Every holiday season, the mega coffee brand Starbucks releases holiday-themed coffee cups to get their customers in the Christmas spirit. I am sure you all have seen these red and green cups flooding your Instagram feeds. Starting last year, Starbucks started giving away a free reusable holiday cup with every holiday drink purchased on the day of the cups release. Each year, customers flood Starbucks locations just to get this cute little red cup. How do I know? Because I was one of those customers. The drive-thru line was longer than I had ever seen it, and the inside of the store was packed.
The genius part of this holiday cup is that not only are coffee sales are skyrocketing on that day, but the catch is you must buy one of its holiday-themed drinks to receive the reusable cup. Along with increasing general coffee sales, the companies holiday drink sales increase and act as free publicity for the holiday drinks.
While waiting for our crème Brulee lattes on Friday morning, my roommate and I got to talking about how much we think Starbucks earns on this day. After doing a little bit of googling, I learned that Starbucks sales could increase as much as 12 percent during the holiday season.
Through these themed cups, Starbucks is also able to tap into a new market of people. After receiving my holiday cup, I sent my friends a photo, and two of them who do not even like Starbucks were on their way to get their holiday cup just because of the aesthetic. A whole new market of people who prefer coffee companies such as Dutch Bros or Pete’s Coffee or even local coffee shops trade in their preferred coffee spot for Starbucks on this day.
Starbucks has created a holiday experience through their red cups. They have found a way to make the mundane black coffee into a Christmas explosion. Other coffee companies such as Dutch Bros have followed suit in the holiday-themed cups after seeing this huge success.
Many coffee companies should take a note of marketing from Starbucks. From free marketing to an increase in sales, a simple redesign of a cup can do a lot for its company’s business. Starbucks has since taken it one step more and redesigned not only their hot coffee cups but their cold coffee cups and their pastry bags, in order to give the customer the full holiday experience with every cup of Starbucks coffee.
Especially during the current pandemic ridden society we are all living in, people are searching for a sense of normalcy and hope to go into 2020’s holiday season. Like I mentioned before, Starbucks will see an increase of up to 12 percent in its sales this holiday season. With general holiday busyness and holiday traveling, stopping for coffee becomes more convenient than making it at home. Plus, who wouldn’t want to carry around that cute red cup all day.