This is an advertisement at bus stops from Starbucks earlier this year.

I found it to be an interesting advertisement because it is very similar to the positioning statement method mentioned in class. Which is “For (your audience), (your product name) is a (category name) which provides (main benefit) unlike (primary competitor) which provides (competitor’s main benefit).” Although the statement from the ad is not a true positioning statement, it is very similar to it. As it says “For (Canadians), (Starbucks Blonde Roast) is a (Starbucks coffee) which allows (Canadians) to like (Starbucks coffee).” The statement implies this product would change the views on Starbucks coffee of Canadians who don’t think they like Starbucks coffee.

This is a product-focused advertisement that intends to inform people about this Starbucks Blonde Roast coffee and hence generates sales on this particular product, instead of promoting the Starbucks brand image as a whole. Personally I think this is a very well-designed and effective advertisement. Since the advertisement is targeted to Canadians that is not part of the Starbucks’ current market share, promoting the Starbucks coffee shops image would not have much effect as the image is already well-established and further promotion on it would not the consumers’ decisions of those Canadians. However, being an ad that only promotes a particular product that is said to be specifically designed to these targeted consumers, it would bring interests to those consumers and would be very persuasive in suggesting them to give it a try. I believe this ad did generate extra revenue from this product due to the good marketing.