Starbucksā Red Cup Controversy and Possible Solution
This year on November 1, in celebration of the coming Christmas, Starbucks revealed its iconic annual holiday cup, just as what they did during the holiday seasons in past few years. Unlike the red cups with a variety of holiday designs, such as reindeer, sleigh or snowman, in the previous years, thereās nothing but the solid red color and the ubiquitous green logo on Starbucksā holiday cups this year.
The design of this yearās red cup stirred up controversies. Although according to Jeffery Fields, Starbucks vice president of Design & Content, āThis year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our storiesā, haters think that by removing all those traditional Christmas graphics on the holiday red cups, Starbucks is just taking away peopleās holiday spirit. Some Christians even feel offended because they think Starbucks is attacking Christianity by not showing explicit Christian images on its Christmas red cup. People are outraged and expressing their anger on social media. And whatās worse, some celebrities also utter they opinions on the issue: TV hostess Ellen Degeneres sarcastically call it a āSatan Sipperā; President candidate Donald Trump called on a boycott on Starbucks.
Although it seems to me that in this case, Starbucks did nothing wrong -- itās obvious that the plain red cup is just a design of simplicity -- but the issue is still kind of a crisis to the company. Ā With the accusation of disrespecting the Christianity and destroying the Christmas, the coffee giant is confronting great challenges. And meanwhile, one of Starbucksā major competitors, Dunkinā Donuts, is taking advantage of the coming holiday by releasing its seasonal coffee cup with traditional festive Christmas wreaths graphics. If Starbucks is not able to handle this problem very well, there will be severe consequences: the market share will shrink, the sales and stock price will go down, and more critically, the reputation of the company will be damaged.
If I were the public relation director of Starbucks, I will suggest my CEO to take some moves.Ā Instead of passively dealing with the controversies with silence, I recommend Starbucks to take the initiative by launching a āRed Cup Decorā campaign.Ā
What is āRed Cup Decorā campaign?Starbucks will provide free Christmas graphics stickers and color mark pens in every coffee shop for the customers to decorate or draw on their own red cups. A statement will be issued when the āRed Cup Decorā campaign is launched.Ā
Key Messages of the Statement: (1)We (all Starbucks staff) are sorry to find out that some people feel offended by this yearās holiday red cups. This is definitely not what we want. We didnāt have any intention to disrespect Christianity and Christians; (2)What we intended to do, is using a design of simplicity, the bright, warm, delightful red color, to bring our customers the holiday atmosphere and wish them a merry Christmas, which is our very original purpose to launch the annual holiday cups;Ā (3)We respect the Christianity, and care about Christians. We also care about the environment and natural resources, so we decide not to recall the current red cups and produce holiday cups with new design, because that would be a huge waste of paper material; (4)But we still got this problem well solved: from December 1, there will be free Christmas stickers, ornaments and drawing pens in every Starbucks coffee shop in the United States for our customers to decorate their own red cups. We sincerely welcome everyone to use your imagination and creativity to create a better red cup. Ā
Why launch āRed Cup Decorā Campaign?By making the announcement and launching the āRed Cup Campaignā, Starbucks is able to formally explain the design of the red cup, as well as show people the respect to Christianity and Christians. Also, by encouraging customers to customize their own holiday red cups and share their creatively decorated cups on social media, Starbucks will keep their holiday cups popular for longer time.Ā
These are just some of my thoughts about the solution to Starbucksā current red cup controversies. TheĀ āRed Cup Decorā campaign might be harder to implement than to be planned. But I just want to share my little PR ideas with you guys.Ā Ā
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