Crazy Idea For 2020 Valentine's Day: If Starbucks Cross Promote With Kate Spade

When I came to Seattle, I always felt exited to buy a cup of Starbucks coffee. I am still a big fan for Starbucks now, but for some reason, I don't feel excited anymore.

What happened?

Here is a common problem that a global brand has to face: when the market size get large enough, the continued growth will get slow. 

Offering new drinks is a good way to get some customer's attention and increase sales. However, most customers have their own drink habits. They usually order the same drink. And there are so many substitutes such as bubble tea. 

For Starbucks, how to make customers get exited about the brand again? How to expand more market?

One idea comes to my mind is run a cross promotion campaign with Kate Spade in Valentine's Day. 

Why?

I love to read Chinese brand campaign and advertising news every day. A couple months ago,  Lay's worked with UGG to offer limited summer pink gift box and a new collection of spring chips in the Chinese market. This campaign received fantastic result:  the sales had broken millions in only 5 hours. 

Lay's and UGG are totally different industry. One is selling snacks, and the other one is selling winter boots. But, their cross-promotion campaign captured many young Chinese female's hearts because of their pink theme and romantic meaning.

Why could Starbucks run a cross-promotion with Kate Spade on Valentine's Day? 

• Both Starbucks and Kate Spade have offered pink and red products, which are very popular in young female customer group. 
• During the holiday season, many customers would like to buy their products as gifts.

Man always struggles with choosing the perfect gift to surprise his girlfriend or wife. (Happy wife, happy life). Both of Starbucks and Kate Spade could represent romantic love and care, so they are the perfect gift choices for ladies.  

Main Target Audience

This Valentine's Day cross promotion campaign will primary target on couples, married people, and people who plan to confess to the person they are interested in. 

The target audience age is between 20 to 40. They are romantic, coffee lover, trend conscious, young urban and profession, and financial stable. The most importantly, they want to make their partners happy and feel being loved. 

Inside The Gift Box

The campaign can offer two or three limited gift box sets. Inside the gift box, it could have different combination of Starbucks and Kate Spade Valentine's products such as 

• coffee mug with handbag,
• wallet with key chain and a small bag of coffee
• pen with notebook and coffee cup
• small couple game set

The gift box could have two different color design:

• For female gift: the color would be pink, red, orange
• For male gift: the color could be blue, brown, purple

Inside The Store:

In order get the best result, both Starbucks and Kate Spade need to create a lovely theme for this campaign. 

For Starbucks, they could design limited lovely half heart or any creative couple cups for daily service drinks. The Valentine's Day special offer: Buy One For Her & Yours Is On Us. Make sure the cups are matched. 

For Kate Spade, they could design limited couple wallet, key chain, notebook and pens to celebrate Valentine's day.  The Valentine's Day special offer: Choose One Part For Her & The Other Part Is Half Price.  

The main purpose of in-store promotion is to let customers know everyone should be loved not matter you are single or in a relationship. We want every customer to be cared and to share love to their special one.

Spread On Media:

The first thing is to create one-minute short video ads to present the Valentine's Day story and show the limited gift box products. The video could be spread on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Use a new hashtag to group this campaign such as #youdeservelove 

Next, design a creative poster and print ads to post on subways, train stations, and bus stops, so it will increase the ads impression and encourage people to visit store or check online

Finally, hold a contest on social media such as ask male audience to participate in "How to guess what she want?" or ask female audience to participate in "How do you tell your boyfriend what gift you want?" We encourage audience to interact with contest and tag a friend to get chance win a free gift box.

Event Plan Schedule:

The video ads and print ads should spread on Jan, 2020 after the New Year. It is a good reminder for target audience and allow them to have enough time to make a plan. 

The social media contest could start on end-Jan to create an urgency promotion for the campaign. It will push customers to think about the gift and get more ideas from others from the contest event. Probably, they would love to gift box since the gift box is super special and popular. Order one gift box will never be a mistake.

Overall

This cross-promotion idea may sounds crazy, but it may be a good opportunity to express brand's personality: fun, lovely and romantic. It is also a great way to refresh old customers perception.We are not only a brand to sell product but also care our customer's feelings and special needs. 

By reminding people to care about their partners just like the way Starbucks and Kate Spade care about them, this campaign will poke the sensitive nerves of choosing the perfect gift that most couple have to think about in every Valentine's Day. Limited gift box would be a new idea to solve their problem. 

Of course, in order to achieve the best result, both brands need to make a detail plan on marketing and media budget, creative content and new product design. 

I don't know if anyone like this idea, but I wish I could get a special gift box on Valentine's Day.