Starbucks baristas spell your name wrong - a conspiracy?

I am sure that the majority of you who have been to Starbucks have had your name misspelt on the cup at least once.

A few days ago, I came across some articles suggesting that Starbucks baristas do so on purpose.

The sources proposing this are obviously questionable but if their propositions were to be true, this could be a way of influencing Starbucks’ customers to advertise their brand for free, as people usually share it on their social media. 

As a result, more people are exposed to the brand through their friends' social media and unconsciously develop a preference for it because they see it so often. This technique is called mere exposure (Zajonc, 1968). Janiszewski (1993) suggests that mere exposure may lead to positive attitudes towards a brand even though the customer may not necessarily recall being exposed to it. Hence customers' preference levels are boosted by constant exposure to Starbucks' brand on social media. 

A similar effect was demonstrated by Ruggieri and Bpca (2017) on mere exposure to brand and consumer preferences. researchers showed one group of high school students an excerpt from a movie with product placement in it and second - without. The results demonstrated a stronger preference for brands in the first group than in the second, indicating that a preference for a brand can develop just as a result of being exposed to its logo. 

Obviously it is unclear as to how reliable the sources claiming this conspiracy are but would be a very interesting way of manipulating customers!

References:

Burns, C. (2016). Do Starbucks always get your name wrong? This is the crazy theory suggesting it’s deliberate and why. The Sun. Retrieved 4 March 2018, from https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2382477/do-starbucks-always-get-your-name-wrong-this-is-the-crazy-theory-suggesting-its-delibearte-and-why/

Janiszewski, C. (1993). Preattentive mere exposure effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 20, 376-392.  

Ruggieri, S., & Boca, S. (2017). At the Roots of Product Placement: The Mere Exposure Effect. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9, 246-258.

Wilkinson, J. (2016). New conspiracy theory explains why Starbucks always spells names wrong. Mail Online. Retrieved 4 March 2018, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4030698/Starbucks-employees-spell-wrong-cups-PURPOSE-share-pictures-social-media-conspiracy-theory-claims.html

Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1-27.