INTRODUCTION

Starbucks Corporation, doing business as Starbucks Coffee, is an American coffee

company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the
largest coffeehouse company in the world ahead of UK rival Costa Coffee, with
22,551 stores in 65 countries and territories, including 12,739 in the United States,
1,868 in China, 1,395 in Canada, 1,117 in Japan and 830 in the United Kingdom.
Starbucks locations serve hot and cold beverages, whole-bean coffee, micro ground
instant coffee, espresso, cafe latte, full-leaf teas, pastries, and snacks. Most stores
also sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and items such as
mugs and tumblers. Starbucks Evenings locations also offer a variety of beers,
wines, and appetizers after 4 p.m. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division
and Hear Music brand, the company also markets books, music, and film. Some of
the company's products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store.
Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream and bottled cold coffee drinks are also sold at
grocery stores.
From Starbucks' founding in 1971 as a Seattle coffee bean roaster and retailer, the
company has expanded rapidly. Between 1987 and 2007, Starbucks opened on
average two new stores every day. Starbucks had been profitable as a local
company in Seattle in the early 1980s but lost money on its late 1980s expansion
into the Midwest and British Columbia. Its fortunes did not reverse until the fiscal
year of 1989-1990, when it registered a small profit of $812,000. By the time it
expanded into California in 1991 it had become trendy. The first store outside the
United States or Canada opened in Tokyo in 1996, and overseas stores now
constitute almost one third of Starbucks' stores. The company planned to open a
net of 900 new stores outside of the United States in 2009, but has announced 300
store closures in the United States since 2008.

FOUNDING
The first Starbucks opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971, by three
partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco:
English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker.
The three were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment by coffee

roasting entrepreneur Alfred Peet after he taught them his style of roasting beans.
Originally the company was to be called Pequod, after a whaling ship from MobyDick, but some of the co-founders rejected that name. Instead, the company took
the name of the chief mate on the Pequod: Starbuck.
However, Bowker has a different recollection of how the company got its name. He
recalls that the co-founders were desperately close to naming the company "Cargo
House" until Heckler mentioned that he thought words that began with "st" were
powerful ones. That led Bowker to make a list of "st" words, and somebody
somehow saw the old mining town of Starbo in an old mining map.
The Starbucks store at 1912 Pike Place. This is the second location of the original
Starbucks, which was at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971 to 1976.
The first Starbucks cafe was located at 2000 Western Avenue from 19711976. This
cafe was later moved to 1912 Pike Place Market; never to be relocated again.
During this time, the company only sold roasted whole coffee beans and did not yet
brew coffee to sell. The only brewed coffee served in the store was free samples.
During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet's,
and then began buying directly from growers.

Starbucks India What They Say

It happens millions of times each week a customer receives a drink from a
Starbucks barista but each interaction is unique.

Its just a moment in time just one hand reaching over the counter to present a
cup to another outstretched hand.
But its a connection.
We make sure everything we do honors that connection from our commitment to
the highest quality coffee in the world, to the way we engage with our customers
and communities to do business responsibly.
From our beginnings as a single store over forty years ago, in every place that
weve been, and every place that we touch, we've tried to make it a little better
than we found it.

History
The Starbucks Story
Our story began in 1971. Back then we were a roaster and retailer of whole bean
and ground coffee, tea and spices with a single store in Seattles Pike Place Market.
Today, we are privileged to welcome millions of customers through our doors every
day, in more than 17,000 locations in over 50 countries.
Folklore
Starbucks is named after the first mate in Herman Melvilles Moby Dick. Our logo is
also inspired by the sea featuring a twin tailed siren from Greek mythology.
Starbucks Mission
Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one
neighborhood at a time.
Our Coffee

Weve always believed in serving the best coffee possible. It's our goal for all of our
coffee to be grown under the highest standards of quality, using ethical sourcing
practices.

Our coffee buyers personally travel to coffee farms in Latin America,

Africa and Asia to select the highest quality Arabica beans. Once these quality
beans arrive at our roasting plants, Starbucks experts bring out the balance and rich
flavor of the beans through the signature Starbucks Roast.

