Starbucks OR Dumb Starbucks?

We all know when it comes to advertising, it’s all about disturbing and grabbing the attention of your audience. But how far can you go with this? Where do you draw the line?

Dumb Starbucks, a privately owned parody of “Starbucks”, must be really brave and ready for the consequences of messing with Starbucks—or maybe Starbucks is playing some sort of publicity stunt.  Anyhow, a coffee shop in Los Angeles, California has mimicked the look and the way good Ol’ Starbucks operates. They are definitely getting a lot of attention in the media. Just within the past 4-5 days they have accumulated over 8000 followers on Facebook,  really illustrating how their marketing strategy is working in grasping attention everywhere.

Two Advantages (If it’s not actually Starbucks behind the scenes):

Consumers will be mistaken and fall for this to be an actual Starbucks coffee shop without paying attention to the actual name. This often happens because ones  subconsciousness recognizes the brand as a Starbucks Coffee Shop. Consequently, there is nothing that will make the consumer suspicious once they are inside the shop since the interior design was also copied.

People often like to try something different, especially when it is all over news media. Consumers always like to make judgements and compare different things. Dumb Starbucks will have to assure that their quality remain the same, in fact better than their soon to be giant enemy. At the end of the day what matters to most consumers are quality, service and price.

Disadvantages:

It is always dangerous to poke a sleeping lion, better yet a hungry lion unless you are fully ready for the consequences. Most of start-up businesses take a safe route towards success and prosperity with their own new brand and identity. However, Dumb Starbucks is taking a great risk; they might end up rising very fast and suddenly going down the drain. Surely Starbucks will eventually take some legal action over copyright infringement. Would Dumb Starbucks have the proper shield to protect themselves then? Or are we merely wasting our time speculating about Starbuck’s new Marketing Campaign?

Source:  bbc.com

The opinions contained in this article are solely those of the writer and it does not represent the editorial opinions of Mao Marketing.