The Starbucks MyCard: Personalizing and Designing an Impersonal Gift

A Starbucks gift card is what we all want in life, isn't it? They're nice enough to have around, but now the coffee gods are allowing users, via their Web site, to customize a gift card for family and friends. Of course, a $4 "customization fee" applies to each customized Starbucks gift card you make, so keep in mind this isn't some happy free gift that Starbucks is offering to its users to make cards prettier. This is Starbucks, after all and when it comes to Starbucks, there is no happy free anything.

So there has been a great deal of promotion behind this latest venture to personalize everything about one of the most impersonal companies in the free world and so I thought I would check it out and see if that $4 customization fee would be worth it. I had it in my mind to take a picture of the inside of my nose with a few hairs showing, and have Starbucks with their computer-printing magic, put this on a personalized Starbucks gift card for my wife. This plan was thwarted, however, when I visited the Starbucks MyCard website to customize a Starbucks gift card and found that this was false advertising. You cannot upload pictures of your nostrils. Or your cats. Or of dogs in Santa Hats. No, all you can do to personalize your Starbucks gift card is to choose from three or four Target-esque templates and write a short stupid message (the only thing you have room for is something silly like. Mm. Good Coffee Yes") instead of customize it the real way.

So, one has to wonder about the Starbucks MyCard as a good gift. On the hand, it will cost you $4 on top of the ridiculous amount you paid for the card to begin with. On the other hand, it will not be just like giving someone a Starbucks gift card out of what was clearly a stack labeled "all-purpose gifts" because it will (or at least should if you are customization-savvy) have the person's name on it. If this for a gift for someone at work or someone you're not incredibly close with, this could be a really nice touch. Like, "wow, gee, he got me a card with my special name it which means he actually thought of me and remembered what my name was" which is far better than, "nice thinking, creative genius. A freakin' gift-card. I feel special." Anyway, for $4 on top of the card itself it's your choice but it can be a good idea for that office party where you want to give something nice and personal without being at all, in any way personal. The only problem with buying one of the customized Starbucks gift cards as well is that it has the coffee specifications listed on the card as one of the only really in-depth customization options. Therefore, if you don't know exactly how someone orders their coffee at Starbucks, you won't have a good idea of what to put on the Starbucks MyCard. In my mind, it seems they should go for more fun and creative personalization options rather than a lot of technology devoted to this somewhat useless feature that isn't for those buying such a Starbucks gift card for an acquaintance.

This leads me to offer the concluding idea that Starbucks itself is a lot like their custom Starbucks gift card. They strive for personality, to make it seem like the one you go to every morning is the only one there is and this is great but you know that out there, there are millions just like it. The same with the cards. You know that for you "Merry Christmas Jane" Starbucks MyCard there will be millions just like it because just like you, no one else can think of what the heck to write in that tiny amount of space that isn't vulgar.