you. Mostly this blog post is one big “how cool is that” blog entry. Remember, in Japan, Starbucks Via Ready Brew is actually called Starbucks Via Coffee Essence. It’s the same product as what we have all over the United States, just a different name.
Just a short background about this product: it was first launched in Seattle and Chicago only in March of 2009. On September 29, 2009, Starbucks launched Via throughout the United States and Canada. Also, on March 25, 2009, selected London Starbucks locations received it. The launch of Via in Japan was April 14, 2010. I covered a blog entry on it here:
I owe lots of thanks to Noboru Sakamoto for sending me some cool merchandise from Japan.
I have written about Via as blog posts so many times that the easiest way to browse them all is by using the “categories” tab. Be sure to read the blog post on the forthcoming product which is a pre-sweetened Iced Via. Here is the link to all of the Via blog posts:
The 12 ounce tumbler featured below is one single tumbler with one side of it as Columbia and the other side as Italian Roast. It almost looks like I am featuring two different tumblers so I thought I would clarify that is just one item. There are even cell phone accessories! Very cute!
So what is your prized Via schwag item,or your favorite Via Ready Brew story? What do you think of it?
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Oooh! I like the canister, the cell phone accessories and the small shoppers (paper bags)! I like the US tumblers better though, with the slots for via packets.
Ohhhh! I am so jealous!!
In Germany we sometimes have some cool stuff too, but this blows away everything.
I have the VIA Bearista and I am so happy about it! I didn’t know that there is so much more…amazing!!
Japan really is worth travelling I think…:D
BTW: What means “schwag”?
I like to use Via for SF Giants games because it is so cold at the ballpark and the coffee they sell is terrible. I like the cellphone charms, although you cannot put them on the iPhone.
@mindi @Sebastian @Catherine:
@mindi – I love the paper bags too and I don’t understand why we didn’t get them! Maybe we’ll get some cool merch to go with Iced Via.
@Sebastian – “Schwag” means cool stuff. Promotional give aways, or products associated with a certain item. Leo defines it:
http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewUnsolvedquery.php?idThread=248106&idForum=2&lp=ende&lang=de
(I constantly use the leo dictionary when we’re twittering!) It has a second meaning related to marijuana but obviously I don’t mean that at all!
@Catherine – That’s very cool to hear! Great Via use! I think the cell phone charms are cute but wonder how clunky it would make your cell phone! LOL
Hi Melody, this is my first time here but I really like your blog! I had no idea Japan had so many VIA products compared to Seattle. You’d think they’d have more 🙂
I am not a coffee drinker, but it is amazing how many cool items are overseas and not marketed in the States. How about some cool items for us tea drinkers?
These are really cool – and even cooler that Noboru sent them to you! I really like the see-through part of the tumbler!
@Melody
Oh…I could have looked it up too…nice, that you use Leo now. It is really good! 😉
In general: what I do not understand at Starbucks is their marketing and sale politics on the globe. Starbucks is perhaps, for me, the only company that handles things like merch and their offers so different in all countries. That is really interesting but also questionable to me…sure, there are totally different markets, especially the Japanese market is in any way very special due to the people’s lifestyle and all that. But wouldn’t it be easier for them to do more things, like merch and offers like VIA, the same way in more countries in the world?
It must be much work to think different in every country in which they are present…sure, in Germany, the people that are going to Starbucks do have other habits and customs than people in Saudi Arabia or in Japan have. There are also differences between the coffee usage of Americans and Germans and so on…but Starbucks uses a variable company policy regarding merch, coffee blends etc. in nearly every country. Some countries do have Bearistas, some not…some have country Mugs, some not…some have a seasonal merch, some not…there are even differences between countries liek Germany and teh Netherlands which close together.
OH MY!!! Why can’t we get come of this cute stuff in the US?!? I feel so deprived!
I, too, think our tumbler (the first clear one, with all the slots around it) is better (‘cooler’) but other than that (and our handmade-in-America VIA earrings), they beat us hands down…lots of cool stuff. I can’t imagine why either?
I’d put a small piece of cell-phone schwag on my key ring…. but not my phone. and I’d like a bearista bear too, but not for me.
For sure, we’re lacking in this area and too many snacks in bags taking up displays….. imo
“I do not understand why Starbucks plans tons of cool merchandise for Japan.”
Me too, I think so too. I cannot understand about that.
Anyway, tons of cool schwag is not good for a wallet. 😀
And, I’m sorry. 😀
But please do not be jealous one-sidedly.
Starbucks coffee Japan met our demand by release of Starbucks VIA, but the Starbucks product in Japan is very poor.
For example, we want that. Starbucks ice cream, bottle Frappuccino, Vivanno, Starbucks Card Rewards, Starbucks RED product, clover brew system, etc………
Melody, please change your nationality for my nationality.
Hi Nob! Don’t worry I’m not too jealous. I know that I have a rich Starbucks experience here in Seattle because of the different kinds of stores, the original store, the Clover small batch offerings, … Don’t take me too seriously.
One interesting thing though that this blog entry highlights: The Starbucks experience has these incredible varied layers of experience depending on the market. If you look at the UK, they get some great whole bean Clover offering, have an amazing food line up from what I hear, and they have the more authentic latte drink called the “flat white.” And do you remember the post I did where the customer in the Philippines contacted me? They also had some really unique food and drink, special coffees, and manual espresso machines still! The Starbucks experience really takes on different colors depending on where you are, it seems. I don’t know first-hand because I don’t travel too much!
Ooo so cute! I like the bear and the tumbler
There’s a shareholder who’s asked 2 years in a row during the Shareholder’s Meeting Open Forum for a VIA jar. Well, looks like she’ll have to go to Japan for one! LOL! (Anybody know what I’m talking about?)
@camspi
Should I go to the Narita International Airport to pick her up? lol
That bear is so cute!! I collect enough stuff already, but maybe just one more thing…
(@Camspi – yes, my friend & I remember her! Wonder if she can send away for one?)
@LatteRose What cracks me up is she also asked when Starbucks would start selling Decaf VIA… when we already had been selling decaf VIA!
@CamSpi and @LatteRose – I remember that woman from the annual meeting too. I had forgotten the part about her asking about decaf, but she did essentially ask the same question two years in a row, and as I recall, wore nearly the same outfit two years and row. She has a big oversized sweater with a color-block pattern.
@CamSpi and @LatteRose and @Melody If i remember her correctly (transcriptions, haven’t made it to a meeting yet) she wants the granules in the jar not the packets in the jar (and the picture appears to hint it’s packets in the jar) so she has more control over the servings