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This seems like an almost trivial thing to write about, but lately it’s been discussed in one of the major search marketing blogs: SEO Book. If you’ve been to Starbucks lately you may have noticed that printed on each coffee cup are quotes from various people throughout history. On the bottom of the same cup is a disclaimer stating that it’s the opinion of individual author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of Starbucks. Sounds pretty basic right?

What’s interesting is that there have been numerous posts where the author actually gets angry at Starbucks for posting a disclaimer and claims that should “back up” or vogue for the opinions on their cups.

Some of the geeks are getting a little to used to conversational marketing and they’re starting to view regular brick and mortar chain stores with the same expectations of what they read and see in the blogosphere. I don’t think (at least I hope not) that attitude will spread much out of the geek sector, but I thought it was worth pointing out this shift in view. Conversational marketing is characterized by a show of genuineness and even a successful online marketer like Aaron Wall expected Starbucks to stand behind their quotes. Personally, I don’t need to feel like Starbucks is having a conversation with me, I just want my coffee in a nice setting and I’m glad that an interesting quote is there for me to look at. Further, I would assume that’s probably the majority of their customers!

I personally don’t see anything wrong with a disclaimer, and view it as standard protocol for a large corporation. One of the most recent cups had a quote about evolution vs. intelligent design. Without that disclaimer, I could just picture some group getting all up in arms and suggesting a boycott. That type of bad PR is something a big company can’t afford.

We live in a hypersensitive society with leaders just looking to use stupid examples like a quote to gain free media exposure and rally people around a cause, regardless of how ridiculous it may appear (e.g teletubies, jeopardy, barney anyone?).

On the web, it’s common for small companies with blogs to make bold statements and even stand behind controversies. The reason why is because in the online world, strong opinions and being perceived as genuine can greatly improve your online presence by attracting thousands of links from bloggers looking for stuff to talk about. Also, a small company has a lot lower risk to reward ratio, because things like boycotts and bad pr are less likely to happen.

And after all is said and done, it’s just a quote on a coffee cup.

Technorati Tags: conversational marketing, starbucks

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