Starbucks Campaign Aims to Win Over Light Roast Coffee Drinkers

Starbucks Coffee Co. said it aims to grow its share of the 40 percent of U.S. coffee drinkers who prefer lighter roasts by using a cross-channel campaign to win them over to Starbucks Blonde Roast.

The coffeehouse has kicked off an extensive cross-channel sampling and sharing campaign featuring millions of offers for a free tall (12-ounce) cup of Starbucks Blonde Roast or Vanilla Blonde, and $1 off any Starbucks packaged coffee or Starbucks K-Cup packs in retail stores and where customers buy groceries.

“Starbucks Blonde Roast is a new roast curve for Starbucks that celebrates our coffee heritage and roasting expertise, and introduces new customers to our coffee,” said Craig Russell, senior vice president, global coffee for Starbucks. “For those who think Starbucks coffee is too dark, we now have an answer. We’re excited about the response we’ve seen over the past year and are looking forward to bringing the taste of our milder, easy-drinking Starbucks Blonde Roast coffee directly to even more consumers nationwide.”

Customers can get a free tall Starbucks Blonde coffee for themselves by sharing a Starbucks Card eGift with a friend through a new desktop- and mobile-enabled Facebook app. Meanwhile, Starbucks Mobile cafés will pop up in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago and Dallas where, for three weeks, each will offer free samples along with vouchers for a free drink and coupons for packaged coffee and Starbucks K-Cup packs. A dozen ambassadors donning coffee-filled jet packs will also hit local streets in these cities to offer samples of coffee. More than 8,000 food, drug and mass grocery retailers will also offer Blonde Roast to shoppers.

Starbucks has already seen significant success since introducing its lighter roast coffee last year. Starbucks Blonde Roast packaged coffee sales were 79 percent incremental in grocery and 70 percent incremental at Starbucks retail stores, driving growth across all channels in the nearly $1 billion light roast coffee segment, Starbucks reported.

Vanilla Blonde, the company’s first handcrafted brewed coffee that features a sweeter taste profile with vanilla-flavored syrup added to its lightest roast, is targeted to the 80 percent of brewed coffee drinkers who add milk or sugar to their coffee.