Our Stores
Our stores are a welcoming third place for meeting friends and family, enjoying a
quiet moment alone with a book or simply finding a familiar place in a new city.
Total stores: 17,009 (as of January 2, 2011)
8,870 Companyowned
8,139 Licensed stores
Operating in more than 50 countries
Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador,
England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan,
Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Northern
Ireland, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan,
Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States and Wales.
Our Partners
We offer the finest coffees in the world, grown, prepared and served by the finest
people. Our employees, who we call partners, are at the heart of the Starbucks
Experience.

Our store partners are committed to coffee knowledge, product

expertise and customer service. We believe in treating our partners with respect
and dignity. We are proud to offer two landmark programs for our partners:
comprehensive health coverage for eligible full and parttime partners and equity
in the company through our Bean Stock Program.

Brand Prism
Starbucks is an American global coffee company based and started at Pike Place
market in Seattle, Washington. The chairperson and president is Howard Schultz.
Starbucks is well known for selling coffee but also for various hot and cold
beverages, pastries, sandwiches and other snake. The idea of the company is to
create a comfortable environment to coffee lovers. They target working classes,
students and coffee lovers. Starbucks sometimes offer 24 business hours for a
person who needs beverages, food and coffee. The idea of company is against the
traditional coffee houses and express coffee shops.

Overall Strategy
Starbucks is the #1 most engaged brand online in Altimeter Report 2009. Their
social media team started up with only six people, but now receives the highest
engagement score. What is the magic of Starbucks? Since Starbucks is an ironic
brand with history, they have strict control over the quality of each coffee bean and
each cup of coffee. Different with other coffee houses, the original idea of Starbucks
is to provide a comfortable environment for the coffee lovers and local neighbors.
One of the most successful marketing strategies they apply is focusing on customer
satisfaction and creating a community. By fulfilling the customer needs for
uniqueness (such as unique signature on coffee cups) and providing customers a
website (My Starbucks ideas) to express their idea of improving the brand and store.
Starbucks had triumph in using a strategy of word of mouth to receive higher brand
awareness and recognition for the most effective media campaign. In addition,
Starbucks focus their brand marketing on increasing loyalty of existing customers
and building customer relationship rather than focusing only on sales growth. With
this propose, Starbuck becomes one of the earliest companies adopted the use of
social media. Their social media strategy is built around their company website and
6 additional social platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+,
YouTube and My Starbucks ideas (Schoultz).

Social Media Tool

My Starbucks ideas & Frappuccino.com

My Starbucks Ideas is recently celebrating for its five-year anniversary. This online
community site published by Starbucks had launched more than 150,000 ideas from
customers, leading to the implementation of 277 new innovations for Starbucks.
This site allows people to share, vote, discuss and put into action of ideas on how to
enhance the Starbucks experience (Starbucks). By publishing an online community
website to customers, Starbucks uses the word of mouth strategy and make
customers talk about their store and brand. This site also innovate new idea of
company and what customers want. In addition, My Starbucks Ideas helps to
increase customer involvement, motivation and address the acquired needs. By
connecting with marketing strategy concept, customers feel they are involved in the
policy, product and the environment design of the store. Moreover, this online
community website addresses social need of customers to belong in the Starbucks
community. Changes made by customer idea promote customers to feel Starbucks
is designed for them and address their acquired need. As a result, Starbucks
achieved huge success after publishing this site and their customer engagement
increased dramatically which led to the #1 most engaged brands. According to
Starbucks annual report 2008, which is the same year they introduced the online
community website, their net revenue growth is 10% even during the recession
period. Starbucks social marketing not only addresses the need of change from
customers but also the need of uniqueness. In order to discuss these needs,
Starbucks launched another brilliant social media website called Frappuccino.com.
This website gives many Frappuccino lovers a lot of joy. First, customers are able to
create their own drink and name them. This drink might become an actual sales
product in the store which represents the customer involvement. Second, customers
can upload and share their picture of sipping the Starbucks Frappuccino, which
encourages the word of mouth effect, that people may start spreading words about
this amazing website and their pictures. Even more, customers can customize the
current selling product to become their unique drinks. These tools on the website
lead the positive motivation of customers to design and drink their customized
Frappuccino, which result in driving their sales and engagement at the same time.
In addition, this website will deliver emotional motives to customers based on the
fact that drink is designed by them.

