The report focuses on to understand the strategy and management regarding the employment of Social Media by Starbucks. The analysis would be carried out in terms of reflecting the presence of the company in social media sites, the target market or audience for Starbucks in the social media platforms, the social media marketing and promotional campaigns conducted by Starbucks, the different types of social media technologies in force and finally the ethical and security standpoint of the social media activities of the institution.
Starbucks started its operation during 1971. Currently, Starbucks operates through a network of around 24,000 retail outlets spanning across 70 different countries to serve millions of customers on a daily average basis. The mission of Starbucks is to help in inspiring and nurturing the human spirit through serving one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a specific interval. Further, Starbucks works in serving the best quality coffee product made from ethically sourced raw materials. The Starbucks stores are developed for entertaining customers visiting with families and friends and are served with quality services and beverage products in an effective ambience ( Starbucks Corporation, 2017).
The social media business presence of Starbucks can be effectively perceived from the following statistics.
Figure 1: Social Media Presence of Starbucks
(Grace, 2017)
The above illustration ideally reflects on the large number of followers made by Starbucks along the different social media platforms used by online users on a global basis. The social media marketing and promotional campaigns devised by Starbucks earns needed weight owing to the artistic features incorporated in such. In a recent video produced and reflected by Starbucks called, ‘Starbucks-A Year of Good’ the café retail chain initiated through generating attracting statements about the coffee products rendered by them wherein a subsequent fashion it reflects that how the buying of coffee products contributed in enhancing recruitment of 8,000 veterans and even helped in sending around 6,535 baristas to complete their college education. Further, the video also highlighted the fact that procuring coffee products from Starbucks has considerably helped in generating support to around 301,506 firms conducting trade on an ethical basis. The video also reflected the manner in which Starbucks had appreciated the people and groups for rendering needed support during 2016 (Grace, 2017). An illustration of the video produced by Starbucks is reflected as follows.
Figure 2: Year of Good Video
(Grace, 2017)
Likewise, Starbucks tends to enhance its presence in YouTube through dividing the different videos rendered in its channel along diverse playlists for easy checking and viewing. Different clips like ‘How To’ and also ‘Coffee Recipes’ ideally contribute in helping normal users understand the process of making Iced Coffee Lemonade and also other recipes like Cold Brew Mocha. The rendering of videos along different playlists and also the generation of other viewing categories like ‘About Our Food’ ideally contribute in sustaining effective relationship with customers (Rainey, 2017). Starbucks focuses on developing increased brand awareness about their coffee products and recipes in the larger target market. Similarly, other categories like ‘Giving Back’ and ‘Starbucks Jobs’ potentially reflect on the social responsibility and accountability aspects of Starbucks in the global market. Further, Starbucks has rendered and divided the video posts on a country and regional basis like Asia-Pacific Starbucks (Grace, 2017).
In terms of developing an effective presence in Pinterest, Starbucks had again rendered different kinds of recipes for tea and coffee products while also generated cute pictures of people sipping over a cup of coffee or tea at a Starbuck outlet. Starbucks also focuses on customers enjoying sipping coffee in the fancy coffee cups by posting like pictures in Instagram. The fancy coffee cups reflected by Starbucks in Instagram are illustrated below.
Figure 3: Starbucks Page in Pinterest
(Grace, 2017)
The social media presence of Starbucks is also analysed to enhance the feeling of comfort and satisfaction focused on being rendered by the café retail chain to its customers. The social media posts are rendered in such fashion as to encourage the people in availing coffee or tea products and recipes from Starbucks rather than conducting push sales to them. Starbucks also focuses on promptly replying to the queries and complaints generated by the customers along the social media network, Facebook (Grace, 2017).
In addition to the above accounts, two effective social media campaigns like ‘Meet Me at Starbucks’ and Tweet-a-Coffee generated by Starbucks through the use of diverse social networking platforms.
The social media campaign, ‘Meet Me at Starbucks’ carried out by Starbucks during 2014 encouraged participants to render a story of their meeting with friends, life and business partners or even strangers at Starbucks outlets in exchange for free coffee for a year. The promotional video of the campaign was distributed by Starbucks to around 28 different countries that ideally reflected the bonds made by people while sipping coffee at their outlets. The promotional video is illustrated as follows.
