The other day I went to Starbucks across my office in downtown Manhattan and I ordered my grande cappuccino. I used to get a double short latte because I like more espresso than milk, but they’ve been botching it up too much lately so I moved on to grande since that at least gets me a double shot. But I digress. So I step over waiting for my drink… and I see a sign which said:
Pick up your free Song of the Day.
Get a new handpicked download on iTunes every day. Just ask your barista.
What’s going on here? Do they mean to imply that the barista chooses the song of the day? For heaven’s sake, he can’t make me a decent cup of coffee 50% of the time there, supposedly his or her core competency and the reason the barista is there. If he can’t get that right, the last thing I’d trust him with is selecting good tunes for me!
Am I the only one who thinks this is stupid marketing? Please reply in comments, I’d love to hear your opinion. Yes all of you feed subscribers, I know you are around I have tracking you know. Let’s get some comments going in here 
Recently I have been on Apple’s case by arguing that being able to buy music that you hear in Starbucks is stupid marketing. This is just an extension of the same marketing campaign. Apple, Starbucks – MUSIC IS PERSONAL. I do not care what you play in Starbucks when I buy coffee there, hardly anyone does. We have our own ways of discovering good music. Thanks for the great devices like iPods. Thanks for the great coffee (50% of the time in my case). But please, please, why do you guys think putting two great things together is smart.
They only get away with it because the two companies are very hip and loved by their customers. So customers don’t mind stupid marketing once in a while, at most they shrug it off as it doesn’t do anything bad. Were any of these two companies not loved so much, people would really make fun of them for these efforts. Again there’s no harm done, I just think it makes them look stupid and below their usual marketing standards.
Meatball Sundae
Seth Godin is regarded as one of the most well known marketers, and he just happened to get a new book out recently called Meatball Sundae. The idea behind title: ”a meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas.” Asking your barista about the song of the day, or assuming one has a real need to buy what’s currently playing in Starbucks is very much like this.
Please Starbucks, if your baristas weren’t being distracted with what songs to recommend, maybe they could make sure my grande cappuccino isn’t filled with milk completely to the top of the lid and spilling all over my hands. Because you know, I went from a double short latte because I wanted more coffee and less milk, not too much milk in a grande!
Starbucks is marketing to an average middle class consumer who owns an ipod (and probably doesnt know other mp3 players exist…) and has an itunes account. Let be honest… average middle class consumer is well stupid when it comes to music and arts… not to mention cares about the music he listens to… current top40 is what the average consumer will like, hence every song will either be from top40 or sound like it. If you look at the big picture there are 1000 people who thought this was a neat idea for every Ari out there.
don’t mind my spelling haha
Hi Sergey, and welcome!
You are right, I think we all had a knee-jerk reaction at first when we saw Starbucks and Apple together that it must be something good. So I am one of the 1000 original people who did so just from headlines. But looking more into it, how many of the 1000 people who thought it was great EVER get to use this feature, or ask their barista about the download of the day.
I should go and ask next time, see if the free track is really top40′ish or not. That’s also an interesting consideration.
my guess it will be something like James Blunt, Coldplay or whats that new song they play on radio all the time.. hey there delilah
The baristas don’t “recommend” the song of the day… they’re instructed to hand out song of the day cards, which give you a code for a free song from iTunes. Yeah, most of the songs suck (although some are really great i.e. band of horses), but most customers are ecstatic to get anything free. Basically I don’t know why I typed this, but I don’t really know why you took the time to type up this entry, either. Damn StumbleUpon.
Fair enough Emily
But I still say if the baristas weren’t distracted they might make me a better tasting coffee there. These days I nearly always started going to the place next door here selling Illy coffee for nearly the same price.