Facebook-Cares

about

customer

more

than

selling

According

to

Socialbackers.com, Starbucks has total 35,345,288 fans and has 137,741 people
talking about it. The followers of Starbucks Facebook page are larger than the
population of many countries. Starbucks is on the top #2 in 10 Facebook brands by
number of local fans in January 2013, #6 in August and September 2013. The fans
grow 61,007 by month and 6 by day. The strategy is different with other company
since Starbucks does not publish many posts a day, instead once in few days.
However, the focus is not solely on the coffee. Starbucks pay more attention to
interaction between their fans and different ideas from them. You will see a post
from their fan drawing and designing their cups and they will share the post on
official Facebook page. This method pleases customers to feel that Starbucks does
pay attention to their fan posts. Another great thing about their Facebook
management is they respond to customers quickly which mean they closely follow
up what people talk about them and are grateful about all the opinions. Some
customers even post comments that the reason why she loves Starbucks is not just
about the coffee, is about their desire to continue to work with the customers, care
and be part of the community. This is a successful message which represents more
than just the cup of coffee they provide, in fact they provide greater service and
willing to communicate with customers. Starbucks also post coupons and
promotions they have in the store. The recent competition they successfully
managed was that they let their Facebook followers to decide which city in U.S. and
Canada will get to enjoy the holiday-themed beverage for a week prior to the
national launch. This huge advantage made people go crazy about voting to be the
first city. This is the word of mouth strategy they used to make people gladly spread
the message. They used this competition to make their customer more involved
with brand by offering a chance to contribute to the company decision which
ultimately implanted sense of engagement and belonging. Their success formula is
also about overall design of the pages. Starbuck has various tabs providing
information and benefit to customers rather than talk more about Starbucks. None
of the tabs and posts are related to sales of the coffee. It is all about customer
satisfaction. Most of the posts on their page are from Starbucks fans sharing new
ideas and experience with the company. Nothing is relevant to the sales of their
products, but all people can see is more about customer relationship and
commitment.

Twitter- Listen to your customers wants and needs

Starbuck is a giant in social media. The brand boasts 2.1 million followers on Twitter
which is extremely popular and impressive. Their building strategies have made it
the eighth most recognized company on the micro blogging site (How Twitter helps
Starbucks, 2012). One of the excellent strategies of Starbucks is using tweeter to
listen to customer needs and solve their problem and dissatisfaction instantly. For
instance, one follower tweeted her disappointment with the coffee shop after not
receiving the traditional e-coupon on her birthday. Starbucks immediately replied to
her and gave her a contact number. In addition, Starbucks promised the customer
to help her celebrate birthday (How twitter helps Starbucks, 2012). Every company
does not want any negative review or disgruntled customer voice. But Starbucks
used twitter to resolve this unsatisfied issue immediately which gives customers
higher satisfaction and builds more profound relationship with them. Furthermore,
this strategy also stimulates the public to believe Starbucks cares about people who
purchase their product and service. More than just business related services,
Starbucks also cares about their customer community which is nothing related to
their business. For example, when Washington D.C government shut down,
Starbucks took an event of #come together. People twitted about it every day and
came to Starbucks to provide their signature. Starbucks also posted a picture of a
person who dressed Starbucks work shirt and commented that delivering signatures
to our leader in Washington D.C. It is the time. This is very clear and inspiring
message that Starbucks delivered to their customers that they are taking an action
and care about the community, more than just selling the coffee. Rather than
always posting things about themselves, Starbucks seems to apply a blue ocean
strategy on twitter by limiting amount of posts relevant to product, coffee or new
store. Starbucks create different #event and topic that matter the most to people
during certain period such as holiday and improving the society day. One good
example is #payitforward. That is an amazing idea about being kind to others.
Starbucks help promoting this event. People post that the lady who line behind her
helps her to pay for the coffee. As a result, people consider positive things about
Starbucks and what they have improved for our society and community. Starbucks
is highly committed to the social issues and willing to care about their customers.

They are more than happy to listen, respond quickly, solving the problem and
improve every day. Who will not like Starbucks?