Figure 4: Meet Me at Starbucks Campaign
(Grace, 2017)
Likewise, the second social media marketing campaign conducted by Starbucks during the period 2013-14 identified as ‘Tweet-a-Coffee’ encouraged intensive interaction between customers over Tweeter. It was the first ever e-gifting service carried out by Starbucks through the use of the stated campaign that engaged in around 27,000 customers and contributed in generating revenue of around $180,000 within a span of some months. Users participating in the promotional campaign earned the privilege of gifting coffee to their friends and relatives through the use of Tweeter (Grace, 2017).
The target audience of Starbucks along the different social media platforms is essentially constituted by both men and women customers ranging between the ages of 25 to 40 years. It is analysed that the above target group of men and women customers account for 49 percent of the total business conducted by Starbucks in the global marketplace. Another, target audience group aged 18 to 24 years is analysed to account for around 40 percent of the total business conducted by Starbucks on an annual basis (Rainey, 2017). Further, the target social media audience of Starbucks is also constituted by young college students and other teenagers that flock over to the different outlets of Starbucks for chatting, writing term papers or even for discussing on different issues. In terms of economic class customers belonging to middle and rich households are observed to visit Starbucks’ outlets. Apart from the above target groups, potential target customers also consist of kids aged between 13 to 17 years. The kids though account for 2 percent of sales for Starbucks are potentially helped by their parents or guardians in procuring tea or coffee products marketed by Starbucks (Shah, 2015).
Starbucks essentially relies on the social media platforms for developing effective marketing strategies for engaging larger number of customers in getting interested on the tea and coffee products sold by it. ‘My Starbucks Idea’ is the name of a customer engagement campaign formulated by Starbucks through the use of the social media networks that encourages customers for generating feedbacks and even post different queries for new product and marketing ideas generated and applied by the company (Moth, 2013). Similarly, the campaign was also conducted for encouraging customers in rendering new and fresh ideas to Starbucks for assisting in enhancing the sales of its products and also in increasing awareness about the brand in the target market. The marketing project conducted by Starbucks contributed in generating needed importance to customers for encouraging them to take active part in business and creative decision making with the company staffs and managers. It thus helped in making the customers feel an integrated part of Starbucks’ business. Further, the marketing campaign also helped Starbucks develop effective relationship with the customers wherein newer ideas were gained regarding the generation of reward cards and also ceasing the use of paper cups as a mark for enhancing the existence service quality (Hajli, 2015).
The ‘My Starbucks Idea’ campaign countered huge success in that around 150,000 different ideas were gained from customers that encouraged the execution of around 277 different innovations for the company. The same is reflected below.
Figure 5: Inspiring Ideas @ Starbucks
(MyStarbucksIdea.com, 2014)
Similarly, Starbucks has also developed a blog named as ‘Ideas in Action’ that encourages customers for generating newer ideas along different categories like product and service ideas. The status of the application of different ideas rendered by the customers as being reviewed, reviewed, under application and finally launched are also generated for making the customers feel involved. Monetary incentives were generated by Starbucks to customers that had contributed with effective ideas. During 2010, Starbucks is observed to have generated around $20,000 to customers having rendered effective ideas concerning the recycled uses of cups. Further, Starbucks had also worked on its mobile commerce engagement framework that encouraged the customers to view and thereby order and pay for coffee or tea recipes through the use of Smartphones (Turban, Strauss, & Lai, 2015). Apart from the above marketing tactics, Starbucks also encourages advertisers to render advertisements about their products, services and other contests on the Facebook wall of the company and also other job postings and vacancies. Cross promotional activities conducted in the above accord helped Starbucks gain access to larger and newer markets. The use of Tweeter is increasingly made by Starbucks for rendering of tweets in a prompt fashion regarding updates on offers and other campaigns. During 2013, Starbucks recorded the largest number of followers for the tweets generated by Starbucks (Turban, Strauss, & Lai, 2015).
