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The PR Value of a 3 Hour Closing

Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 10:10AM by Registered CommenterKismet Communications | Comments1 Comment

 
venti.jpgIf you haven't heard by now you must live in a cave. Or somewhere else besides Seattle. But if your ears are indeed open, you've likely heard about Starbucks closing all of their stores for three hours from the highly caffeinated hours between 5 - 8 PM on Tuesday night. I've heard this story now a few times on NPR, it's been replayed on the local news, and if you do a Google News search for "Starbucks closing" you get some 700 news stories.

I don't know what the average per store revenue is for the average store but I can tell you that if you look at the (crude) ad equivalency of the value of all that coverage (not to mention the emotional resonance of returning Starbucks to its provincial roots), it was a killer deal. I wonder if someone has done the math yet?

Reader Comments (1)

Funny, but I was thinking about this myself -- at least 4-5 people talked to me about their 'closing' and the rumors that it was a move back to the manual espresso/latte machines. Whether true or not, it was a powerful reminder that the company cares about the customer experience, and was willing to take an economic hit in the short-term to remind those most responsbible for delivering the desired experience. I thought all-in-all it was fairly well done.
April 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDave Schappell

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