When Starbucks first landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia they offered free internet access.  I voraciously applauded their foresight.  Because they Wi-Fi, I set up my meetings at Starbucks, I did my writing at Starbucks and I went there to relax.  And each time, I did so with a Grande Whole Milk Latte and a carrot muffin. 

Then to my chagrin — they shut off the Free Wi-Fi.  Sure, I could pay for my internet access, but why bother when I could easily work from home.  Besides, I really liked the latte’s at the coffee shop a block closer to my home. 

A bit of quick math revealed that by trying to charge me for my Wi-Fi, I had removed about $1500 from their bottom line.

Now, in the US they are bringing in Free Wi-Fi.  Wow, Whoopee, Yippy Zippy.  Yes, I’m glad they are doing it.  But.What.The.Heck.Took.Them.So.Long?

What took them so long to give their customers a reason to come in and have a pleasant experience?  Or do they think we like to feel like we are being nickel and dimed?  Here’s the article that set off my diatribe…

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

A customer, Mosey Levy, at Starbucks in Manhattan. On July 1, customers will be able to browse the Internet with one click.

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER — New York Times,

Published: June 14, 2010

Many coffee shops try to discourage people from buying a cup of coffee and then lingering for hours to use the free Internet access. Starbucks will soon encourage them to stay as long as they want.

Starbucks says its customers will have free access to some paid Web sites, like Zagat, and previews of coming movies.

The company said on Monday that as of July 1, its stores in the United States would offer free Wi-Fi, via AT&T, that anyone can reach with a single click. In case customers run out of distractions on the Web, Starbucks is giving them even more reason to sit and browse, offering free online articles, music, videos and local information through a partnership with Yahoo.

Starbucks has been squeezed lately by competition from both independent specialty coffee shops, which have long offered free Wi-Fi, and big chains like McDonald’s, which added it this year.

“Starbucks hit back,” said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, a social media marketing agency, who blogs about working on the go. “They said, ‘Not only do we have free Wi-Fi, but we’re going to offer this huge raft of digital products you can get while you’re here, and you like our coffee better anyway.’ ”

Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, who made the announcement at a conference in New York, described it as a way to bridge the online world and real-world coffee outlets.

Of course, people have been bridging those worlds for years, using coffee shops as pseudo-offices by bringing their laptops and borrowing free Internet connections. But Starbucks has never offered unlimited free Internet access.

Customers who bought and registered a Starbucks card and used it in the last month have been able to use the Web for two hours, after a somewhat complicated log-in process. Cardholders who wanted to use the Web for more than two hours paid $3.99 for another two-hour session, and customers without cards who wanted to go online faced the same charge for an initial two-hour session.

Starbucks is making the change as many coffeehouses experiment with ways to cut off squatters who browse and do not spend. Some post signs asking people to continue buying food and drinks if they stay, while the more aggressive ones cover their power outlets with tape so people cannot charge their laptops.

Other coffeehouse owners say Wi-Fi detracts from the atmosphere they are trying to foster.

Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco has no Wi-Fi or power outlets for customer use. “We all have had experiences of working at cafes where the laptops just took over, and it started to feel more like a library,” said Jodi Geren, head of operations for Four Barrel. “We just really feel like it’s important for people to talk to each other.”

Those who bring laptops to Starbucks now average an hour of Wi-Fi use, and the company does not expect that the free access and content will make people linger longer, said Stephen Gillett, chief information officer at Starbucks and general manager of a unit called Digital Ventures, which will oversee the new offerings. He said that Starbucks purposely kept video and music clips short.

The coffee chain is catering in part to people who are out of work and need a place to perfect their résumés or do freelance jobs. In January, the company announced that same-store sales increased 4 percent after months of steady declines. Starbucks attributes the improvement, which came before consumer spending rebounded as a whole, in part to its role as an office for the unemployed.

The new partnership with Yahoo, which is called the Starbucks Digital Network, will include an online section on business and careers that will include tools for people searching for jobs or writing résumés, Mr. Gillett said.

