Free Coffee...

What's the best price for enticing someone to try something new? When it's free of course. At least that's the idea behind Starbucks latest coffee concept. For a half hour today, the 8th of April, from 12:00 PM to 12:30 PM EDT, the coffee giant will be offering up a free 8 ounce cup of their newest coffee blend, the Pike Place Roast. Now I've made light of Starbucks efforts in the past to get customers back to their good graces and some concepts haven't met with much enthusiasm and I'm not sure how successful this one will be. Sure you're bound to get lots more customers, especially when you're giving away something for free, but it doesn't necessarily mean that those customers will keep coming back for more.

The reason I say this is because on average, a cup of premium blend coffee is costlier than a regular cup of coffee at most other places (including Starbucks). Unless one is a coffee fiend (and I will admit to being a coffee drinker but not a discriminating coffee fiend), there is probably no difference between a cup of premium roasted coffee beans and the cheap stuff. So unless this new roast is so addictively good, people are still going to think before investing in a cup of coffee. I think a lot of it comes down to the economy. Now it's probably very cliched to blame declining coffee sales on the state of the nation's economy but one can't help it. When consumer confidence is down as it largely is right now, financial advisors (be they websites or actual people) recommend curbing extravagant spending. One of the first on the list is almost always cups of premium blend coffee.

Like fuel, most people don't require premium stuff to function properly. Sure there are benefits to having something slightly more expensive but in the end, is it really that big a deal? I don't think it is. Now I have frequented Starbucks for a number of years and I still go back and have my usual choice of drinks. I rarely (if ever) vary from that routine as I think most customers are wont to do. I mean if you are someone who goes to Starbucks regularly (or semi-regularly) then ask yourself, don't you go in there for something you already want and enjoy? So then do you really need some other coffee product to entice you to come in? Chances are you aren't going to be drinking the new blend anyways so what's the point?

Even if you go in to get the free cup of coffee, are you really going to get that cup of coffee and then order something else on top of it? Lots of people complain of having the jitters when drinking too much coffee so after drinking an 8 ounce cup are you going to think it a good idea to have another cup even though it's your triple venti no-whip, double shot soy milk skim mocha vanilla caramel machiato? If you're already caffinated by the free cup of coffee I doubt that there will be much coherence due to the fact that you'll be talking so fast, no one will understand you to begin with. While I admire Starbucks for attempting to revamp their image in the wake of declining sales, I think until the economy improves, their efforts are going to be hindered by the fact that most people will still view coffee as an optional luxury rather than a necessity.