• Ad Age, Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:30 AM

A survey of 1,000 consumers finds that 75% of respondents knew that Starbucks was closing its stores for three hours on Feb. 25, but less than half knew why they had closed.

The greater message Starbucks wanted to communicate with the PR play--that it is improving the quality of its coffee and bringing the chain back to its roots--"essentially had very little impact on the consumer," according to Ed Murphy, vice president-U.S. retail and restaurant group at Synovate, the research arm of Aegis Group, which conducted the survey. Different surveys have shown otherwise, however.

PoliMetrix, a research firm that conducts interviews of 5,000 people about 1,000 brands daily, has said that Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, which aimed to take advantage of the closure, benefited from positive buzz leading up to and following the events. And Ted Marzilli, senior-vp and gm-brand group at PoliMetrix, says his company finds significant increases in buzz ratings of both Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts since the closure.

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