The brand is just about EVERYWHERE… good or bad. I mean, for heaven’s sake, when I want to impress upon my resale, consignment, and thrift shopkeepers how they are probably tossing away more money than it would cost to be a Sponsored link at HowToConsign.com, I use the example of “costs less than your daily Starbucks.”
(We’ll ignore the fact that I personally, having received a Starbucks gift card as a thank-you for working on a charitable committee. still haven’t found the time or impetus to USE it, over a year later…)
And we will put aside my dislike of the cloning of America (and the world!) with look-alike, corporate-run, who-gives-a-**-about YOU businesses, to learn what we can from them (after all, they pay the BIG BUCKS to their PR people, right, while we scratch out a little more time from OUR jobs of “President of Everything from PR to TP”) and to observe:
These stores decided to CLOSE for three and a half hours on a Tuesday night to “take a meeting” because they had ISSUES with customer service…and it became NATIONAL (international?) NEWS.
And blogfodder like you wouldn’t beLIEVE. Examples:
- http://gawker.com/361504/starbucks-employee-lessons-learned-during-shutdown
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022602699.html?hpid=topnews (notice the URL; It includes “top news” )
- http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/02/13/starbucks-nationwide-to-close-for-emergency-re-training-feb-26/
- http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4350603&page=1
Even when the “spin” was negative: THEY GOT NOTICE.
And that’s what we can learn from Starbucks. Make whatever you do NEWSWORTHY (fer cryin; out loud, closing because your staff needs training? How UNnewsworthy is THAT?) A news article called your consignment boutique a THRIFT STORE? How could you turn THAT into a PR scoop?
Of course, the Washington Post and ABC Network probably won’t be covering little old Hometown consignment shop … but betcha you can get your Hometown papers, blogs, and TV stations to cover YOU with the right stir of your coffee stick…
Inspired to respond? React? Rebut? Just feeling chatty? Go ahead, use that nice keyboard in front of you...