The Best One Yet - 😈 “Stingy Frappuccino” — Starbucks’ rewards cut. Mattel’s Barney resurrection. Crypto’s new wall.

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

Notice something different in your Starbucks app? This week, Starbucks changed its loyalty program by adding a shot of stinginess. Mattel’s trying to cure its toy hangover with Barney the dinosaur because nostalgia never dies. And Bitcoin has enjoyed its best start to a year ever, but the SEC just announced a new crypto wall.$SBUX $MAT $BTC $COINFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, February 15th, and today's pod is truly the best one yet. It's a T-1. Do you know we have a long weekend coming up? We do have a long weekend come up. But, Jack, can we talk about the big thing all the Yetis are talking about from yesterday's pod? What?

Okay, we said that dating apps are now a place to find friends. So what if your partner downloaded a dating app so they could find friends? So, Nick, what you're asking me is, can you be happily in a relationship but have the Tinder app to find friends, like innocently. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm asking you, and that's the awkward question everyone is asking right now. I don't know the answer. Probably not.

If you don't know, the answer is no. Jack, what's our first toy for today's pod? Earlier this week, Starbucks quietly changed their Starbucks reward program. Because Stingy is the new sexy. For our second story, Bitcoin is up 34% in 2023. It's best start to a year ever. But the SEC just announced it's building a crypto, Whoa.

And our third and final story is Mattel. They're resurrecting one of the most important toy characters ever. Barney, the Big Purple Dinosaur. But the customer isn't really the kids. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful purple mix. Just a fantastic mix. And I love what you just did there, Jack. Do you remember the old American dream we've heard about since the 50s?

The old American dream. A nice house, a car in the garage, and a kitchen table with a big bowl of fruit down in the middle. Maybe a second house. you're lucky. Maybe a third boat if we got enough time. But the last few years, a new American dream has emerged. The new American dream is dinks. D-I-N-K. Dinks. If you're a dink, that means you're a couple that has double income, no kids. That's what it stands for. A dink, double-income, no kids. A dink is a couple that has two incomes, but no kids to care about. Dinks are a couple with high revenue, but minimal cost. Dinks get bonuses from their bosses. But they're not dropping.

it on babysitters and bass andats. Dinks can fly to Cabo anytime they want. Though without packing a few diapers along the way. But a new thing Nick and I just discovered is making dinks jealous. Yeah, everyone thought dinks were so exciting. But there's a new thing that's scaring dinks. And that thing is dink wads. Dinkwad.

If you are a dinkwad, you are double income with no kids. With a dog. D-I-N-K-W-A-D. That is the new power couple, the dinkwad. Like dinks, dinkwads have two. two jobs, they're making a lot of money, and they have no kid costs. Not too shabby, but also they've got a pooch. All the lifestyle benefits of being a dink.

But you get to come home every night to someone incredibly happy to see you. Who's a good boy? Now, Nick, ever since you met Molly, you've been a dink. Is that correct? We've been dinking it for a while. We've been dinking it for a while, Jack. We just planned a trip for L.A. to this weekend because, you know, we're dinks. I had a nice 18-month window where I was a dinkwad until Wilder was born.

You're not a dink anymore. Are you a sink, aren't you? Single income with kids, actually. I'm a souk. Sook or a sink. That's like the opposite of a dink or a dink wand. Don't tell me what a sink was. If you know, you know.

Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a known. 50%. That's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list.

If you know, you know, because we've bred to go. Go, we can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, earlier this week, Starbucks implemented a massive devaluation. To their rewards points. But here's the scary part. They're not the only one doing it. No, they are not. Now Yeti's odds are right now you're listening to us in a Starbucks while they butcher your name

before they call you up for that coffee. Throw that cup away. Your name's not Lark. I said Mark. But Yeti, Starbucks is wrong. Real, real innovation. Starbucks, they pioneered the loyalty app. The Starbucks Rewards Loyalty App launched 14 years ago.

And still today, it is tops in the app store in the food and beverage category. Not too shabby. Starbucks's app has, get this, 30 million members. That's not a club. That's a country. Get this, Nick. It's a huge multinational corporation. Starbucks is 56% of sales are from members who scan the QR code with their app.

Six percent of sales. The number of people using this app is like three Guatemalas. No joke. It literally is. But Nick and I control F to the latest earnings report of Starbucks to figure out what words mean the most to them. Because, Yannies, when you see the words that they use in an earnings report, you know the priorities. All right. Starbucks said the word coffee 20 times in their latest earnings call. It makes sense. They are a coffee company. They mentioned the word reward 23 times. Oh, and go on, Jack. They mentioned the word member 25. five times.

