Starbucks Gives Holiday Shoppers 100 Ways To Say ‘Merry Christmas’
Giving a Starbucks gift card to the coffee lover on your holiday list is always a hit. This year, the popular coffeehouse chain is offering 100 different ways to say “Merry Christmas” with a bigger-than-ever selection of gift cards and coffee cups.
Businessweek reports that Starbucks is hoping to become the go-to place to stock up on stocking stuffers this year by launching 100 different designs for gift cards, coffee mugs, tumblers, and cold cups. Artsy designs on cups and new animated gif designs on the company’s gift cards will not only be warmly received, but fun to look at.
This is my kind of Christmas tree @Starbucks pic.twitter.com/KAcRsfzTqq
— Dima (@dsaif92) November 14, 2014
Jen Quotson, Starbucks vice president of global creative, tells Businessweek that this is the first time the company has “done anything like this” — with more mugs and newly-designed gift cards to choose from than ever before.
“This is the first time we’ve done anything like this. We understood there was a shift in consumer behavior, and we wanted to really reconsider and reinvent holiday. We started with personalization and gifting, and everything we did was built around that.”
The new designs on both the gift cards and the cups are like mini works of art, all done by the in-house studio at the company’s Seattle headquarters. A group of roughly 150 employees in the design department are responsible for coming up with the new designs.
In an interview with the Die Line, Jean Marie Shield, Starbucks director of brand strategy and expression, states that the company’s design philosophy is all about “nurturing and inspiring the human spirit” — hence the often simplistic yet inspiring designs on Starbucks products — including the new cups, mugs, and gift cards.
“The brand is almost like a friend—a unique, well-traveled, cultured friend you know well but who always manages to surprise you. That’s always our focus. I think the design aesthetics reflect that.”
Aside from offering deals like the current BOGO Free Starbucks holiday drink offer, the company hopes that the newly designed selection of goodies will help increase the “foot traffic” to their coffee shops this holiday season, despite the online shopping trend that has consumers doing more shopping from home or at the office.
While the cups and mugs make great holiday gifts, chances are the big win for Starbucks will be sales of the snazzy, new gift cards. With more than $1.4 billion loaded onto the cards last year, there is no doubt that the new designs will draw people in — especially last-minute holiday shoppers who will stop in to their local Starbucks for some caffeine and a few gifts.
[Images: Starbucks]
