Starbucks stores in California have a Frappuccino promo going on right now, and it ends July 10, 2012. The promotion is $1.00 off each Frappuccino when you buy two or more. In other words, if you go to a Starbucks (in California) with a friend, and buy two Frappuccinos in one transaction, each Frappuccino will be $1.00 off. I found little flyers about this promotion near the register area of a number of Orange County, California, Starbucks stores. The fine print of the promo pamphlet says that this is good at “participating Starbucks in California.” Baristas are supposed to use “ring code” 953. In all honesty, I can’t tell by looking at the little pamphlet whether you must have the little promo pamphlet with you or not. That could be a roadblock to taking advantage of this!
I have to admit that I am always curious about the “why” behind localized promotions. Last month, I wrote about a special Blonde Roast coffee coupon only available for Chicago (and greater Chicago) customers.
If I were to try and guess the reason why Starbucks does these limited promotions, I’d say there are a number of reasonable answers, all equally plausible. Here’s what comes to mind:
- Starbucks hopes to sell more a certain product in a certain area where sales are weak. So if California has poor Frappuccino sales, this might be a way to boost sales of that beverage.
- Starbucks wants to test out a promotion to see what kind of reception it gets before trying that same promotion nationwide. For example, if Starbucks wanted to do away with the Frappuccino Happy Hour, and was looking for an alternate promotion, this could be a test to see if it works. Do people really take advantage of $1.00 coupon?
- Starbucks has researched the buying habits of a certain area, and wants to reward success in a certain area and encourage more of it because it is profitable. For example, Starbucks might say, ‘We sell a lot of Frappuccinos in California, and the opportunity for growth is still huge. We can entice new customers to the brand with this discount.’
Those are the main reasons that I can come up with for a limited test. If you have other ideas, please let me know! And I should be very clear, I have no idea what Starbucks’ motivation with this particular promotion is.
Have any of my readers been able to take advantage of this?
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Melody all of your points as to why promotions are in certain areas seem valid but still make no sense to me for a company as big as SB. I see alot of people around here buying Fraps and especially now with the awful heat wave we are having. I see them buying them whether there is a happy hour or not. Re taking advantage of the $1 off coupon- I still think that they have made a mistake removing the free drink when completing the survey. I also got an email about a new berry berry muffin but when I asked about it this morning the partners had no clue.
@Purple1 – I think they do have to test things out to see if they will work. I really think there are good reasons to tailor promotions to what different markets are doing (meaning sales performance), and to use some markets as test markets. I have heard about the blueberry muffin email but I didn’t get it! There is an MSI thread about the blueberry muffin where someone criticized it in a number of ways, and actually what he wrote made sense, though I haven’t seen the email, so I don’t know…
I know there’s also consideration as to whether a promotion boosts the number of customers into your store, or the amount of money they spend per transaction, and often these promotions will use items that sell very well already in that market in order to make sure they’re effective.
And whether it’s an official ‘test’ or an actual promotion, Starbucks definitely analyzes how it did and uses it to project sales and/or let us know what effect it may have on us when we run a similar promotion. It’s why partners are supposed to use certain discount codes, and only honour the promotion as it’s intended (within in the timeframe, and for only the specific beverages offered etc.) 🙂
We totally tailor promotions – a LOT of markets had different blonde roast promotions – it was really interesting to see all the different, *official* coupons out there. I for one really like it – it is always a bit painful to run a promotion that I *know* doesn’t relate super well to my customers – I usually remind them that N. America is pretty huge, and just cuz they’re not the biggest fans, doesn’t mean it’s not a valid promo – but I *much* prefer when it’s tailored!
As you point out, there are many reasons why SBUX would do a coupon of this type. The interesting angle to this coupon is it requires a purchase of 2 or more Frappuccions. Clearly, SBUX wants to drive in combos and trios of friends. What SBUX hopes happen is these friends will also buy a pastry or two to increase sales, which would more than offset the discount.
When you look at it, $1OFF for a purchase of two or more Frappucinos isn’t too motivating. The discount is slightly less than 10%.
Also, competition in CA is heavy for ice blended coffee. Perhaps SBUX is feeling some pressure from the competition.
It seems like their frappuccino specials are frequent and they do boost sales. I love the 1/2 prices drinks but wish it was extended to HOT drinks as well. I don’t usually go to SBUX for the frou frou stuff as I call it. I order venti cappuccinos year round and then switch to PSLs in the fall. Bring me a HOT coffee discount. LOL
It’s $1 per frappucino. So if you get a “normal” frap for about $4, two of them now cost $6, which isn’t too bad.
Interesting…..these very different discounts. The one going on here now is $9.95/lb for House (all out), Italian (glad:) and Veranda……and the normal price for Italian here is $13.95…so that’s a decent “discount” if you take into account how quickly things have gone up at Sbux. The bananas…something I can’t imagine ever needing to buy at Sbux….but some people do…jumped so quickly and quietly from .75cents/banana to $1.00/banana. Right now they’re .39 cents /lb at almost all local groceries.
Denise it is amazing the number of people that buy banannas at my local SB and the cost has been $1 for quite some time. Interesting to hear about the different promotions.
I also am amazed at the number of people who purchase bananas for $1.00. And they’ve always been $1.00 here in Canada. As someone who hates bananas, I don’t even eat them for free, let alone pay that much for them 😛
@John Im on my kindle, sorry this is short and sloppy. By my calculation, since it’s $1 off each Frappuccino that is about maybe 20% or 25% if each drink is about a $4 Frappuccino. Still, it’s not as generous as Frappuccino happy hour and other promotions.I didn’t think about how much competition Calif has but that makes sense. I think these promos improve register speed of service because there’s an incentive not to ring the Frappuccinos separately and it can get whole families hooked. Introduce Frappuccinos to kids a little cheaper. so hard to type . Hope it makes sense.
banana conversation :
Bananas have been $1 here for a long while and Ive bought a banana now and then to add to a Frappuccino.
