You think YOU like Starbucks?

Meet John Smith.

John "Winter" Smith—just Winter to those who know him—had already been up for three hours, visited four Starbucks, eaten one Starbucks doughnut, and downed a Starbucks DoubleShot espresso and 12 ounces of regular Starbucks coffee. He's jittery, but he's still on his game: Standing at the counter of Starbucks No. 5 for the day, an unremarkable strip mall location in Scottsdale, Winter realizes something is amiss. "These cards are different!" he says, staring at the store manager's business card, which he's grabbed from a stack at the register. "I haven't run into any other cards across the country that have this on the back."

And Winter should know, because he has visited 4,300 different Starbucks in the U.S., Japan, Canada and the U.K.

And amazingly he is doing this all on his own! He isn't paid to do it, he isn't even being "showcased" by Starbucks. He is on a purely personal quest to visit every corporately owned Starbucks. Since these are opening rather regularly, it isn't clear that he can ever quit.

He isn't rich. He drives his own car. Doesn't this seem like an opportunity for Starbucks to have their own "Jared," of Subway fame? The risk is that Winter could as easily turn into Morgan Spurlock, of Super Size Me fame.

How to handle this ticklish marketing "opportunity?" An interesting discussion here looks at both the risks and benefits associated with having a brand loyalist like Winter.