Saying Sayonara to Print
It burns me up. Preprinted on my latest Starbucks “Sweet 15” card is this message:
“This may be your last postcard. Starting 10/16/12 your rewards will load digitally right onto your Card, and we’ll notify you by email when you’ve earned one. Verify your email so you don’t miss a drink. Starbucks.com/rewards”
As a Starbucks Gold Card holder, I’ve been getting the telltale black-and-gold postcards every time I’ve earned a free tall drink. Amidst all of the junk mail that pours into my home, this little 4 ¼ x 6” card never ever gets lost. I cherish it and proudly carry it to my local Starbucks to reclaim my free drink.
Now that the company has decided to no longer print and mail these postcards and to send me an email instead, I guarantee I’ll miss or lose track of these offers. They win. I lose.
Don’t they realize that I get 200 – 300 emails every day of the week? And that 90% are unsolicited spam? And that once my emails fall ‘below the fold’ on my monitor, I often lose track of them?
On the contrary, an iconic little postcard never gets lost. I perch it on my kitchen counter each and every time, a visual reminder when I head out the door for a coffee run.
Am I making too much out of this new policy? Maybe. Am I showing my age? Probably. But my two computers, my smartphone and my iPad are choking with emails. For certain messages, I prefer print.
Yes, Starbucks is surely saving millions (mostly on postage, I daresay, not on printing costs). But I keep reading that consumers are increasingly demanding the personalization of their content as well as how they want to consume it. This consumer wants her Tall-Pike-with-Room reward notices on a simple, 2-color postcard.
The postcards set Starbucks apart. As Dana Carvey’s Church Lady used to say on SNL, “Well isn’t that special?” Yup. Quite.
Replacing the postcards with emails? Not so much.
© 2012 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You’re free to forward this email. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.