News outlets fixate on Starbucks' no-joe play.(News)(Starbucks Corp.)

Advertising Age, March, 2008

Byline: AD AGE STAFF

Cost: an estimated $2 million to $4 million in lost coffee and muffin sales. ROI so far: hundreds of millions of dollars worth of media coverage for Howard Schultz's turnaround attempt; some better-trained baristas; and a rise in sales for Dunkin' Donuts.

We're talking, in case you were lost at sea for the past seven days, about Starbucks' three-hour closure of 7,100 stores last Tuesday night, an event that was part boot camp for baristas and part mass marketing for a company that wants to demonstrate that it's improving product and customer experience-and by doing so drive sales growth and its stock price upward once more.

The cash-register and stock-price results remain to be seen, and certainly there was no significant...

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