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If you’ve been to Starbucks since June of 2010 then you’ve probably noticed that WiFi is now free access. This service is no longer limited to exclusive gold card members. Anyone who wishes to connect online in the stores may do so.
When Starbucks opened up the service for EVERYONE to connect for free, I thought to myself, “something’s up here.” Now I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew that there HAD to be a motive to the service being free beyond the mere gesture of generosity to their customers.
In fact that was just the case. Granted they were not up to anything cynical, but Starbucks is gearing up for a huge launch that will raise the bar of connection and VALUE their customers get out of the Starbucks coffee shop experience.
Recently Starbucks has been confronted with competitor brands that have offered “free” incentives along with more options than what Starbucks was providing in their stores. Starbucks even made the move to breakfast foods and not just serving up drinks hot and cold. From the McDonald’s McCafe to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s wide variety, competitors have been putting the heat on Starbucks.
“The Bucks” Breaking into new territory-
As soon as you accept the terms and conditions to use Starbuck’s free WiFi, a page with media, social share, and content articles are all placed in front of you on your browsers page. From there you can of course surf the web, check your e-mail, or tackle personal internet business. If you stay on the page though you can do everything from registering and reloading your Starbucks card, to shopping for items, see where the Journey of Taste for a signature coffee bean roast starts.
The content on the page is not complex while it gives you simple options to browse and is updated often. Their site browsing experience invites the user to engage in regardless in the content of their choice.
But WAIT! That’s Not All-
This is happening at limited stores now, but eventually will be nation-wide in the U.S. soon. Eventually it will spread to their international locations. What is it? Well if you open up iTunes and click on the iTunes store, a banner will drop down from the top which will show you the selection of music that is currently playing in the store. From that point you can choose to purchase the music or even sample other pieces that have played or will be in the play count in the next few minutes. This new social media marketing is taking your audible experience and engaging you with social marketing in a whole new level which hasn’t been seen or HEARD OF before.
Don’t think for a second this is a random experiment. Starbucks has teamed up with content partners to offer this based on researching activities of customers before, during, and after they were at one of their store locations.
