Capital One Cafe Catastrophe

So I’ve seen the advertisement for Capital One (Bank) Cafes on TV for some time now.

Well I saw my first real one in Fort Lauderdale this week.

It was big, bright, comfortable and had children’s games and a host of meeting and breakout rooms.

They even gave us two cards for some free coffee at the embedded Pete’s Coffee.

It was a corner store in a large, expensive space.

It was great place to get some work done or relax.

But aside for a cash machine or so, there was nothing that I could see having to do with banking in this place.

Also, there were also almost no customers for the coffee.

Basically, it is totally confusing idea from a marketing and branding perspective — Is it a bank or a coffee house? And why would I go to Capital One to get coffee or to Pete’s Coffee to do my banking????

While I think that Capital One has literally outdone Starbucks in building a great cafe space, I don’t think anyone will actually get what this is or why it is!

My guess is that whoever came up with this idea is going to be looking for a job within about 6 big money-losing months. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)