Starbucks Chase the Pack

The once dominant coffee brand Starbucks has just announced that it's customers will shortly be able to access free Wi-Fi in all it's US stores. Up until recently you had to register with Starbucks to receive a card to access their Wi-Fi network and even then time limits were imposed on your ability to surf the net. Now, with a single click Starbucks are giving people more reason to sit, browse, read online articles, download music and check out video's while enjoying a brew. Surprisingly Starbucks failed to capitalise on this earlier when other coffee brands and McDonald's added free Wi-Fi. The brands that moved quickly to offer free Wi-Fi are already reaping the rewards in terms of perception and loyalty. It never ceases to amaze me why more coffee shops, retail venues, hotels, airpots and so on don't offer free WiFi as a service to differentiate. This business of going to a hotel and paying upwards of $15 per hour to do what should be mainstream and is such a low cost service is ridiculous. More brands should wake up to the global trend of generosity! It just goes to show that even some of the worlds great brands, like Starbucks, can get it wrong.

On the flip side, Four Barrelled Coffee in San Francisco has no Wi-Fi or power outlets available for customer use, and this has been a very conscious choice. The guys at Four Barrelled Coffee believe that laptops and "Crackberries" were making their cafe feel more like a library. They decided to take a stand and are actively encouraging an environment where want people to sit and talk! It is really interesting to me to hear both perspectives. For Starbucks it's all about getting back to one of the original visions they had for the brand which was to be a third place, that place between home and work. But we have to admire Four Barrelled Coffee for taking a stand and getting people to actually talk (can you imagine that? How old school!).

Pop Chips Pop Culture

Marketing and brand is changing its approach to business everyday. The latest trend is celebrities buying into brands...literally. Actor Aston Kutcher isn't just a fan of PopChips, he loves the brand so much he has acquired a minority stake in the company and will oversee the San Francisco based firm's social marketing efforts. He has even got the title of 'President of Pop Culture'. Interestingly perhaps, he say's (via Twitter) he will not be appearing in PopChips advertisements! As the social media face of PopChips   Ashton's shares are likely to soar along with the company's sales, but they are not the only company jumping on this bandwagon. Polaroid have hired Lady Gaga as it's Creative Director and she has similarly acquired an undisclosed minority stake in the company. Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica-Parker was recently named Chief Creative Officer of fashion label Halston for which she will design a line of clothing after doing something similar for other fashion labels. One of the more publicised recent examples was rapper 50 Cent who acquired a stake in Energy Brands Inc. maker of the Glaceau line of waters including Vitamin water. This received a lot of global exposure as he actively jumped on the bandwagon to promote his water which makes sense as the more he sells, the more he makes. It's a clever investment by brands providing the right person backs the right brands and it makes sense. Those old enough to remember Planet Hollywood will know a similar link between brand and 'personality' backfired when the likes of  Arnold Schwarznegger, Sly Stallone and Bruce Willis partnered together for Planet Hollywood which went famously belly up. Get it right and it can have a big upside, get it wrong and you know where it's going.

Paper is Out, Digital is In

The paperless office has been talked about for many years. Maybe it is time that we should go paperless out of the office as well. One of the biggest selling mobile apps available is Bump  which allows smartphone users to share business information phone-to-phone, based on proximity. You can exchange phone numbers, photos as well as friends using the technology. It takes the common ritual of exchanging business cards to a new level and it seems to be working with over 10 million downloads since March 2010. There are loads of different business card options available out there, including My Name is E and a USB dongle called E- Connector. iPhone users can also use Beam Me and Snapped At  to achieve a similary end result. There is no doubt that innovation is occurring in every aspect of business and maybe the card-less interface is inevitable. However CEO of Moo.com, an online printing business states some of the emerging business cards are great but a virtual business card is essentially just data, they universally lack one crucial ingredient which is personality. He may have a point or is it just sour grapes?

The Best Chocolate Cake in the World

The Espresso gets asked a great deal about the strategies behind the naming of a brand. Now, this can be a complex process or it can be made very simple. I have found that company owners, agencies, promotion companies and marketers tend to want to make it difficult. Either way the only true imperative is that it stands out and gives you a good starting point for your business. When you are talking about standing out, one of the hardest places in the world to stand out is in New York City where you are forced to share the spotlight with every body from the naked cowboy to top chefs. It is even harder when you don't have an advertising strategy, a marketing budget, a social media presence and you are a one off small bakery. But yes, someone is doing it....the brand simply The Best Chocolate Cake In The World . This small chain which started out in Lisbon, Portugal before opening 6 locations in Brazil has just opened it's first US store in Manhattan, New York. Since it's opening the business has had plugs in The New York Times and the New York Magazine - m arketers would die for that exposure. We love the story behind the brand...Owner Adriano Lucas said that chef Carlos Braz Lopez originally opened a restaurant in Portugal. He wanted to have a really great chocolate cake on the menu so he based his cake on one he had seen in Paris, only he tweaked it "to make it the best". He started serving it and people started saying "this is the best chocolate cake I have ever had!". The cake started to build it's own reputation and Carlos decided there was another business in it. He named his bakery after what his fans were already calling it - The Best Chocolate Cake in The World! You can't get any more simple than that. Too often business owners, brand managers, sales managers don't listen to their number one fans - ie their customers or clients. What a beautiful, simplistic notion of marketing. Listen to your customers! The result? In the opening week alone the store sold 400 cakes, mostly from New Yorkers wanting to taste" the best chocolate cake in the world!"