THE DIFFERENCE MADE BY STARBUCKS USING SOCIAL MEDIA

When choosing to learn from others social media strategies, it is always helpful to
choose one of the top dogs in social media.
Meet Starbucks. They have been successfully executing their social media
marketing plan since the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 5
years, and their strategies have played a significant role in their growth. With more
than 18,000 retail locations in 60 countries, the coffeehouse is the picture of
success.
Starbucks rode the baby boomer trend in the 1990s, the swelling ranks of mid-age
professionals that created the need for a third place, an affordable luxury where
people could share and enjoy a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues, away from
work and home.
In our opinion, the company has inserted itself into the American urban landscape
more quickly and craftily than any retail company in history. It has forever changed
the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have
been so successful:

Market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on
comfort rather than convenience, which are the case with its closest competitors,
McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts.1
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes good
coffee, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their
attention on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social Media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social
commerce, Starbucks has certainly taken a leadership position. Their social media
strategy is built around their company web site and 6 additional social platforms,

including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Youtube, and My Starbucks Ideas. We will
review Starbucks social media strategy in detail below.

Adaptation and Innovation

Starbucks business crowd sourcing, via its My Starbucks Idea website, has been a
huge success. Why you may ask? Because they have combined the concepts of
change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement, and market
research and made the results key components of both their brand as well as their
marketing strategy. Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think?
Starbucks has clearly embraced the digital realm. With a strong presence on
multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social
and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand
ranking in social media.
Starbucks ability to wear so many hats corporate success, local favorite, and
Internet sensation warrants strategic examination. There are seven key reasons
their social media strategy is a successful difference maker for their marketing
campaign:

Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its
current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as
the continued existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board: Instore experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing
the importance of customer service.

Going to its customers

When Starbucks takes a photo, it shares it on Instagram, posts it to Facebook,
tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its
customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes
more digitally focused.

Each network provides an opportunity to reach a new audience, and integrating

your strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.

Customer engagement
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally
as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they
learn.

Encourages sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, the
Starbucks frequent promotions like buy 1 get 1 garner an extraordinary amount of
engagement on social media through comments, likes, and shares.

My Starbucks Ideas
The My Starbucks Idea website, where Starbucks does its business crowd sourcing,
has been actively engaging customers for over 4 years now. It encourages
customers to submit ideas for better products, improving the customer experience,
and defining new community involvement, among other categories. Clearly,
Starbucks has seen and believes what Peter Drucker has to say about business
adaptability.
Customers can submit, view, and discuss submitted ideas along with employees
from various Starbucks departments Idea Partners . The company regularly polls
its customers for their favorite products and has a leader board to track which
customers are

the most active in submitting

ideas,

comments,

and poll

participation.
The site is at once a crowd sourcing tool, a market research method that brings
customer priorities to light, an on-line community, and an effective internet
marketing tool.

Experience customization

Starbucks provides its unique experience through programs such as My Starbucks

Rewards, personalized signature drinks, and localized store experiences. Their
social sites, in particular Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their
Starbucks moments whether it be the return of a favorite holiday drink or just an
artsy coffee cup shot.

Taking a stand
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that steaming cup is beneficial for all.
The takeaway from Starbucks is to know your customer and tie that in with what
matters in the world so, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending
topics.

Starbucks reflects a mission

Its mission is to inspire and nurture the human spiritone person, one cup, and
one neighborhood at a time. They believe lifting customers up will lead to more
customer loyalty. Its The Way I See It quote campaign is a perfect example.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated which ones do you feel could
benefit your business?
How could you improve the Starbucks Coffee Social Media campaign concept for
your business?

10 guiding principles of Starbucks social media strategy:

1. Listen;
2. Be transparent;
3. Use authorities;
4. Be human;
5. Share timely information;

6. Offer personal attention;

7. Be humble in replies;
8. Dont preach;
9. Give fans access;
10.Dont spam users.

How Starbucks Crushes It on Social Media

Starbucks is known for lots of things: great coffee, friendly baristas, and a nearcomplete takeover of practically every street corner in America. Did you know its
also known for its killer social media strategy? Its true! Take a look at some of
these stats:

37.32 million Facebook likes

6.56 million Twitter followers

2.98 million Instagram fans

2.86 million Google+ followers

160K Pinterest followers

32K YouTube subscribers

Those numbers are staggering but well-earned. Theres no doubt Starbucks is

crushing social media, but how do they do it? Lets take a look.
Facebook
Interestingly,

the

Starbucks

social

media

management

team

doesnt

post Facebook updates all that often. When they do, however, theyre usually eyecatching and ultra-clever. The posts strike a good balance between fun contests,
helpful tips for the java-loving crowd, and subtle sales messages to its customers.

