Yahoo Venti Espresso at Starbucks

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Starbucks has finally picked a dating partner, and it’s Yahoo Personals. This is a fantastic pairing of two market leaders with incredibly strong brands. Yahoo Personals has always been very shy about partnering, good to see them opening up a bit.

I’ve met more dates at Starbucks than anywhere else. I have their quick-pay card, I get my internet access at the cafes through their partnership with T-mobile as well as about 4,000 milligrams of caffeine each week. Talk about brand loyalty. New subscribers get a Starbucks card loaded with $10. Super.

The new service, just in time for Valentine’s Day, is called the Espresso Dating Guide. But it’s not really a guide. Yahoo has hired Logan Levkoff as a relationship advisor. Never heard of her but then again she’s on MTV and is gorgeous in that blonde, appealing to middle American men way. They could have hired anyone, really. And where are the male relationship advisors?

Recently, StrategyOne did a survey for Starbucks which found singles choose coffeehouses as the perfect place for first dates. I cannot believe they actually paid to have that research conducted. They only interviewed 300 people.

Starbucks has also announced it is also starting to offer MP3 audio files in stores, which customers can download to their iPods while waiting for their overpriced coffee.

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