Starbucks in Russia

A couple of days ago I came across a post in Morgan Krechel’s blog (btw, Morgan had his Birthday just this Monday so Happy Birthday!) about Starbucks and the introduction of their Christmas cups this year. This post aroused memories of how Starbucks works and promotes itself in Russia.

In Russia, just as in many other countries in the world, everything that is said to be “American” becomes a hit right away. Obviously, Starbucks is not an exception.

Young people in Russia almost pray on Starbucks, which makes it incredibly difficult to compete with it. However, I find a little frustrating the fact that since Starbucks is so popular by default it doesn’t really have to do anything to appeal to foreign segments. That’s why when you enter Starbucks in Moscow, it would look exactly the same and it will sell exactly the same products as anywhere in the US or any other country (except prices in Moscow shops would probably be twice as high as in the States).

On the one hand, this consistency in providing products and services is good because I always know what to expect from Starbucks anywhere in the world. However, lack of unique tailored approach to various geographical segments makes the customer feel like he/she is not special.

Looks familiar?

Well, at least the name is sometimes spelled in Cyrillic

Why are people so crazy about Russian dolls? :)

And yet again! 

Creative Ideas

It's not a secret for anyone that Coca Cola has always been a producer of extremely effective advertising particularly due to its never-ending rivalry with Pepsi. Both companies have managed to find creative ways of promoting their products that would appeal to different market segments. However, this summer in Moscow, Coca Cola did something that definitely made it stand out!

Moscovites will probably remember the summer of 2010 for a very long time since last June, July, and August turned out to be the hottest months in the entire history of the city. Temperature was often approaching 40°C whereas the average is around 24°C.

Obviously, unexpectedly hot weather caused demand for pop to rally and sales of different fizzy drinks increased. But how could Coca Cola benefit from this situation even more? How could it differentiate itself from the competitors?

Coca Cola Russia created an entire "cooling" marketing campaign with a new website, mobile applications, in-store advertising, etc. etc. But the most amazing part of the campaign was advertising on the bus stops! Not only did Coca Cola put its logos everywhere, it also decorated the bus stops with artificial icicles!!! Although made of plastic, icicles looked very real and definitely drew the attention of thirsty commuters, pedestrians and even car drivers dreaming of winter days!

Good job Coca Cola!