Twitter
Starbucks has a fascinating and unique approach to Twitter updates -- they dont do
them all the time rather strategically! Fans who connect to the company on Twitter
to catch the latest news and updates are in for a surprise. The team does post
unique content but also uses the Twitter as a service to reach out to customers
talking about their in-store or product experiences.
All Tweets are directed at specific Twitter users whove spoken to Starbucks in
their own timeline, sometimes with a complaint or negative feedback. The
Starbucks team checks in several times a day and encourages dissatisfied
customers to get in touch with the company for follow-up using a Twitter-specific
email address. Its an unorthodox but smart approach to deal with customer
complaints before they have a chance to get out of hand.
Pinterest and Instagram
A big part of the coffee culture is about beautifully decorated espressos and fancy
cups to drink your favorite cuppa. Starbucks really shines on visually-oriented social
sites like Pinterest and Instagram where they can post appealing beverage-related
eye candy. The company maintains several Pinboards featuring tea rituals, coffee

gadgets, and soothing spaces to get cozy in while you sip. Instagram, on the other
hand, is an assortment of cool images related to the coffee community and culture.
What Starbucks knows about social media?
Getting customers is good. Keeping customers is great. With over 21,000
stores in more than 65 countries, its a safe bet that anyone with even a passing
interest in coffee already knows Starbucks exists. The company has reached critical
mass in terms of advertising so its challenge at this point is keeping customers loyal
so theyre not swayed by competitors with similar offerings.
The Starbucks social media team is great at offering the customer service of local
coffee shop on a grand scale over its social media channels. Even though theyre a
huge company, they still give customers individual attention, which no doubt goes a
long way toward keeping them coming back for more.
Coffee is made for socializing. One of the reasons behind Starbucks social
media success is that drinking coffee is a social activity. People love to meet over
coffee, bring each other coffee, swap stories about coffee, and build coffee
acquisition into their morning routines.
By extension, sharing the coffee-drinking experience is a natural fit for platforms
like Twitter and Facebook. In a classic case of build it and they will come, all
Starbucks has to do is create places for coffee drinkers to congregate online and
they will happily oblige.
Consistent branding is key. No matter what Starbucks social platform you visit,
the Starbucks touch is evident. The companys social channels all have the same
look, feel, and tone as their stores. Although the marketing team takes a slightly
approach from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook, the content is consistently unified
around the companys mission, message, and goals.
Whether one is a fan of the Starbucks product line or not, their social media success
is undeniable. As with every other aspect of the company, their attention to detail
and customer-centric messaging is what makes their social outreach some of the
best in the business.

How Starbucks uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+

Starbucks is often touted as having an excellent social strategy, so its an excellent
subject for our series of posts looking at how brands use the four main social
networks.
Having

previously

evaluated

number

of

brands

including Red

Bull,

ASOS, Walmart and Ikea, it appeared that the brands that were doing well in social
all followed the same basic blueprint they post updates several times a day and
are excellent at responding to consumers.
But as this post shows, Starbucks has managed to outperform nearly all other
consumer brands in terms of community engagement despite taking the exact
opposite approach.
And there is a special mention for Starbucks Instagram feed at the end as well...
Facebook
Aside from Facebook itself which has almost 90m fans, Starbucks is one of the most
liked consumer brands on Facebook with a massive 33m fans.
This in the same ballpark as Walmart, which has 27m, however the two companies
operate vastly different social strategies.
Walmart updates its page several times a day with posts including product
suggestions, caption competitions and sports chat. Posting frequent updates is
generally seen as the best way to maintain an engaged fan base, however
Starbucks often goes weeks without posting anything.

Yet its post, which are often just attractive product images, gain thousands of likes
and hundreds of comments. For example, a picture of the original Starbucks coffee
shop with the heading Where it all started, attracted more than 150,000 likes and
2,100 comments. Starbucks social team also doesnt seem to respond to many of
these comments, if at all.
If anything Starbucks massive fan count and high engagement rate serves to
underline the fact that there are few hard and fast rules when it comes to social
media.
The other brands Ive looked that have achieved success on Facebook, such as John
Lewis and ASOS, flood their pages with numerous updates per day and do a decent
job of responding to comments.
Starbucks does the exact opposite but outperforms both of these brands.
The coffee brand also has local pages for other global markets including the UK,
which adopts a similar strategy towards the frequency of posts.
However the content is more varied, with videos, surveys and coupons in among
the product images.

