Starbucks Planner as a Loyalty Pull

When you look at all the sophisticated loyalty programs out in the market today, you'd think that having a "primitive" stamp card loyalty program is so outdated. Think again.

The Starbucks Planner stamp card promotion is one great loyalty scheme. This annual Christmas promotion of Starbucks in the Philippines has been running for years now and each year, I see friends who purposely troop to Starbucks to collect the required number of stamps and get the highly coveted planner. Whether they like the required coffee to be purchased or not is irrelevant. In their minds, the Starbucks planner is THE accessory they can proudly flaunt in their respective offices and schools come January 1.

Here's how the 2010 Starbucks Planner looks like. (Photos courtesy of Awesome Planet)

And here is the stamp card that you need to completely fill out.

You need to buy a total of 17 drinks in all, of which 9 are featured holiday drinks and 8 are regular beverages. Assuming that each drink costs P100 to P150, the total amount of purchases you need to make to redeem the planner is P1,700 to P2,550. You need to consume that much in Starbucks in a period of 2 months. For some people, that's easily in the bag. I know some friends who practically live off Starbucks to sustain them at work. But for some people,17 drinks can be quite a stretch, and yet they'd be willing to shell that amount for the sheer joy having THE Starbucks planner.

Just what is in that planner that makes many people salivate with desire to grab it and claim one as theirs?

I will not mince words for this. People get the planner because the Starbucks planner is a STATUS SYMBOL. No offense meant, but being able to hold one in a meeting is like proclaiming to everyone that you are capable of buying overpriced coffee. In their minds, it makes them look cool. Period.

Oh, I must not leave out an important but secondary detail. Each redeemed planner comes with a corresponding donation to SparkHope, the charity tie up of Starbucks with Unicef. But seriously, I doubt that this is the primary reason why many people lust for these planners. If that were the prime motivation, wouldn't they have reached more needy children if they channelled the whole P2000 to Unicef instead?

Curiously that in this day and age of high-tech gadgets, people would still want the old school planner. The same people who have 2 state of the art cellphones (1 for business, 1 for personal use and of which one is most likely an i-phone), a laptop, an SLR Camera, a PDA, a portable game console, etc. are the same people who have this planner with which they can "plan" or "organize" their lives. It is as if the organizer or file manger functions in their gadgets are not enough. You would think that if these people have been using the planner, people would be arriving to meetings on time? Sorry, but think again.

Despite having the planner, many Filipinos are still sadly perennially late. This just goes to show that not many actually use the planner. It is noting but an accessory. There may be others who collect them and maybe use the featured monthly discount coupons in the planner. But in all the times that I have been to Starbucks within a year, I have never witnessed a person actually using the discount coupon. But then again, Filipinos are not a coupon-using consumer.

I have a friend who as early as mid November posted a status on Facebook which said, "Got my Starbucks Planner already! Yahoo!! And many people "liked" his status. If you go to Sulit.com.ph or Ebay.ph, you'd see people selling unused Starbucks planner. The prices start at P1000 for last year's planner and as high as P2500 for the current one. I have even received a Starbucks planner as a Christmas gift in the past.

As for me, I don't intend to get the planner. I don't want it and I have no need for it. But of course, I am no coffee lover and I am one cheapskate. But mostly, I just don't like following and falling for a craze like this. It's just like that New Moon fever. I really don't get the fuss over it. I simply cannot bring myself to watch it or read the series.

But this Starbucks planner is surely an effective loyalty building promo. It was able to stir up an emotion and a positive action (towards making more purchases) among the targeted customers that go BEYOND REASONS.