Last week I wrote about how my friend and I won coupons for a free pint of Starbucks Ice Cream via a Facebook promotion. (Starbucks is giving away 280,000 free pints until July 19 to registered Facebook users as a part of National Ice Cream Month -- 20,000 free coupons are given away every day.) Again, the catch is that quantities are limited to just over 800 pints per hour, and if you are a lucky winner, you have to send the coupon to a friend. No self keeps! Or, well, you're not supposed to.
Anyway, my friend won one for me, and I won one for her (it was lovely). And just a few days later, my coupon arrived in my mailbox. Perfect!
But I have a few small complaints about how this stage was executed. First, it didn't say anywhere in the mailed letter where to pick up your free pint. Are they sold in Starbucks locations? Grocery stores? If they are plugging a new line of coffee-flavored ice cream, they should let consumers know where to get it.
To extend this idea, the company should inform coupon recipients about where to find the product closest to their location. It would help to have a product-locator feature on their site, too (or at least the name of a few grocery chains that carry it). Plus, encouraging people to visit the Starbucks site for this information will increase traffic and further introduce shoppers to the new ice-cream line.
And finally, Starbucks didn't include anywhere in the letter information about WHO sent the coupon. Does this mean people across the country are getting coupons from others they will never know to thank? You'd think Starbucks would provide the senders' name not only for obvious reasons but also so the duo can talk about the promotion afterward. Word-of-mouth marketing, anyone?
Overall, the promo is one of the best I've seen in a while, but Starbucks still needs to fine tune those details if it wants to leave that lasting impression.
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