Starbucks UK is also the only brand Ive seen so far that includes several user posts
in its timeline. There are four posts from fans on February 8, two of which are
ringing endorsements for the brand, while one of the others is a request for job
advice from someone in Thailand.
Im not sure why these posts are showing up on the Starbucks UK page, and really
they make it look a bit untidy.

Twitter
Starbucks takes an equally relaxed attitude towards its main Twitter feed, tweeting
fewer than 10 times a day on average. Most of its posts are responses to
@mentions, but it also tweets product images and links to its loyalty scheme every
couple of days. The content is generally uninspiring and often repurposed from
Facebook, yet the feed has more than 3.5m followers.
While other brands give their social teams the freedom to engage in conversations
with followers and inject some personality into their Twitter feeds, Starbucks
content is really quite bland. Obviously this means it avoids getting caught up in
anything controversial, but it also seems fairly unambitious.
The Starbucks UK feed is also relatively quiet compared to the likes of ASOS,
tweeting no more than 10 times each day.

A decent proportion of the tweets are responses to customer service queries, but it
appears that social is a low priority for the brand.
In fact the most notable thing about Starbucks Twitter feed is the momentous fail it
suffered during a Christmas promotional campaign at the Natural History Museum.
The

coffee

brand

displayed

Twitter

messages

that

used

the

hash

tag #spreadthecheer on a big screen next to an ice rink at the museum, but forgot
to actually monitor what was being posted.
Coming hot on the heels of the scandal over Starbucks UK taxes, the wall
unsurprisingly became a prime target for angry taxpayers...

Pinterest
While its Facebook and Twitter pages are deeply uninspiring, Starbucks has one
of the best Pinterest accounts Ive seen so far.

It only has seven boards but they have more than 900 pins between them, and have
attracted more than 76,000 followers. In comparison, Walmart has created 65
boards but has just 12,000 followers, while ASOS's 13 boards have around 25,000.
The boards are full of fantastic images that are almost entirely sourced from thirdparty sites. I think this is an important part creating a successful Pinterest strategy,
and is something that a number of brands dont seem to grasp.

I recently highlighted several brands that have run Pinterest competitions to drive
up follower numbers and engagement, and Starbucks is another brand to add to
this list.
In September 2012 it offered followers the chance to win a Verismo System coffee
machine if they created a board named Its possible then pinned six images to it,
including one of the new machine.

A quick Pinterest search for Its possible shows that it had hundreds, if not
thousands of entries. Great success!

Google+
Normally when brands neglect their Google+ pages I say that its a symptom of the
fact that nobody uses the network, but in this case its actually in keeping with
Starbucks overall social strategy.
The coffee brand has more than a million followers and posts content every few
days with nearly all of it taken from its Facebook page and Twitter feed, though
theres nothing drastically wrong with this tactic.
Each update attracts hundreds of +1s and up to 100 comments, which is actually a
lot better than most of the other brands Ive looked at.

IKEA, Tesco and Wal-Mart haven't really bothered to update their G+ pages at all,
but ASOS and Red Bull post content frequently and as a result have 1.4m and 1.5m
followers respectively.

Special mention for Instagram

As Ive already mentioned, Starbucks stretches every piece of content as far as it
can by reusing it across all its social channels, and its Instagram feed is no different.
It looks great and has more than a million followers, but all the content is
remarkably familiar.
As with Red Bull, the idea is to promote the brand as part of a lifestyle choice and as
something to be enjoyed with friends.

Starbucks also used Instagram to cross-promote a Google Hangout with Maroon 5,

showing how the mobile app can be used as part of a multichannel marketing
campaign.

Eight awesome social campaigns from Starbucks

Starbucks has been hugely successful on social media, attracting tens of millions of
fans and followers and becoming one of the most popular brands on Facebook.
In fact it was recently reported that nine out of ten Facebook users is either a fan of
Starbucks or knows someone who is.

The coffee retailer has obviously been responsible for some excellent social
campaigns over the past few years, so I've rounded up eight interesting examples.
For more information on this topic read my blog post looking at how Starbucks uses
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, or check out our similar round ups
focusing on McDonald's and Coca-Cola.

