From: Starbucks.com
Subject Line: New Starbucks VIA˙ Ready Brew - We Found A Way!
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009

They did send a product announcement several weeks before the official retail store launch to help build anticipation and educate consumers. In a break with Starbucks email tradition, the message had a clear call-to-action, taking recipients to a rich landing page experience where the product is described in more detail. Even more exciting (from my perspective as an email nerd!), and something else new for Starbucks emails, they included secondary messaging with a link to purchase directly from their online store. Go Starbucks!

It looks like Starbucks is conducting some segmentation in their email program now - I received the message, but Lisa did not. That leaves me wondering if it's because I'm the one who spends more money at my local Starbucks, or if the folks at Starbucks top-secret R&D labs were able to determine Lisa wouldn't need an email to help compel her to try VIA :)