Marketing Keurig's Brewing Machines to Train Commuters

During the second week of October 2009, Keurig promoted its brewing system to the commuters of Chicago Union Station, which has one of the worst commutes in the country according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Keurig offered them free coffee cups during the morning rush hours. However, Keurig didn't provide clear directions on the coffee cups to help commuters figure out how to get or brew their coffee. As such, many of them got confused and threw their coffee cups away. Here is how I got involved in this story.

When I passed by my boss in the morning, I found him trying to figure out how to use a Keurig's coffee cup to get his coffee (the picture on the right). He asked me, "Do I need a machine to get my coffee from this cup". I took a look at it and I said. "For sure. Unless there is a new way that I don't know about". He looked back at the cup, read the directions on the top and then after a short pause, threw it in the trash and said, "Why the hell did they give this to me if I don't have the machine. It took me 5 minutes to find out that I can't get my coffee. They wasted my time".

I left him feeling frustrated and angry and went to the kitchen to get my coffee just to find 5 more coffee cups on the kitchen counter placed by people who figured out in the same way that they are useless without the machine. I took one of them and decided to do some research to find out what was going on. I examined the coffee cup and noticed that they said "Take this cup to the nearest Keurig brewer". So I visited Keurig's website and did some research online but there was nothing on the website to help me find the nearness brewing location. However, I noticed that Keurig is one of the leading coffee brewing brands and customers wrote great reviews about Keurig's brewing system.

While I was thinking about Keurig's marketing campaign on my way home, I noticed many of Keurig's ads posted inside the train without any reference to their marketing campaign at Union station. So I decided to stop next day by Union Station and try to solve this puzzle.

The next day, I noticed that about half of the people, who were getting out of the Union station, were carrying their Keurig's coffee cups. However, their cups were empty. In addition, I noticed that trash cans next to station entrance were full with unused coffee cups. Close by the entrances of the train gates inside the station there were Keurig's employees handing out the coffee cups to the commuters who just got off the train and shouting "Free Coffee in the Grand Hall" (See the video below). Because commuters where passing very quickly, grabbing the coffee cups and heading directly to their offices, they didn't have the time to stop, listen and understand that they needed to go to the Grand Hall to brew their coffee, or perhaps they didn't have the time or energy to walk to the Grand Hall.

I went to the Grand Hall to get my coffee and I was surprised that about half of the people, who were visiting the Keurig's booth, didn't have their coffee cups with them. The more surprising thing was that the people who got their coffee cups were stopping by Keurig's booth to switch the coffee flavor to Tea or other coffee flavor.

I went to the Keurig's machines to get my coffee and told one of the managers in the booth that there not having clear directions on the coffee cups confused some commuters who are trying to get their free coffee. The manager replied, "Sure, I understand. It is human nature, we can't do anything about it". I disagree with him, I think that if Keurig understood the behaviors of the commuters, they would understand that commuting to work is one of the most stressful activates that people do during the day and morning commuters have hectic schedules that leave little room for variation. Even though commuters would love a free cup of coffee they need to have very clear understanding on how and where they can get it as fast as they can or they will just go to closest coffee shop and get their own.

I used Keurig's machine to brew my Hazelnut coffee. It was very fast and easy to use and the coffee itself was very good. Of course, I didn't forget to grab an extra cup of coffee for my boss to help him overcome his bad experience and thank him for inspiring me to write this blog post.