Ipso facto Yeti. Starbucks, thanks to that reward app, isn't a coffee company. Starbucks is a fintech company. It's a fintech club. Howard, run with that. But last year, they announced a change was coming to the loyalty app. Effective February 13th, 2020. And we didn't worry because it was February 13th, 20203.

Oh, whoa. Checking the calendar, Jack. That was Monday. That was this week. So we should talk about this. Yeti's, Starbucks is adding a new thing to every coffee you order. What is Jack? Stinginess.

You are getting a shot of stinginess. Yetis, this week, Starbucks just changed the number of stars needed in their loyalty program in order to earn free stuff. Coffee was already more expensive. Now free coffee is more expensive, too. Okay, Yeti's, you want that free scone, you want a free pastry, maybe one of the free cake pops you earn from the loyalty program? Well, now that's going to cost you 100 stars up from 50 stars. All right, Yeti's. Let's say you want a free double-digit oat milk latte that's become part of your morning routine.

That used to cost 150 stars. Now it's 225 stars. Jack, I'm checking the numbers right now. In order to get an orange mocha frapuccino, it's going to take me three years in the Starbucks' warranty app. Now, Yeti, so that Nick and I don't get sued, we should mention that Starbucks lowered the points needed for a couple of reward tiers as well. Yeah, we don't mind getting sued. We'd prefer not do, so we should bring this up. Jack, if you want to earn a free packaged coffee from Starbucks, how's it going to get there now?

A 12-ounce bag of ground Sumatra blend is now 300 points, which is down from 400 points. That's fantastic, except for the fact that you never get packaged coffee from Starbucks ever. You didn't drive to Starbucks so that you could buy coffee and bring it home and brew it at home. Yeah, full disclosure, I don't even know how to ground coffee. You don't even drink coffee. I assume you need a hammer. I don't even want to know what's involved. So, Jack, what's the venty-sized takeaway?

for our buddies over at Starbucks. The arc of loyalty bends towards stinginess. Ben's toward stinginess. Yeties, the best part of a loyalty program relationship between you and a company, it's at the beginning. It's the honeymoon phase. They just launched a new app. They're trying to build their brand.

They need to hook you, so they offer perks that are enticing. But here's the key. They also know that once you are loyal, you are unlikely to leave them. Look, you downloaded their app. You've created a routine going to their store. You've built a trove of reward points. You're not going to switch to Duncan just because they change the price of stars.

So after that honeymoon phase, loyalty programs, they start testing your tolerance. And it's not just Starbucks. Most loyalty programs we've seen are getting stingy right now. Yeah, Jack and I noticed last year, Duncan raised the number of points needed to earn free pumps of hazelnuff. This year, Delta raised the amount of money you need to spend to earn their gold medallion status. And Jack, why are all these companies? doing all this stuff to our loyalty programs? Because the arc of loyalty programs bend towards stinginess. For our second story, we're experiencing a 2023 crypto crackdown right now. The SEC just said

that crypto is fine, but crypto banks aren't fine. In fact, you're getting fined. You're getting fined, even though you're fine. First of all, though, Jack, can we talk about the shocker going on with our buddy, Ben the Bitcoin right now? Ben just had the best. best start of a year ever for Bitcoin. Yeti's Bitcoin is up 34% in 2020. Sit down, stand up and apparently stay up. So the price of Bitcoin is doing well so far this year, but the crypto industry is not doing well this year. Cryptocurrencies are doing great. Crypto firms not so much. For example, this week, the SEC shut down BUSD, which is Binance's stable coin. Last week, the SEC forced the crypto exchange cracking to pay a $30 million dollar fine.

Yeah, noticing a theme here? It's the SEC. The SEC, Wall Street's police department. It's sheriff. It's Chuck Norris enforcing the laws of the finance community. The SEC just showed up on the blockchain. And that's why Coinbase's stock has fallen 20% in the past week because the SEC cops are on the beat patrol in crypto now. Now, this crackdown from the SEC on crypto, it's highlighted a debate in the industry. Yeah, we're noticing this debate happening right now. Is the new crackdown innovation or is it protecting customers? Now, crypto people say it's the former, that the crypto crackdown from the SEC is going to stifle innovation in the industry.

