How creative are you with your marketing dollars? Do you spend them in a way that makes you Purple Cow remarkable?
How about spending them in a way that gets you front and center with your customer, AND helps you enjoy your work?
This morning Kerwin and I walked into a Prescott Starbucks and both ordered their strong-brew coffee of the day to then find it was free. The barista at the cash register motioned over to a gentleman sitting in an animated discussion with a group of about six others, and said, “Your coffee is on Mr. Perez this morning.”
As Kerwin stirred cream and sugar into his coffee, we read a poster on the wall right above the condiment station with a picture of Mr. Perez’s smiling face explaining that every Wednesday morning from 8:30am-9:30am he buys coffee at that Starbucks for all his customers and anyone else who wants to talk story with him about investment banking and Prescott’s promising future.
Why offer free coffee in your office waiting room, when you can use Starbucks? This Starbucks in Prescott is clearly a happening place, and one of those coffeeshop locations where there is unlimited parking and lots of café table seating available inside as a respite from the Arizona heat. One glance at him holding court and you could see that Mr. Perez is brilliant.
He was also enjoying himself immensely. What a great way to work.
This Week’s Carnival Of The Capitalists
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at BusinessBlogCast. While your tastes may differ, here are my “picks of the litter”:
Coffee Hour Marketing
Rosa Say posted an excellent local marketing idea today: Set yourself up in a local Starbucks or other business friendly coffee shop and and buy everyone coffee for an hour. She witnessed this idea in action and reports: This morning…
Great idea Rosa. Thanks for sharing a great way to make it great. In the summertime, you could also do ice cream at a local Stone Cold Creamery or smoothies at a Jamba Juice. Great idea, and thanks for sharing your wisdom. Always insightful!
Starbucks on Anna?
I’m always interested in interesting marketing approaches and I’ve read about two ideas that seem worthy of more consideration. The first comes from Rosa where she describes an investment banker that buys everyone coffee at the local Starbucks once a …
You know Phil, with the heat that marked the Prescott mornings while we were there, Mr. Perez’s bill would’ve also risen dramatically had he chosen Cold Stone or Jamba Juice! I can see why Arizona summers are made for the cool refreshment vendors to get a jump on sales.
The Effect of a Leader, Starbucks style
This morning I did my routine Sunday shuffle when I’m at home; get in an early morning run (cut real short today because of windy weather. A storm last night has snow creeping down to the half-way mark of Mauna