Starbucks focuses on using the social media platform, Facebook for interacting and informing customers about existing products and services rendered by the company. Further, the company also gains greater accessibility to customers through posting on diverse social networking platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and also on Pinterest. Generating posts on such diverse social networking platforms contributes in enhancing visibility of the customers to products and offers of the company, accessing newer audiences and also in reinforcing existing relationships with customers. Customer engagement activities are also conducted by Starbucks through encouraging customers in hunting for new advertisements and thereby take photographs and post on Twitter. In exchange Gift Cards were issued to customers. An online game Pumpkin Spice Latte was introduced by Starbucks such that the campaign focused on promising the sales of the game in the region where the winner dwells before selling the same in other markets (Poirier, 2014).
Social media marketing is also conducted by Starbucks through the use of Facebook for promoting its Fair Trade activities regarding the ethical sourcing of coffee beans from plantations. Similarly, other campaigns like rendering free coffee to customers that would bring their own personal cups as a part of a green initiative was also undertaken by the company (Poirier, 2014).
An ethical issue faced by Starbucks regarding its social media marketing campaigns is reflected on the criticisms faced by the company management for the ‘Race Together’ campaign conducted during 2015. The company earned potential criticisms from the general public for the anti-racist campaign where people stated that the barista is required to stay away from conducting such campaigns and rather should focus on conducting its barista business (Friedersdorf, 2015). The ‘Race Together’ campaign of Starbucks earned a total failure while it attracted potential jokes from the mass market. The people commented that it is needed for Starbucks to look forward in addressing diversity issues within the company rather than encouraging the growth of a national conversation on the internet on such a sensitive issue (Shah, 2015).
The social media campaign, ‘Race Together’ was also criticised on the ground that Starbucks was employing a political campaign for generating greater profits. Further, Starbucks being governed and managed essentially by whites with only 40 percent of the internal population belonging to minority groups the campaign proved to be less demanding and awkward in nature (The Economist , 2015).
Starbucks in recent times became the centre of yet another social media controversy for rendering tweets regarding the recruitment of refugees in sharp contrast to the anti-refugee policies of the Trump government. The statement made by the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz reflecting on the hiring of around 10,000 refugees encouraged mixed statements from different people in Twitter. The same is illustrated below.
Figure 6: Tweets for Starbucks
(Kell, 2017)
Tweets were generated reflecting #BoycottStarbucks as a sign for protesting against the recruitment undertakings of the company for hiring refugees (Kell, 2017).
Along with the above controversies, Starbucks also faced an issue regarding its app that proved to be potentially unsecured owing to the absence of two-step authentication for enhancing the security standards (Your News, 2017).
Some tweets are rendered below that reflects on the growing hacking activity regarding the use of the Starbucks App for purchasing coffee products and recipes.
Figure 7: Tweets for Starbucks
(Rainey, 2017)
Starbucks however reflected that it had requested its users to change their passwords to counter the impacts of the security threat (Rainey, 2017).
Starbucks focuses on the usage of different types of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and also Instagram. The mode of using the different social media networks by Starbucks is further detailed as follows.
Unlike other companies aiming to develop an effective social presence through their Facebook accounts, Starbucks is observed to infrequently venture in its Facebook account for posting any new information or activity. It however has around 33 million fans and followers in Facebook. The posts generated by Starbucks are aesthetic and attractive that in turn invites large number of likes and comments. Though, Starbuck is argued not to react or answer to the comments posted by the viewers in its Facebook account yet the posts rendered in the form of videos, coupons and even surveys with relevant product images invite considerable attention (Moth, 2013). The same is illustrated below.
Figure 8: Facebook Page of Starbucks
(Moth, 2013)
Starbucks behaves in Twitter in a seemingly relaxed fashion in terms of rendering around 10 tweets on a daily average basis. The main tweets generated by Starbucks are associated to product images and also related to the loyalty schemes carried out by the company. The tweets of Starbucks are also featured in terms of @mentions. However, compared to Facebook the tweets rendered by Starbucks in Twitter are observed to be unattractive in nature (Moth, 2013). The same is illustrated as follows.
