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Free Coffee

I became an unwitting customer of Panera's coffee subscription when J forgot to cancel her freebie subscription over summer. Being out nine bucks for the month, decided to make the most of it and get myself a large coffee whenever I was able. For now, I have been able to get one every day but the streak may not last too long. 

J has since canceled her subscription and going out of my way to get a free coffee is not particularly gratifying. The number is compelling for a month of unlimited coffee but when you go through the drill a few days in a row, the allure fades. Like the reviewer, you start to see the problems in the process flow not the benefits. Notwithstanding, the campaign has been a huge success:

..close to 75 percent of coffee redemption occurred off-premises—an element critical to a COVID landscape. And Panera witnessed about a 25 percent hike in new MyPanera members asking for the deal, with a vast majority of those fresh to the brand. It succeeded in driving light users into restaurants.

My own experience made me wonder about the point of inflection in any customer's buying behavior. Say, I was walking distance from a Panera and getting that coffee was part of my routine of catching a short break during the workday. The event would naturally have positive connotations and the coffee would benefit from the halo effect. That in turn would promote my on-going return and desire to renew the subscription. Where it was a bit of an effort to get the free coffee, the inconveniences would manage to overcome the halo effect and therefor decrease the desire to maintain the subscription.


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