The case of the disappearing cup blurb

Virginia Postrel tells this tale of her contribution to Starbuck's "The Way I See It" campaign:

Due to an unfortunate interaction between the sleeve and the cup, it's Virginia's writing that we stop noticing almost immediately:

As is always the case here at metacool, my intent is not to poke fun at these kinds of sitiuations.  I'm much more interested in what there is to learn from this. 

I think the lesson here is how hard it is to successfully deliver an integrated offering.  Even for an experience delivery master such as Starbucks.   It's these kind of snafus that make the routine performance of something like a Boeing 767 all the more extraordinary. 

The remedy?  It's a bit of a cliche, but it comes back to the kind of multi-functional, multi-disciplinary teams fostered by Design Thinking.  Why not, for instance, put Virginia's quote on the sleeve in addition to the cup?  Well, that would probably require a new set of manufacturing, graphic design, marcomm, legal, supply chain, and channel experts to meet and reach agreement.  But it could happen.   Design Thinking is a team activity.

Comments

[brad urban]

Most of us have our hand wrapped around the cup when we are paying any attention to it anyway. Perhaps the delivery of the message is less important to Starbucks than the existence of the message (and the reference to The Times that can be seen clearly below the sleeve)?

[Diego Rodriguez]

Brad, you bring up a good point. Is it true? Maybe.

I'd want to do a lot of observations in and around coffee drinking environments before I agreed with that statement. And who knows -- we should be able to come up with a design solution which keeps Virgina visible even when the hand is wrapped.

[Mike]

In the meantime, some companies are coming out with 2-ply coffee cups to get rid of the sleeves altogether. They could just go back to printing on the cup.

[olivier blanchard]

A fortune-cookie-like proverb or piece of motivational advice at the bottom of every cup would be just as cool: You'd have to finish your coffee before you could read it.

[Jeremy de Souza]

Since almost everyone uses sleeves with their hot coffee cups, I'm surprised Starbucks leaves it to the customer to put sleeves on the cup. They should just have the baristas do it.

I would put the label on the lid. It's much easier to read that without having to tilt your cup.

[Jeremy de Souza]

Since almost everyone uses sleeves with their hot coffee cups, I'm surprised Starbucks leaves it to the customer to put sleeves on the cup. They should just have the baristas do it.

I would put the label on the lid. It's much easier to read that without having to tilt your cup.