How a merch fiasco became a brand win for Starbucks

It’s not often that headlines about customer “brawls” end up morphing into good news for a brand. But that’s arguably what’s happened to Starbucks thanks to the bungled rollout of its limited-run “Bearista” cups becoming the first new craze of this holiday season—even including good-natured copycat tributes from the likes of Aldi and Walmart.

At first, the Bearista debut on November 6 seemed like a black eye. The 20-ounce glass tumbler, shaped like a cute bear sporting a Starbucks beanie, sparked immediate viral demand, with customers at some locations lining up at 3 a.m. to score one. This apparently caught the company off guard, and supplies of the $30 object ran out almost instantly. 

Frustrated customers slammed the brand online (some claiming stores were woefully understocked), and in a few cases physically battled each other for what was available. “‘Bearista’ cups brew up brawls at Starbucks,” Fox News reported. With fistfight accounts and clips circulating online, the fiasco took on a Waffle House vibe—not exactly the community-centric third place experience the coffee giant tries to cultivate. Starbucks apologized “for the disappointment.”

But the story didn’t go away. It evolved. Of course the bear tumblers materialized on eBay, on sale for hundreds of dollars. But less predictably, a new round of social media videos—and mainstream press coverage of them—explained how to DIY your own bear-shaped drinking vessel dupe by draining honey packaging and perhaps drawing on the Starbucks logo for fun. Aldi began winkingly promoting a $5 gingerbread-figure cup for those who “missed out on that $30 bear”; Walmart chimed in with its own version, a bear-shaped bottle of its Great Value brand honey filled with coffee.

All of this has been lighthearted, and ultimately a tribute. Thus the Bearista mini-craze was pulled back from becoming a borderline squalid tale of corporate fumbling and manic consumerism. Instead, it’s as if the market has decided that thanks to this absurd incident, bear cups are, somehow, out of nowhere, now a Holiday Thing.

And that works out rather neatly for Starbucks, which this week, in the direct aftermath of the Bearista freakout, began rolling out this year’s version of its traditional holiday-object lineup. On November 13 it started offering the new iteration of its annual reusable Red Cup promotion—a free, limited-edition cup, in four design choices, for certain orders from its holiday menu. And it has teased new holiday merch additions to its lineup, including a collaboration with fashion brand Roller Rabbit slated for early December.

Meanwhile, though Starbucks has declined to comment on whether the Bearista will return (a McRib-style mystery?), demand clearly transcends any ill will about the botched debut. “We want the 🐻cup ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️,” reads the top response to one Starbucks Instagram post hyping the new Red Cup designs. “Don’t ignore our bear cup requests!” echoes another response. “We want more!”

In other words, what looked like a brand blunder is now arguably the happiest story of the early Brian Niccol era—certainly better than news of store closings or lagging earnings or union disputes. The Bearista tale, however chaotic, has ended up making Starbucks feel relevant, in a good way. If there is such a thing as the right kind of brand brawl, this was it.

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