The Magic Behind Marketing: The Unicorn Frappuccino Frenzy
The age of posting excessive pictures of your fancy drinks and fun foods on social media has arrived. Since the dawn of social media, people have captured photos and posted them online for the world to see. But now, everywhere you turn someone is seeking the perfect lighting for a picture of the newest vegan soup, or for the case of this discussion, the newest Starbucks drink.
But I love Starbucks…
There is no denying that Starbucks is dominating the Café industry, but have they gone too far? The new Unicorn Frappuccino went from an internet sensation to a controversial lawsuit in a matter of weeks. The globally desired drink hit the shelves on April 19 and was said to be a limited time offer. Limited time offer…brilliant. Not only did they develop a drink that was social media gold, they scheduled it so that everyone would have to try it before it was too late. Even the customers who were unable to get their hands on one turned to social media. Only this time to vent their frustration. I guess it’s true what they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity!
PR specialists explain that the Unicorn Frappuccino was inspired by unicorn-themed food and drinks trending on social media, unicorn emojis, and the unicorn filter on Snapchat. Brooklyn café, The End, had a different opinion, saying that Starbucks ripped-off their already established drink called the Unicorn Latte. The End began selling the Unicorn Latte in December of 2016, and has had a pending trademark for the drink name since January of 2017. That said, The End isn’t the only small business with a unicorn-inspired drink on their menu. This mythical creature is truly taking the social media world by storm #magic.
The interesting thing about these trends is that companies often leave the marketing up to the consumers. Why dump millions of dollars on social media campaigns when your customers will go online and do it for you? Aside from the initial announcement of the new product, companies get to sit back and watch as we upload endless posts, making their product a desirable fixation.
Take away the sparkles and what are you left with?
As a millennial, I too have developed a love for social media. I’ll even share the occasional photo of decadent cocktails or colorful cuisine that I come across. The one thing I don’t understand is the obsession over these trends, especially when people don’t actually enjoy the product. Most folks who purchased the Unicorn Frappuccino said they didn’t like the taste, claiming it tasted like sour milk.
There’s nothing magical about sour milk. I don’t care how sparkly or mystical it looks, if it tastes like dairy-gone-bad we should be tagging it the #DirtyDonkeyFrappe.