Yeah, crypto leaders, they're saying old school finance rules of Wall Street are choking this new school industry. But plenty are cheering what the SEC just did, including a bunch of politicians. Right, they're saying that crypto had grown for years without regulation. And that led to customers getting crushed in the past six months. Yeties, all you got to do is look at the list of crypto bankruptcies in just the last year. It started with Celsius, then Voyager went bankrupt, then BlockFi when bankrupt, and then the big bankruptcy happened, FDX. And this is all shown

that crypto companies can be reckless when they operate without rules. Now, Congress hasn't passed anything specific to the crypto industry. So the SEC is using old rules. And those old rules just punished, stable coins, staking, and any product that promises you interest on your crypto deposits. Because those new crypto products happen to be the ones that only registered banks can offer, which feels like a takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in crypto? If you act like a bank, you get regulated like a bank. Banks, they aren't just one industry. You got to think about banks as an entire institution. Because we need banks for the economy to grow, but a bank bankruptcy can blow up the economy. Yeah, we've seen it. That's why an

entire branch of our federal government is completely devoted, focused, and passionate about banks, the Fed. And that's why banks are so heavily regulated. They're trying to stop another Lehman Brothers or a Sam Brankan-Fries. So the way we see it, this new SEC ruling, this crypto crackdown, it puts a wall between finance and crypto. It basically says crypto companies can't act like banks unless they're registered as banks. Crypto companies can still act as exchanges. They can let you buy and sell crypto and take fees if they want. And crypto companies can still send and receive crypto. They can still do that too.

But lending or borrowing coins? If they want to do that, they got to register as a bank. That's the SEC's message to crypto. If you act like a bank, you get regulated like a bank. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You can do just about anything from your phone, but some industries, they've just been slow to move. The finance industry was slow to move from phone to computer and then from computer to app. Robin Hood wasn't. It's the Silicon Valley-based brokerage that's been updating app since it was born in 2015.

Using the Robin Hood app for your stocks and crypto is almost as easy as downloading it. So you can invest to your pace on your terms by downloading the Robin Hood app. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y limitation supply. Stocks are offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood Crypto. All investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.

For our third and final story, Mattel just announced it's bringing back Barney the purple dinosaur. The big purple dinosaur. That purple dinosaur, and there's a strategy behind it. Mattel is targeting kids, but it's not really targeting kids, is it? No, they are not. But yeties, last month, Jack and I issued a warning for the toy industry. Get some water. We warned the toy industry.

about America's toy hangover. A toy hangover. You saw this toy hangover live, right, Jack? There's toys all over every room in my house, friends. Americans, we've spurred so much on toys during the pandemic. We're holding off on new toy purchases. Well, Mattel's stock is down 13% since then, but they just launched a rebound plan. And here is the Mattel rebound plan. Here it is. Here it is. Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination.

When he's tall, he's what we call a dinosaur sensation. Is that like the intro to the Barney show? Is that like intro to the Barney? Barney, they're relaunching the Barney franchise. In fact, Mattel has a chief franchise officer who announced the move. And that CFO said, Barney's message of love and kindness has stood the test of time. Yeah, because Barney is the purple dinosaur, eternally happy, an anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex who happens to enjoy veggies and peanut butter.

And I do remember that episode because he had to drink milk. I know he's supposed to be non-threatening, but I was a little threatened by Barney growing up. I loved Barney. Jack had a different, different relationship with the show. Yeti's Jack and I were talking before the pot. Jack was traumatized that we were doing this story. I wasn't traumatized. You always didn't want to do it. I just found him creepy. Jack asked if we should put in a trigger warning at some point in case he didn't like Barney. There's a man inside that costume.

When I wear the color purple, I have to give Jack like two days notice because he was so scared about Barney the 90s. I loved Barney so much. I actually asked for a Barney toy three years in a row for my birthday. Nick, he has one upper tooth and one lower tooth. What's the deal with that? Now, you're just being judgmental, and that's not what Barney stands for, Jack. Now, Yetis, we know what you're wondering. And it's the reason Jack and I were fascinated with this story. What does a company do when they get desperate, Jack?

When they're desperate, they go for the sure thing. And in this case, the sure thing is nostalgia. Because Yeti's nostalgia never dies. Barney and Friends debuted on PBS in 1992. And for 20 years, they were asking kids, who took the cookie from the cookie jar? Yeah, but then for 15 years, Barney was basically extinct. It really hadn't been on cable TV since 2008.

