I believe it's safe to assume that by now we have all heard about the big ruckus with the red Starbuck's cup and how they don't have Christmas designs anymore. That is, unless your life is much more interesting than mine or you have been living under a rock. In which case, I either need to hire you as my life coach or borrow your rock.
It seems as though some Christians are all up in arms about this particular situation and are accusing Starbuck's of being anti Christian, anti Christ, and perpetuating the so called "war on Christmas". The rest of us are like whatevs, it's a cup. Oh, and by the way, stuff like this is why people are leaving the Church in droves and are so critical of Christianity and Christians. Not because of the message of God's love and Christ's salvation. It's because of the extreme fringe who make us all look crazy.
Anyway.
I have two theories about "the cup" and what the real story is.
Theory #1:
It costs a lot less in printing and production to make a plain red cup than one with a bunch of stuff on it. The company doesn't have to pay a design team and the marketing people just slapped together the "it's a design that welcomes all our stories" line over lunch one day and boom. Done.
That is probably accurate. But it's not a whole lot of fun. So let's have a little fun with this. Stay with me here, this is neat.
Theory #2:
The guys in charge at Starbuck's are geniuses.
The latest push back by the offended parties is to go into a Starbuck's, place your order and give your name as "Merry Christmas" thereby forcing the evil ones to acknowledge Christmas and winning the battle. Passive aggressive protest at its finest! Sounds like a victory, right? A small, petty one, sure, but a victory nonetheless.
Except that that's exactly what Starbuck's wanted all along.
Now for this theory to work we have to accept two things. One is that there is no such thing as bad publicity. The other is the very possible idea that Starbuck's is among the many retailers who use what is referred to as guerrilla marketing. For those who may be unaware, guerrilla marketing is a strategy that is designed to have businesses promote themselves in an unconventional way. It uses unconventional advertisements and direct contact to make the product more personal to the consumer, cause an emotional reaction, and ultimately get serious buzz going about the product. This technique was originally used by small businesses but big business has embraced the concept and run with it as well.
So let's follow this logic. The company takes away the design on the cups, which is just the kind of silly little thing that Americans get upset about at any time of year, but messing with the holiday stuff is just adding that little extra bit of juice to rile 'em up even more. So people get angry and take to social media to make Starbuck's the bad guys. Remember, Starbuck's has the "all our stories" line to fall back on so they can make themselves out to be the innocent victim.
But wait! There's more! You see, the geniuses over at Starbuck's anticipated the "my name is Merry Christmas" thing (it's completely obvious and really not that clever) and knew that their employees would follow protocol when the time comes. So now they've got people organizing over social media to go and "trick" Starbuck's into making them a Christmas cup. Some of these people will have never had a cup of Starbuck's coffee before but will come in and spend their money on principle.
That's right. These people are STILL SPENDING THEIR MONEY AT STARBUCK'S. Then you have the people who think these "protesters" are out of their minds and will probably go out of their way to buy an extra cup or two just to make their point. It's a win-win. More publicity and more money.
Here's the other thing. Americans have grotesquely short attention spans and very little long term memory when it comes to these minor squabbles. So by the time Summer rolls around and nobody is thinking about Christmas anymore the same people who were upset about the red holiday cup will be buying extra coffees when they are drinking from the "red patriotic cups" (really just the unsold holiday ones) round about the Fourth of July. And Starbuck's can keep this cycle going for a few years if they want to. Until, of course, they bring back the "special limited edition" holiday cups because they have listened to their customers and are giving them what they want. At an extra fee.
A bit of a stretch? Maybe. But then again maybe not.
Here's what it all boils down to folks. This red cup thing isn't about Christmas, Christ or customers. It's about money, pure and simple. Money. And Starbuck's knows how to make a lot of it. Well played, Starbuck's. Well played.
