Boy, does the Starbucks fiasco remind me of how appropriately I named my agency. I personally had a similar experience – I went to a bank where the staff that had not been trained on how to handle customer questions about their current marketing campaign. Actually they were not even aware of it.
That episode struck a cord. It made me think of the irony, spending hundreds of thousands on a flashy promotion, and not spending the time to involve the people inside the company; the ones who make it all work, and the ones who face the public. Whether your product is a widget or a weekend away; free checking or the best cancer care in town, talk to your people before. Get their input regarding how solid the claims are and whether you can stand behind the offer; learn on time of any potential implementation weakness. And then, after you have reviewed, edited and polished your message, train, train, train.