Starbucks Via Launch – Donating for a Product Launch?
Launching a product through charitable contributions… yours, that is
I love Starbucks. I spend a considerable amount of time in Starbucks and I really like their products, people and company. But with their new Via instant coffee launch, my local Starbucks have been using a product launch strategy that I find a little hard to swallow.
Bad pun aside, Starbucks has placed a large donation box in many of their Southern California locations. With the recent California wildfires, the donations go to the brave men and women of the local fire departments.
A noble cause. I’m all for supporting our firefighters. I had friends and family directly affected by the fires, and needless to say, without these unbelievably brave individuals, many of them would have seen their homes go up in flames.
My problem is with the way Starbucks is “donating” to the firefighters.
As far as I can tell through conversations with a number of Starbucks employees, both Baristas and Managers, Starbucks doesn’t actually “donate” anything. Instead, they ask their customers to make a donation to the firefighters by purchasing one of a couple different Via products and putting it in the donation box (clearly marked and located right next to the registers). This seems a little odd to me.
Starbucks has created a donation program around a new product launch. But the company doesn’t actually donate anything. They ask their customers to make an incremental purchase and then donate it. Just so happens that the incremental purchase is of a product line that Starbucks is investing significant resources in publicizing.
The campaign seems extremely disingenuous to me. As someone who has donated to the Via program, I resent being asked to contribute to a cause Starbucks isn’t really contributing to itself and that looks to be focused on driving new product sales and awareness by creating a charitable giving image.
What might make more sense is if Starbucks matched the Via donations with either a cash contribution to the fire departments, or at least a matching gift of one of their products; Via or other coffee.
I have no problem if Starbucks has some skin in the game. But to ask your customers to buy your new product and donate it seems more than a little self-serving.
If you would like to support the firefighters, click over to the Los Angeles Firemen’s Relief Association. The association supports the families of firemen injured or killed in the line of duty. Straight donation… nothing to buy here.
If anyone has a different take on the promotion or some information about Starbucks contributions, if there are any, please comment and let me know. I’m more than willing to say I’m wrong if there is an aspect to the campaign I’m missing.
Image by rudolph schuba courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons
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