“We expect this to be a very versatile tool for people who are using Starbucks for what we call the third place, between home and work,” he said.

Customers will also get free access to paid Web sites, like those of The Wall Street Journal and Zagat, free iTunes downloads and previews of not-yet-released movies and albums. They will see local content based on the coffee shop’s location, like news from Patch, AOL’s local news site, check-ins on Foursquare and neighborhood photos on Flickr.

For publishers and Web sites, the free content will serve as a marketing tool, Mr. Gillett said, letting customers sample things they might be willing to pay for later.

The digital network could also serve as a virtual storefront, Mr. Brogan said. He imagines Starbucks using it to sell songs and virtual goods, or to offer loyalty points for online shopping.

“If you have eight people sitting in a store for four hours on one cup of coffee, that’s not moving revenue,” he said. “However, if that same group is there for four hours on one cup of coffee and buys 14 songs, that’s sales.”

Starbucks is not disclosing the terms of its agreements with the content providers, including whether they are paying Starbucks or sharing revenue if customers make purchases, said Tamra Strentz, a spokeswoman.

Many coffeehouses, including Grounded in the West Village, a storefront one block from a Starbucks, offer free Wi-Fi to differentiate themselves from Starbucks.

“It’s definitely been an attraction,” said David Litman, the manager of Grounded. Still, he said he doubted that Wi-Fi at Starbucks would be a threat. “This is a very neighborhood place — there is a Starbucks on the next avenue, but people like to support us.”

Coca-Cola Comes Clean About Going Green At Olympic Games

Article from brandchannel.com , posted by Ben Berkon February 1, 2010 02:38 PM

If you’re attending the Vancouver Olympics this year, and you find yourself in a 100 percent environmentally sustainable, carbon-neutral café, then it’s probably sponsored by Coca-Cola. The soda company, building on past efforts, is going green this year – big time.   The brand is using bottles, furniture, and other products – some quite surprising – all with recycled materials and reusable energy.

The experienced brand knows that making such claims incurs a substantial amount of scrutiny from eco-friendly organizations and consumers alike, so it is prepared to meet, and even exceed, expectations. 

Coca-Cola aims to make every aspect of its involvement in the Olympics green, from staff uniforms and delivery trucks to waste streams for compostable coffee cups and lids. Sound too good to be true? It just might be.

“Some of it seemed easy on paper,” said Thierry Borra, the brand’s director of Olympic games management. “But we have to work with suppliers to make sure there is the technology.” Indeed, wanting to be environmentally friendly and actually being so are very different states of existence.

Most consumers, however, realize that change doesn’t occur over night, and they tend be patient when they feel brands are making a sincere attempt to change and implement sustainable policies throughout its operations. Coca-Cola appears to be one such brand. Yet, like the athletes, the brand must perform at the Olympics. The stakes are high, and the world will be watching. “Consumers are looking for these types of [eco-conscious] programs,” said William Chipps, senior editor of the IEG Sponsorship Report. “It’s getting to the point where they’re expecting them.”

Though critics may question Coca-Cola’s motivation for such changes – whether its for money or a true concern for the planet – as long as the brand is backing up its promises, does it really matter?

The Other Blog You Should Be Reading! ;-)

Well, we all know how much she has to offer, but now the big guns know and are telling the whole world.

Michele Miller knows Marketing to Women.  She’s written an audio-book,  a sit-down-and-read book  (that’s really difficult to put down), she writes regularly about it, she teaches it and she knows how to make it work in the real world of business.

I’m proud to say that she is one of my Wizard of Ads Partners and even more proud to say that I’m smart enough to have taken both her courses!  but enough of tooting my own horn…

 Tom Wanek  just sent us this news flash:

Michele’s WonderBranding blog was listed in Forbes.com 20 Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women:  http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/social-media-twitter-marketing-forbes-woman-entrepreneurs-best-blogs.html?feed=rss_home 

In fact, they have her at #3 (and moving up fast imho)!  You can read the whole article, but in case you don’t have time here’s what they say about Michele:  “WonderBranding, Michele Miller, @MicheleMiller–Wonder Branding brings you the latest news and views on marketing to women. Michele keeps us up to date on how brands are responding to the female customer. …Read the interview with Michele Miller that I conducted earlier this year.”

and if it’s at all possible,  take the time read the interview.  She’s as smart and upfront as she appears.  And that’s a very good thing.

