7-Eleven Franchisees Get Press from Presidential Poll PR Ploy

For the third election in a row, 7-Eleven creates some creative election-time publicity buzz with its caffeinated in-store campaign poll.

Here’s one of the press releases they circulated with the publicity photo at left.

Presidential Perks: Americans Raise Their Cups to Candidates in Third 7-Election Coffee Cup Poll

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As election day nears, things are really heating up, especially at neighborhood 7-Eleven® stores. Today, the convenience store giant kicks off its third quadrennial 7-Election presidential coffee cup poll.

Unabashedly unscientific, the just-for-fun poll has proven remarkably accurate in elections past, with results closely mirroring the official surveys by the country’s top political pollsters. In the first 7-Election in 2000, only 1 percentage point separated the cup-counts of now-President George Bush and Democratic nominee, Sen. Al Gore. Likewise in 2004, President Bush out-cupped Sen. John Kerry, 51 percent to 49 percent.

During this promotion that runs through Tuesday, Nov. 4 (election day), 7-Eleven invites Americans to pour their favorite hot beverage into either a red 20-ounce cup for Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, or a blue 20-ounce cup for Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, and cast their cups for their preferred candidate. The colored cups also have the candidates’ names printed on them. Undecided customers need not choose sides – “unmarked” 7-Eleven hot beverage cups will still be available as well as a bipartisan red, white and blue Big Gulp® fountain drink cups featuring both the donkey and elephant party symbols. 7-Eleven customers may vote as often as they wish, although they may want to switch to decaf after a few cups.

“When 7-Eleven held its first 7-Election eight years ago, we had no idea what the final results would be or how popular the cup poll would become,” said 7-Eleven President and CEO Joe DePinto. “While we don’t bill this as a statistically valid study by any means, it does reach Americans in their hometowns, on their way to work, after school or just going about their everyday lives. 7-Election provides an interesting daily snapshot of the election.”

Depending on which of the 20-plus national polls one reads, Sen. McCain is leading by as much as 7 points … or Sen. Obama is leading by as much as 7 points, plus or minus 5 points, of course. 7-Election cups are instantly tabulated at the register when the sale is made. National and state results will be posted daily on www.7-election.com, a website created for the coffee cup poll. Major market area and store results are also available upon request. Poll tallies will reflect the percent of candidate cups sold to date, not including “undecided,” i.e., regular 7-Eleven logo cups. Participating 7-Eleven stores are encouraged to post the latest race results at their coffee islands.

“7-Election is a warm-up for the real election on Nov. 4,” DePinto said. “While awareness of this presidential election hardly needs to be raised, 7-Eleven is providing a not-so-subtle daily reminder to its citizen-customers about the importance of voting. Candidates might want to pay attention to this great coffee electorate, and even stop by a local 7-Eleven store to campaign or grab a great cup of coffee.”

Coffee marked 7-Eleven stores’ first self-serve beverage product, and the first time any retailer offered fresh-brewed coffee in to-go cups. It proved an instant success. Customers like fixing their coffee the way they wanted it – choosing cup size, regular, dark roast or decaffeinated, and adding sweeteners and creamers to suit their tastes. Today, 7-Eleven sells more fresh-brewed coffee than anything else – 1 million cups each day. That translates to approximately 10,000 pots of coffee brewed every hour. In each of the past 7-Election polls, more than 6 million cups were cast.

Coffee, a nonpartisan beverage choice for both Democrats and Republicans, does have deep political roots in American history. In 1607, Captain John Smith in Virginia introduced coffee in America, and it was named the national beverage by the First Continental Congress after the Boston Tea Party.

About 7-Eleven, Inc.

7-Eleven, Inc. is the premier name and largest chain in the convenience retailing industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses approximately 7,600 7-Eleven® stores in North America. Globally, 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 34,800 stores in 17 countries. During 2007, 7-Eleven stores worldwide generated total sales of more than $46.6 billion. Named the #1 Franchise Opportunity for 2008 by Entrepreneur magazine, 7-Eleven is franchising virtually all of its stores in the U.S., and is expanding through its Business Conversion Program, acquisitions, building new and leasing existing properties.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

Performance Appraisal of Hotel Franchisors

Hotel franchise companies performance appraisal report, who's coming to the United States and a clear-eyed, down-to-earth forecast of hotel capital markets are all in this article.

Pure Weight Loss Centers May Have Broken Law

(FranchisePick.com) According to the story on CBS4 in Miami, Pure Weight Loss Centers may have broken the law when they left Florida dieters stranded by abruptly closing their weight loss centers. Their investigation continues. Source: CBS4.com

Defunct Weight Loss Centers May Have Broken Law MIAMI (CBS4) ? When one of the state’s biggest diet companies shut it’s doors after the beginning of the year, it left hundreds of South Florida customers not only wondering if they’d ever get their money back but also what happened to all the private medical information the centers kept on file. State prosecutors, wondering the same thing, have widened their investigation into LA Weight Loss Centers and Pure Weight Loss Centers to see if they broke any laws. “All girls want to look nice and I got a couple of pounds extra,” said Yaumary Rodriguez who originally signed up with an LA Weight Loss Center several years ago. Rodriguez said by staying on the plan she lost 24 pounds in the past year. “My goal was 30 pounds but when I got down to 24,” said Rodriguez, “I decided not to keep losing more” At the beginning of the year, Rodriguez said she decided she needed to go back on the LA Weight Loss Center plan to help her drop a couple of pounds she picked up over the holidays. When she went to her local LA Weight Loss Center in Cutler Bay on January 4th to pick up her next shipment of weight loss bars, she said she was stunned to find that it had changed it’s name to Pure Weight Loss. She received her second shock when she was informed that the store, which was still filled with LA Weight Loss products, was closing down. “The companies were closing,” Rodriguez said she was told, “it was the last date of work for the whole company. They just closed and they never sent a notice to the people they never say anything.” Read the entire article

WHAT’S YOUR TAKE? COMMENTS WELCOME.

Visit FRANBEST: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and and business opportunities.