Blonde Roast
To promote its new blonde roast back in 2011 Starbucks did a coffee giveaway that
was promoted through its social channels.
One of the central features was a Facebook app that allowed people to learn about
the new product, claim a free cup of blonde roast and send e-cards to their friends.

Starbucks also tweeted about the new brew and product giveaway, with some posts
directing people back towards the Facebook app.

But it wasnt all organic content. Starbucks also invested in Facebook ads and
Twitter ads that were targeted at certain cities to make them more personalized.
This is a fairly simple but well coordinated social campaign that likely had a big
impact on promoting awareness of the new coffee.

Pumpkin Latte
Starbucks in one of those brands that has the luxury of passionate, loyal customers,
so that means it can generate huge excitement around the launch of new products.
In this case Starbucks was actually promoting the return of its pumpkin spice latte
by giving people the chance to have the flavor available in their town a week before
the rest of the US.
To win the prize fans had to rack up the most points on a specially created Facebook
app. Users earned points for city shout-outs, solving a daily challenge or making a
daily creation. The city with the most passionate pumpkin spice latte fans on

Facebook in the US and Canada, as determined by aggregated points, won the

beverage in their town a week early. In the end Chicago came out on top with 10.6m
points, beating Seattle into second by some 342,000 points.

Tweet-a-coffee
In October 2013 Starbucks launched a Tweet-a-Coffee campaign that enabled
people to give the gift of a $5 gift card just by putting both @tweetacoffee and a
friend's handle in a tweet.
The coffee wasnt free though and in order for it to work users had to link their
Starbucks account to Twitter and their credit card to the account.

We're excited to announce @Tweetacoffee, a new way to share the gift of

Starbucks: http://t.co/E9OKYKYyV8
Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) October 28, 2013
Analysis by research firm Keyhole found that by December more than 27,000 fans
had tweeted a coffee and that 34% of users bought multiple gift cards. It suggested
that around $180,000 worth of coffee had been bought through the promotion.
Even more importantly for Starbucks, it now knows the Twitter handle, mobile phone
ID and customer ID for at least 54,000 customers.

#TreatReceipt
Im deeply sceptical of the efficacy of Facebook hashtags, however Starbucks was
quick to trial the new social tool for yet another discount promotion.
To help publicise a new deal that offered customers a discount in the afternoon if
they had already bought a coffee that morning, Starbucks tagged announcements
of the offer with the hashtag #TreatReceipt.

According to SproutSocial, Starbucks also used the hashtag #heatwave on one of its
posts to try and link its discount offer to ongoing conversations about the hot
weather.
While a hashtag on its own doesnt necessarily constitute a great social campaign,
its interesting to see Starbucks trialling the new Facebook hashtags to promote a
seasonal offer.

Snow day in real-time

When a blizzard hit the east coast of America in early 2013 Starbucks sprung into
action with a series of Facebook and Twitter posts aimed at tapping into
conversations around the snow storm, nicknamed Nemo. As the cold weather set in
social media users saw Starbucks ads showing people holding warm cups of coffee.
The ads were promoted through Facebook Marketplace Ads and Promoted Tweets,
so appeared when people searched for weather-related hashtags such as #Nemo or
#blizzard.
Its an excellent example of real time advertising that is relevant to the brand,
rather than an awkward attempt at news jacking.

Grab some VIA and enjoy the snow. pic.twitter.com/fKTqmfgD

Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) February 7, 2013
Behind the Scenes

Though not necessarily a specific campaign, Starbucks use of Instagram deserves a

mention as it has been used as part of a brilliant branding exercise.
Starbucks doesnt rely on any competition hashtags or gimmicks, but simply posts
interesting images that give people a view behind the scenes of the company.
Starbucks also reposts photos taken by fans that show its coffee cups in different
locations.
This simple idea is a great way of creating a closer relationship with customers and
softening the company image by showing the people behind the product.

Charity campaign
Back in 2012 Starbucks teamed up with Foursquare for a charitable campaign that
benefited AIDS awareness. From June 1 to 10 Starbucks donated $1 every time
someone checked into one of it locations in the US and Canada.

Starbucks set a limit of $250,000 on its donation to add to the $10m it has already
donated to the RED charitys fight against AIDS. For its part Foursquare gave users a
specially created badge if they took part in the campaign.

