Monthly Archives: February 2011

Recently I’ve been constantly thinking about Starbucks because I’ve been facing my marketing group project (company chosen: Starbucks) for countless hours everyday for the past week.  Then when it came to thinking of what to blog about, I thought of Starbucks again!  I came across Angel Hou’s post, “Starbucks Release,” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/angelhou) on the launch of Starbucks’ Trenta cup.  Fascinating!

I agree with Angel that this 31oz cup is not exactly appealing to everyone; in fact, I think majority of the market will actually be against it.  For example, one individual responded, “Sweet, more plastic cups for the landfills.”  Take a look at the cup size comparison:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/01/17/graphic-how-big-exactly-is-starbucks-new-trenta-size

Another consumer responded: “You can’t be drinking that much coffee and not do some serious harm to your bowel.”  Yet another observed that too much liquid in the stomach limits the amount of food it can take in.  But despite the complaints, Starbucks is to continue launching the Trenta to the remaining U.S. states on May 3.  Angel is right; the current social trend is to “pay less for more.”  If you can’t finish it, just throw it away!  But supersize it just in case you do finish it.  It might not even be a problem with finishing it: Some customers go for coffee to catch up and when they talk for hours, they will finish the 31oz before they even realize it – which is Starbucks’ marketing strategy.

I do see Trenta as a good investment for the American market, as Americans enjoy gigantic sizes and better taste (rather than health conscious) in their food –for example, KFC’s Double Down.  However, I don’t see the Trenta cup successful in the Asian market (where generally their appetite is small) and probably not Canadians too, since they’re more health-conscious.  It’s just a matter of national culture.

For those of you who haven’t seen or heard about the Blenz Red Band yet, it is an optional red banner you can add to your cup of Blenz to mark yourself being single.  Since February is love month, Blenz discovered the need and desire for singles to meet each other and go on a date, as it is quite difficult to meet people here in Vancouver!  Thus, the Blenz Red Band was launched to provide an opportunity for the singles market to set up a date, fall in love, and share a romantic love story with everyone.

I think this idea is good; the red band feature provides the benefit of singles to meet other singles at a coffee shop during the day, as opposed to lounges at night.  Their budget shouldn’t be too costly, since most of the ads are done through Twitter and Facebook.  In addition, they have many sponsors, so it’s a good investment.  Consumers can possibly gain a lifetime experience and meet their soulmate through this February promotion.  On a personal note, however, the red band wouldn’t work for me because I’m not interested in individuals who’s first motive to meet me is for a potential date.  (I’m more conservative and like to go with the flow.)  I believe this band will work, but the question is, will it work on majority of the singles market out there?  Will individuals be embarrassed to tell the world they are single?  To meet the conservative singles market, Blenz may want to place less emphasis on the “dating” part of the campaign, and maybe introduce “creating friendships” for a band that lasts all year round, rather than just February.  But considering their budget relative to the great meaning of the band, I believe Blenz will gain something out of this no matter what.

We are all constantly making choices in our everyday life.  As consumers in the business world, we go through a series of steps when we make choices, known as the consumer decision process.

1. Need Recognition: Recently I had a birthday party at my house and I had to provide some entertainment for my guests, so I decided to rent a movie.  But which one?

2. Information Search: First, I performed both an internal and external search for information.  I went through my memory for a list of movies I wanted to watch, but haven’t seen yet.  These movies included: Devil, 127 Hours, Life As We Know It, and Charlie St. Cloud, to name a few.  I also asked what movies my friends were interested in and they narrowed the list down to Devil and Life As We Know It. I didn’t spend too much time on this process because a movie is only a shopping good to me.

3. Evaluation of Alternatives: The universal set of alternatives is tremendous; however, the list was narrowed down to a retrieval set of alternatives using internal search for information.  Furthermore, after an external search for information, I’ve settled down on my evoked set of alternatives – Devil or Life As We Know It. The evaluation criteria I used included movie duration, genre, ratings and overviews, and whether my friends have seen it or not.

4. Purchase and Consumption: You may have guessed I chose Life As We Know It in the end, since it’s more suitable for a birthday occasion.  But you’re WRONG!  We decided to watch a horror movie just for the fun of it!

5. Postpurchase: Devil was a thriller!  I was affected by the great storyline, even though I screamed a few times and my heart was still racing at the end.  There was definitely no postpurchase dissonance, and I’d recommend this movie to anyone up for suspense!