Weird. I work in Cali, near LA, and I haven’t heard anything about the frappuccino special. We are doing the coffee discount, which is a new one for me, but honestly that seemed more like a regional thing then a whole company thing.
Also banana’s sell really really well, considering they are $1.
Melody… I misread the coupon. $1OFF for each drink. Okay. That’s motivating enough. The marketer in me knows the importance of driving average ticket so the strategy is really about getting groups to buy with hopes of some add-on items like pastries.
As you know, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has a major presence in California. They are the originators of the ice-blended coffee drink. CBTL heavily promotes their ice-blended drinks. SBUX views them as competition so a CA-specific coupon is logical.
The marketer in me also knows SBUX has always steered clear of caffeine and kids. And now with all the pressure on sugary drinks, SBUX will continue to steer clear of anything that smells like marketing to kids.
Not sure how often SBUX puts Spanish on their CA-specific materials (including menu boards) but this coupons looks to target the Latino customer.
John until you mentioned the inclusion of Spanish on marketing materials I never paid attention to whether and how often material was in Spanish. I have not seen any materials around here in English/Spanish. Also, isn’t there a way for SB to market to kids and not push the sugary drinks and yet bring in the adults with the kids? I can’t see why not.
@purple1 and JohnMoore – There is almost more Spanish on that coupon than English. Amazing. But I did pick it up in Orange County where the number of Spanish speakers is pretty significant. I’ve heard that in store marketing materials in California – and Arizona too – are often in both English and Spansih. I suppose it is possible this coupon targets Spanish speaking folks. ? My photos came out fairly blurry. I may try to put up something clearer in the future, if I have more time.
re: Spanish, and other than English, languages on materials: I have to generally search for English on ANYTHING around here, and it’s been that way for yrs. Generally 3 or 4 languages but ALWAYS Spanish and ……..English.
Denise are you speaking of materials related to SB or in general? I am sort of surprised for your area but then again it is very diverse.
I work at SBUX in Southern California and have not been advised of any sale. I did however find a bunch of coupons offered online for bottled 4-packs, $1 off when you buy 2.
Hi there Barista1983. Thanks for weighing in. I found the coupon in Orange County Starbucks. That’s about all I can say. On this trip to California, I stayed entirely in the OC. It’s possible that it was just a promo for Orange County only – which seems weird, but absolutely possible. After all, Chicago got their own Blonde roast discount that the rest of the country did not. I really wish I knew more. I can only tell you that I found the coupons in Orange, and that they say that they’re good at participating stores in California through July 10, 2012. Please come by and weigh in anytime!
May be a local only promo – I was at the Signal Hill Starbucks yesterday and saw nothing. Incidentally my friend was surprised they asked if dairy was OK in the smoothie – he thought it was something like one of those McDonald’s chillers. He is allergic to dairy and also got a reaction from the soy, despite being non-allergic – traded it in for an apple spice instead.
@purple: I’m referring to both….Sbux and everything else. Been this way for a long time. And yes, very diverse…….all around here…from the city out for miles.
I thought you’d be interested to know that we’re doing this now too… I’m not sure how wide of a market the deal is extending to, but we’re now offering this same deal from tomorrow until July 1. I saw the note go up on the portal, and was all “Aha – I’ve already heard of this :)”
For our part, I believe it’s to drive average ticket and frappuccino sales, as our June has been affectionately referred to as June-uary 🙁 Super lame weather, especially as compared to last year!
@Rebecca – That is totally interesting that you’re doing it too! Is your area’s deal also two frappuccinos on one transaction gets $1.00 off each Frappuccino? Maybe blended sales are down in your area too. We’ve had some June-uary weather here too. 😀
Maybe this promo is going nationwide starting the 27th? Is that what @frappuccino was referring to, perhaps?
I’m pretty sure it’s nationwide at company operated stores June 28- July 1. My store is high blended anyway, so this will definitely bring in some extra sales. Bring it on. 😀
Yes, it’s exactly the same, minus the official coupon :). And yes, as much as we try not to let weather be an excuse for not hitting frap targets, I believe the extended June-uary we’re having has led to this particular promo 🙂 Since I’m at a mall, and school just let out, and the rain likely means that the peeps aren’t going away for the long weekend, we are preparing for the onslaught of teens/shoppers :). As Magickat said ‘bring it on!!’
This frapp deal is nation-wide, I was told. Started here yesterday but really,not well advertised AT ALL. Did get an email about it late last nite. Doesn’t really affect me because I would almost never be buying 2 frapps at once. Good deal tho if you do…. BUT, as I said, I think it should’ve been a bit more advertised in the stores.
To be fair to most stores, the action item came out on Tuesday night, and the promo started on Thursday, so there hasn’t been much chance to talk it up ahead of time 🙂
I’ve that some of the chalkboards near me are displaying this promo’s information. It does seem to have come on suddenly, but I don’t mind. Still better to have a short, quick discount than no discount … not that it matters to me because I don’t buy very many Frappuccinos.
Arizona is doing it too. 🙂
On Friday I was at Cal Plaza in Downtown LA, and I did find the little foldout coupons, next to the cash register. They are valid until July 10, like the coupon says. I have not seen them at other Los Angeles County locations.
@CalWatch – thank you! It is some kind of southern California promo.