#MarketingMonday – How a Coffee Brand Attracts Big Crowds at Airports by Trading Yawns for Free Giveaways

By Fausto Mendez

    Coffee is a fact of life in America. You can’t approach a crowd without eventually getting hit in the face with that odd but attractive aroma, and it’s virtually impossible to go anywhere without seeing the ever-present Starbucks cup. In the same spirit, coffee brand Douwe Egberts is making a name for itself at a local airport by making sure everyone in the building is holding a Douwe Egberts cup. 

    Exactly how is this up and coming coffee shop achieving this effect? It’s handing out free coffee, but it’s not as simple as that. As you know, a promotional giveaway, such as free coffee, is a very effective marketing tactic. It can introduce the brand to new customers and revive it to old customers, boosting positive feelings about the brand and catalyzing an emotional effect that makes the brand even more memorable.

    The emotional effect in such a campaign is critical since emotionally-charged experiences are almost impossible to forget, so Douwe Egberts maximizes the emotional effect of its promotional giveaways by setting up coffee machines that are activated by simple yawns. 

    Yup, that’s right. In order to get your free cup of coffee, you have to yawn at the machine, which will dispense a free cup of coffee in return. Trading a yawn for some coffee can easily bring a surprised smile to a weary traveler’s face – an emotional effect that should make the experience a hundred times more memorable. The campaign is called “Bye Bye Red Eye”, says Mashable, and it’s cleverly spreading the Douwe Egberts brand with one of the oldest forms of marketing, the promotional giveaway.

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