I’m normally a Starbucks drinker, but I recently dropped into Peet’s for my morning fix. I was surprised to see a hand-written sign advertising “Freddo Fridays”, a deal that offer Freddos for $2 every Friday this summer. Now, why does this sound familiar? Could it be that Starbucks is running a VERY similar promotion, the $2 after 2 pm for all cold drinks? More interestingly, on the back of the hand-written sign at Peet’s, was an almost identical advertising for “Any Way You Want” Freddos, with the milks and coffee strengths listed. Again… didn’t Starbucks JUST post this promotion about a month ago? The humor was further heightened when I realized that the head-to-head Starbucks sign was hand-written and placed in once location, and had absolutely nothing to do with their current summer promotions and signage. Their original promotion says, “Feels like summer, tastes like Peet’s”, on beautiful banners plastered all over the windows and counters.

Once again, I am amazed at the message, “we’re not different or better, but exactly the same”. I mentioned this in the BK vs. McDonald’s post, but I think the Peet’s strategy is less compelling, as it truly seems to be an afterthought or copycat. It’s like their Marketing department decided that what they’d worked for several months to create wasn’t quite as good as what could be done with a hand-written sign using the Marketing plan that Starbucks had developed. I know they say there are no truly original ideas, but I think it’s best to at least try to put your own twist on  your Marketing pieces!