Tori Pierce | Alex Maeland | Casey Williamon | Taylor Middleton | Michael Fadler | Zach Briody

Brand Overview: Creating a Connection

• Brick & Mortar Brand loyalty firmly established

• A relational environment that cultivates memorable experiences for customers while they are in and around the Starbucks brand

• Established in 1971• Howard Schultz joins in 1982

Motto:• “Our Customers: When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of

our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection.”

Brand Overview: Building the Digital Environment

• Starbucks wanted to extend the experience to their customer through Online channels and Social Media channels, a natural next step in their relational and communal evolution as a brand.

Group Project Overview: The Social Media Audit

• The overall outline of the project:1. To evaluate each individual Social Media Channel that Starbuck’s currently

employed• What channels does Starbuck’s utilize?• What unique ways does each individual channel allow Starbuck’s to engage

its audience?

2. To evaluate and understand Starbucks’ global/overall goals for its involvement in Social Media by asking the following questions:• What are they aiming to accomplish for their brand?• What does their social media involvement bring to their brand that they could

not accomplish otherwise? (Or through traditional marketing)

3. Compare & Contrast:• For the sake of understanding how well or how poorly Starbucks is performing

in the Social Media sphere, comparing how their performance rests alongside that of other similarly involved brands• Caribou Coffee• Dunkin Donuts

4. Observe and Report:1. Observations on the brand’s overall social media strategy and search engine

optimization success.5. Recommendations

• Based on our observations, suggesting a few of our opinions about what the brand could do to improve its overall social media involvement

1. Starbucks’ Third-Party Social Media Channels(As of 10/31/11)

CASEYFan Likes: 25,869,718“Talking About This”: 157,486“We’re Here”: 3,357,771

MICHAELFollowers: 1,788,898Listed: 21,443

ZACHFollowers: 285,622Locations: 17,009Check-Ins: 146,665Deal: Mayor Deals

ALEXFollowers: 120,509Likes: #Starbucks: Avg. 625/photo60,209 photos

TORIChannel Views: 620,105Total Upload Views: 7,120,831Subscribers: 11,675

1. Proprietary Social Media Channels(As of 10/31/11)

2. Starbucks’ Wheel & Spoke Visualized

3. Starbucks v. Caribou

Starbucks CaribouFACEBOOK:Fan Likes: 25,869,718“Talking About This”: 157,486“We’re Here”: 3,357,771

Stores: 17,009 stores in 55 countries

TWITTER:Followers: 1,788,898Listed: 21,443

FACEBOOK:Fan Likes: 252,035“Talking About This”: 4,421“We’re Here”: N/A

Stores: 541 company-owned coffeehouses in 16 states and the District of ColumbiaTWITTER:Followers: 20,599Listed: 840

3. Starbucks v. Dunkin Donuts

Starbucks Dunkin DonutsFACEBOOK:Fan Likes: 25,869,718“Talking About This”: 157,486“We’re Here”: 3,357,771

FACEBOOK:Fan Likes: 4,907,177“Talking About This”: 50,833“We’re Here”: 9,581

Stores: 9,760 stores in 30 countries.Stores: 17,009 stores in 55 countries

TWITTER:Followers: 1,788,898Listed: 21,443

TWITTER:Followers: 109,654Listed: 3,229

4. The Optimization of SEO

Keywords Websites containing this Keyword

Monthly searches of this keyword

“starbucks” 106,000,000 1,830,000“starbucks lovers” 47,300,000 36

“starbucks coffee” 15,700,000 40,500

“starbucks fans” 37,000,000 22“starbucks giftcard” 3,870,000 480

“I love starbucks” 76,500,000 320

“coffee” 862,000,000 301,000

4. Other Search Engine Analytics

5 . S u g g e s t io n s f o r S t a r b u c k s

•Im p r o v e In t e r n a t io n a l In v o lv e m e n t a n d R e la t io n s -reduce ethnocentrism -become more culture sensitive-Improve relations with coffee growers •R e d u c e t h e L a c k o f S e le c t io n o f f o r C o n s u m e r s-Their entire business rests on the coffee industry, If they invest elsewhere and expand their product line outside of coffee they decrease their potential of becoming “irrelevant” if coffee ever becomes a fad.•Im p r o v e d P r o m o t io n S t r a t e g ie s - Ex) Caribou Coffee Coupon Incident •In c o r p o r a t e S o c ia l M e d ia In t o T h e ir S t o r e s-Ex) Starbucks New York Store social media display•R e d u c e S e a s o n a l F lu c t u a t io n -Starbucks profits are the highest in the 1st quarter (August-December) because of their seasonal push and offering limited time only Holiday beverages.

5. Suggestions for Starbucks Continued

• Reduce Market Saturation• Reduce Snobby Image

Rather than advertising “Luxury” Coffee, they should advertise premium coffee and let the consumer know what is going into their cup of coffee hence why consumers are paying more.

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Appendix

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