Last week, Waves Coffee House took out an advertisement in the local newspaper, offering customers the opportunity to try out an almond milk latte for free. There were no strings attached to this freebie, aside from the expiry date and the need for the customer to clip the coupon and bring it into a local location.

Presumably, the idea behind this promotion was to get people to try the new product: a latte made with almond milk, offering a non-dairy alternative to a soy latte. The idea was also to draw some customers away from competing coffee houses like Blenz and Bean Around the World. The question is, though, whether this promotion was an effective new of marketing dollars.

You have to realize that, in order to run such a marketing campaign, Waves had to first pay for the advertisement in the newspaper. It then had to absorb the cost involved with giving away the free product, including the cup, lid, espresso, almond milk, other ingredients, cashier’s time, and the barista’s time. This is in addition to the potential lost income from customers who may have otherwise paid for a drink during the promotional period.

Yes, this is absolutely one way to get new and existing customers through the door to try a new product. However, it is debatable whether the same amount of marketing muscle and budget could have been used differently to achieve the same goals. One location that I tried, as a side note, tried to suggestive sell me on biscotti and other snacks to accompany the free beverage. That’s one way to recoup some of the costs of this campaign.