And one social fail

Just to show that even the biggest brands fall victim to social fails Ive included this
example from one of Starbucks Christmas campaigns.
As a PR stunt Starbucks displayed Twitter messages that used the hashtag
#spreadthecheer on a big screen next to an ice rink at the Natural History Museum
in London, but forgot to actually monitor what was being posted.
Coming hot on the heels of the scandal over Starbucks UK taxes, the wall
unsurprisingly became a prime target for angry taxpayers...

6 REASONS STARBUCKS EXCELS AT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

With over 18,000 retail stores in 60 countries, the renowned coffee house is the
picture of success. In fact, this prosperous business could likely shun social media
and still be quite alright as long as customers get their caffeine fix. Instead,

theyve taken their rule to the digital realm. Beginning in 1971, Starbucks has
transitioned seamlessly into the era of the internet by way of social media
domination. With an incredible presence on multiple networks, the brand set a high
precedent for other businesses when it comes to content quality and customer
engagement.

As shown above in the info graphic, Starbucks is on top of nearly every major brand
in social media. The coffee house was also voted most loved out of 3,400 food
brands in a survey.
Starbucks ability to wear so many hats ubiquitously to be a corporate success, a
local favorite and an internet sensation is rare and therefore in need of strategic
examination. The following is a breakdown of a few of the reasons why Starbucks is
a social marketing maven.
1. They have super influencers: Instead of solely focusing efforts on
accumulating new customers, they cultivate current relationships. This
ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued
existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board in-store
experiences are highly valued along with online engagement, further
necessitating the importance of customer service.
2. They encourage sharing: Those same happy customers from above are
eager to share good experiences and offers (so give them a reason to!). For

example, the Starbucks holiday promotion buy 1 get 1 garnered an

extraordinary amount of engagement on Facebook through comments, likes
and shares.

3. They customize a unique experience: Consumers want to feel like valued

individuals, not disposable dollars. Starbucks provides that by way of
programs like My Starbucks Rewards, personalized signature drinks and
localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular Pinterest and
Instagram, encourage users to share their Starbucks moments whether it be
the return of a favorite holiday drink or just an artsy coffee cup shot.
4. Their causes are timely and consistent: Coffee drinkers are known for
brand loyalty (hence the term caffeine addiction), and giving consumers a
charitable reason to buy that inevitable cup of coffee is beneficial for all
involved. The takeaway from Starbucks is to know your customer and tie that
in with what matters in the world pay attention to how your brand can fit
into trending topics.

5. They cross-promote: When Starbucks takes a photo, they: share it on

Instagram, post it to Facebook, tweet it on Twitter, pin it on Pinterest you
get the idea. Social cross-promotion continues to become more important as
the world becomes more digitally focused. Each network provides the
opportunity to reach a new target audience, and integrating your strategy on
each is critical in increasing visibility. Just remember that those different
groups respond to different marketing messages, and each message should
be optimized in relation to the network.
6. They make it count: Their mission is to inspire and nurture the human
spirit one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. Taking the
focus off of money has ultimately helped them make more lifting customers
up will lead to loyalty. Their The Way I See It quote campaign is an inspiring
example.

How one can improve their Social Media Strategy

Listen to your customer The most successful strategy from Starbucks knows
how to listen to their customer needs and wants and make changes rapidly. All
companies seem to understand this point, but only limited numbers establish a
website like my starbuckss idea or use social media to interact with their
customers. Starbuck make changes regarding their customers idea efficiently.

This involves consumers and also become the brand personality.

More than business care about the community- Most of the firms see social
media as a way to reach larger market, promote and sell their products.
Starbucks give other firms a lesson that firms need to care about the community
more than sales of the business. Business is more about building relationship
with customers and assisting to improve community. When a firm is successful in
establishing strong relationship and loyalty with their customers, growth of the

business will follow automatically.

Build a positive brand Personality and encourage sharing- Unlike other
beverage brands, Starbucks does not post things solely on promoting theirs
sales or new product. Most of the posts on their Facebook come from fans.
People participate various designs on their coffee cup. Starbuck feel grateful on
these amazing artworks and post and share on the official pages. Even on the My

Starbucks idea and Frappccino.com, their purpose is to encourage customers to

get involved in their business and share ideas with the brand. Such
characteristics carry the unique atmosphere of Starbucks that no one can
replace. They are built from idea and opinion of the customers instead of one
idea from one chairman.