Figure 9: Twitter Account for Starbucks
(Moth, 2013)
As compared to the Facebook and Twitter accounts of Starbucks, the Pinterest account for Starbucks stands out to be different owing to the attractiveness of the contents posted on it. The Pinterest account for Starbucks is constituted by 7 different boards consisting of around 900 pins that had the potential in creating followers of more than 76,000. Further, the boards are developed through the use of effective imagery that is sourced by Starbucks from different third party sites (Moth, 2013). The Pinterest account for Starbucks is illustrated as follows.
Figure 10: Pinterest Page for Starbucks
(Moth, 2013)
Regards to the Google+ account for Starbucks it works on posting images and other posts that are taken from the feeds posted in its Facebook and Twitter account. The tactic used by Starbucks for enhancing its Google+ account has in turn generated more than 1 million followers for the company (Moth, 2013). The Google+ page for Starbucks is reflected as follows.
Figure 11: Google+ Account of Starbucks
(Moth, 2013)
The Instagram account for Starbucks though familiar with the style of content with other brands like Red Bull ideally contributes in attracting more than a million followers. The Instagram account has also been used by Starbucks for conducting a multichannel marketing campaign (Moth, 2013). The Instagram account developed by Starbucks is reflected as follows.
Figure 12: Instagram Page of Starbucks
(Moth, 2013)
Conclusions
The analysis conducted in the report rightly reflects the extensive employment of diverse social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest by Starbucks in cultivating an enhanced social media presence. Further, different social media marketing and promotional campaigns are conducted by Starbucks from time to time to address the needs of the target audience. However, Starbucks is required to enhance the security paradigm for encouraging greater user activity.
Starbucks is required to enhance on its security and ethical platform for effectively carrying out the social media campaigns in attracting potential audience from the larger market. It is required to authenticate the passwords rendered by the customers with their mobile numbers to enhance the security parameter.
References
Starbucks Corporation. (2017). Starbucks Company Profile. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/starbucks-company-profile
Friedersdorf, C. (2015, March 18). Overcaffeinated Attacks on the Starbucks ‘Race Together’ Campaign. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/overcaffeinated-attacks-on-the-starbucks-race-together-campaign/388072/
Grace, L. (2017, April 8). Brewing a strong social media presence: a Starbucks analysis. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://medium.com/rta902/brewing-a-strong-social-media-presence-a-starbucks-analysis-7a9f162db21f
Hajli, N. (2015). Handbook of Research on Integrating Social Media into Strategic Marketing. United Kingdom : IGI Global.
Kell, J. (2017, March 30). Starbucks Faces Boycott After Pledging to Hire Refugees. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://fortune.com/2017/01/30/starbucks-boycott-refugee-hiring/
Moth, D. (2013, March 6). How Starbucks uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://econsultancy.com/blog/62281-how-starbucks-uses-pinterest-facebook-twitter-and-google/
MyStarbucksIdea.com. (2014). Celebrating 5 Years of Inspiring Ideas that Made Us Better . Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://interrupt16h.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/msi20infographic20final.jpg
Poirier, G. (2014, November 3). Starbucks’ Killer Social Media Strategy . Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://interrupt16h.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/starbucks-killer-social-media-strategy/
Rainey, C. (2017, May 10). Starbucks Tells Hacked Customers to Create Better Passwords. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://www.grubstreet.com/2017/05/starbucks-mobile-app-hacks-weak-passwords.html
Shah, K. (2015, June 18). Why Starbucks’ Race Together Campaign Failed . Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://www.eater.com/2015/6/18/8807849/why-starbucks-race-together-campaign-failed
The Economist . (2015, March 20). #Fail. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/03/starbucks-and-branding
Turban, E., Strauss, J., & Lai, L. (2015). Social Commerce: Marketing, Technology and Management. United Kingdom : Springer.
Your News. (2017, May 7). Uh Oh, the Starbucks App May Have a Security Weakness. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from https://yournews.com/2017/05/07/143278/uh-oh-the-starbucks-app-may-have-a-security-weakness/
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