Wendy’s Promotes Its Burgers Via Text Messages

 by Sara Zucker Brandchannel.com – January 1, 2010 01:49 PM

McDonald’s, one of the world’s most venerable brands, is cranking up the heat on its competitors by offering a new, bullet-proof burger. Wendy’s, however, is fighting back.

Wendy’s recently launched a line of commercials that entice consumers with a $75 million marketing ploy of “never-frozen burgers and new freshly cooked bacon.” The “You know when it’s real” series touts real meat and real ingredients in the chain’s fast food. Despite the effort, same-store sales for company-owned stores slipped by 4% in October.

To mitigate the slide, the restaurant chain hopes to appeal to customers by teaming up with Options Media Group Holdings on a new mobile coupon campaign.

Northeast diners can sign up to receive coupons and ads via mobile devices in exchange for discounts at select Wendy’s locations. According to the service provider’s CEO:

“We found from past campaigns that text messaging-based incentives work very well. Consumers tend to look at text messages quicker than e-mail, so it’s an instant result for [the brand],” said Frohman. “And it’s something that’s very beneficial to the consumer.”

7-Eleven launched a similar marketing scheme in December 2009 and received positive feedback from consumers. Similar to Wendy’s, store visitors must show a UPC bar code text message at cash registers in order to redeem the coupon.

Such applications have proven successful for many brands, and Wendy’s is hoping that marketing via mobile devices will bring hungry customers into its stores… and away from McDonald’s.

From Roy H. Williams “Monday Morning Memo” (1/4/10)

One Last Thing:
Here’s how the economy is looking on Main Street America (not to be confused with Wall Street.)

The clients of the Wizard of Ads saw a definite uptick during November and an even stronger one during December.

For the first 10 months of the year the weak economy of 2009 had everyone trending somewhat behind their sales figures for 2008, (comparing each month in 2009 to the same month one year prior,) but in November that trend gap narrowed by about 9 points.

In December, the average Wizard of Ads client in the US finished the month 16 points higher than their year-to-date trend would have predicted.

I know what you’re thinking:
“But those clients are a cut above most retailers and they enjoy, of course, better ads.”

This is true, but even the wizard’s clients are limited by the willingness of the general public to spend money.

Make no mistake: the fog of recession is beginning to lift for owner-operated businesses in the United States.

Music or No Music?

Music is kind of like hair color.  It should enhance the picture not detract.  The right music sets the mood and the tone of the shopping experience.  A store without music can seem empty, cold and impersonal. Music influences the whole energy of the shopping experience.  

Choosing the right music can be a challenge. 

The “right music” depends on the type of business.   Some businesses lend themselves to a specific sound and feel.  You would hardly choose Acid Rock for a spa — harp music may not work in a skate board shop.  Unless you were hoping to terrorize Broca instead or merely surprising the little gate-keeper! 

The right music, the right staff, the clothing they wear should all compliment the image and personality of the business.  Remember, you’re going for particle stack. 

And while “the right” music often falls within a range and comes down to personal choice — control the volume level with a silk gloved iron fist.

Early December I walked into my neighbourhood pharmacy.  Two minutes inside the door and I was anxious, agitated, nauseous (am I making my point?) triggered by the blaring Christmas carols.  I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  If there had been a line-up at the cash, I would have left before making my purchase.  I literally wondered if I would have to change pharmacies until after the Christmas season.  The music was that loud.  Admittedly I’m not a huge fan of Christmas Carols but I’m not immune to their magic. 

Thankfully, the next time I dropped in the music had a supporting role to my shopping experience — present but not over powering.

So go ahead.  Choose your music — but remember — supporting role — not the lead character. Lock that volume dial.