Well, now Mattel is betting on a strategy of bringing back old brands to life. Yes, they are. They're going to start with Barney with their new plan, Barney on TV, Barney and Film, and Barney with YouTube. That's impressive. It is, but they're not stopping there, Jack. Barney's also going to have music and toys and books and clothing. Next thing we know, Barney's going to be launching a daily podcast.

Yet his Mattel is going from zero to Disney faster than Mickey Mouse ever could. They're scaling Barney like he's a tech feature. And this strategy, it's not just the certainty of nostalgia. It's also a cheaper strategy. Because get this, Mattel happens to own all the IP around Barney. And we already know the character of Barney. It sells itself creepily. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy, Barney the dinosaur?

The audience and the customer aren't necessarily the same thing. No, they're not. Yet he's Barney is a dinosaur, living in our imagination. nations. He loves friendships, he loves hugs, and he really loves whole milk to help when he eats peanut butter. Barney's not a Shrek situation. It's not one of those things that's fun for the kids and the parents. No, this is pure kid content. Like, you're going to be watching The Last of Us on HBO, and then your baby is going to watch Barney separately. But while kids are the target audience for Barney, they're not the target customer for Barney. No, they're not. Here's the

Insight Yetis. The customer is who makes the purchase decision. And in this case, the customer is the parent. Who Mattel is really targeting is adult millennials. Here's what a Mattel executive said. They said, we will tap into the nostalgia of the generations who grew up with Barney now parents themselves. Because the audience and the customer aren't necessarily the same thing. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Starbucks loyalty program just cut the value of their stars big time. Because the arc of loyalty bends towards stinginess. And our second story is the SEC. They've started cracking down on crypto companies that lend.

If you act like a bank, you get regulated like a bank. And our third and final story, Barney, the big purple dinosaur, is back, but this time animated. Not a man in a creepy purple costume. And Barney taught us that an audience and the customer are not necessarily the same thing. Because Barney is always teaching us, including Jack, despite his resistance. Is Barney paying you, Nick? I wouldn't be surprised if he is. I think the pods of the venue for this, Jack.

Now, time for the best fact yet, which we're going to kick off with a little bit of trivia. And what's our trivia question, Jack? What is the age of the oldest living dog on earth? What is the age of the oldest pooch on earth? Now, we actually have the answer to that question. And that answer comes from Yeti Pedro Carvalo from lovely Pashos de Brandao, Portugal. Push and play. Let's do it.

Hi, besties. My name is Pedro from Portugal. And my fact is that in Portugal, we have the oldest talk in the world. His name is Bobby. And he has 30 years old. 30. 30. 30 years old.

30 years old. Born in 1993. 210 years in human years. The dog's almost as old as us. I think it's in doggy years. It's 210. Spoken like someone who's a dinkwad Spoken like a real dink wand

Foken like a true dink wand Double income, no kids with a dog Yeties, you look fantastic today And the best way you can help us grow the pod is turn to a buddy next to you and say hey H-YH T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow.

And before we go, a special. Special shout out to Yeti's Alberto, Zach Lamb, Dan Baker, Sam Zankow, and a Nali down in Texas. Tacos for breakfast? Yeah, they do it great down there in Austin. They do it great. Now we're going to try it. Cherizo and egg extra hot sauce. I'll take two, please.

And a happy 29th birthday to Carl Velotti in Boise, Idaho, watching CSI Boise. Happy birthday to Allison Lippman in Nashville, Tennessee. And Chawnee is celebrating that birthday with some dove chocolates over in Chicago. Happy birthday to Melissa Marks in Buffalo Bills, New York. And happy 30th birthday to V-Mau in Oakland, California. Happy 21st birthday to Paige from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And a happy 30th birthday to Bobby the Dog from Portugal. This is Jack, I own stock of Disney.

Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood, and we both own some Bitcoin. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Jack, rule number one about a kitchen renovation, tell your friends about your kitchen renovation. We know the cabinets are expensive. Well, in the pandemic, a lot of companies renovated their businesses focusing on apps and digital. Robin Hood didn't have to. It was built digital from the start. Robin Hood's mobile first and intuitive design makes investing a little easier for every stage of your investing journey. Whether you want to trade options, ETFs, or stocks through Robin Hood Financial, or buy some Bitcoin on Robin Hood Crypto, you can do all that right on the Robin Hood app.

If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to Robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's robin hood.com slash TBOI. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood. We are not employees of Robin Hood. It's kind of a show business thing to say that, isn't it? At the end, you're like, great show.

What a show. What a show. What a show. Great show. Someone's like, it's a podcast. It's a show. It's a show. It's a show.

It's a show. It's a show.