Dive Brief:
- Starbucks will let rewards members order four new customized drinks on its app, legitimizing some of its secret menu items, the brand said Monday.
- The new drinks will be available in the “offers” tab of the app, which will routinely feature new drink customizations.
- By making common customizations — popularized on social media as a secret menu — more accessible, Starbucks may drive fresh consumer traffic. However, the move seems to stand in contrast with efforts to simplify its menu and return the chain to its coffeehouse roots.
Dive Insight:
Since Brian Niccol became CEO at Starbucks last year, the brand has pivoted toward a coffee-forward marketing strategy, greater emphasis on on-premise experience and technology changes meant to ease the pressure of mobile ordering.
The brand also said it was adding guardrails on customization and standardizing pricing for many of its drink changes.
The addition of new, complex drink customizations available only through digital channels could complicate these efforts by putting pressure on barista workflows, encouraging consumers to order off-premise, non-coffee drinks and pushing shoppers to experiment with new configurations.
Starbucks is holding a contest allowing consumers and workers to design more custom drinks. Entries will be narrowed down to four finalists which will be subject to a vote running from Aug. 18 to 20. The finalists will receive a $5,000 prize and the drinks will run on the secret menu from Aug. 18 to 25. The winner will receive an additional $25,000 prize.
With the brand pulling back on discounting in its rewards program, the addition of the secret menu items and new contests could encourage consumer interaction with the rewards program in new ways.
The coffee giant did not immediately respond to a request to clarify how it was adapting its operations to accommodate the secret menu.