Social Media In Promotional Activity Of Starbucks: A Research Report

Project Objective

The assignment is based on the research report of the topic ‘Social Media in promotional activity of Starbucks’. Here the research will be done on the social media channels and its benefits or harms for the promotion of Starbucks. Starbucks uses social networks for taking the advantage of the growing networks on social media channels. But there are different opinions on the use of Social network channels for the business (Gallaugher and Ransbotham, 2010). Some are of the opinion that it is the best channel used nowadays to promote business and interact with people. It provides an opportunity to people to interact with the business. Also, Customer Relationship Management is possible because of the social media channels.  While others say that it is just wastage of time and it can also hamper the reputation of the business as people can post anything negative about the business on such media.

The main objective of the research is to analyze the effectiveness of the usage of social media on the revenue of the company. The other objective is to explore on the rate of social media usage in the cafe industry for comparison with Starbucks. It is also to analyze the efficiency of the media tools used by Starbucks in attracting more customer base. The research aims at analyzing the new plans so that more options can be generated in the tools of social media campaigns. Also, to analyze the customer satisfaction level by going through the online reviews of customers for the company.

Social media can be used for internal and external communication purposes in the business. The media can be used by the business for making communication with their offshore clients or to market and promote their business beyond international boundaries. The businesses are getting help in making their supply chain management better by the integration of Web 2.0 technologies. Basically, the efficiency of media tools will be discussed in the assignments which are used by Starbucks. They manage the relationships with their customers through these tools. So, the scope of the research is wide as many different views are given on the use of social media tools by the business and the comparative analysis is drawn between the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks in Starbucks cafes.

Many companies make use of social networks so that they can promote their offerings online. This helps them in building long-term relationships and to improve the image of the brand (Burt, Kilduff and Tasselli, 2013). But on the other hand, Malthouse et al. (2013) suggest that when the businesses use social media tools, they indulge in data mining processes to get the details about the customers which frustrate the customers as their privacy is interrupted. The cafes nowadays use social media tools to promote their products online.  They make use of Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms for the same. For e.g. Starbucks promoted itself through a social campaign whose tagline was “Make Someone Smile-Send them a light Note”. This made the business successful in promoting its new products.

Project Scope

The company used social media channels like Facebook and Twitter for the same. The business also uses an application where the users could earn points and this attracts lots of users to consume the offerings of Starbucks. It also promotes itself on Twitter with the help of a campaign named ‘Tweet a coffee’. Here. The data about the users can be gained from Twitter accounts and then they are accessed. It helps in accessing the mobile numbers, credit card information and more. It was found by a research firm, Keyhole that 27000 Starbucks fans tweeted a coffee and thousands of them purchased gift cards online. It helped the coffee business to sell coffee worth $180000 during the promotional campaign was going on (Tuten and Solomon 2014). 

The Business also used Instagram by posting the pictures of the people who work for the business. They also post pictures of their customers who are holding the coffee mugs of Starbucks in their hands. This effort of the company promotes it among the customers as they are able to know the people who are behind the scenes and are after making coffee with great quality and taste. Social media helps business in creating appeal for the business in the eyes of customers. For this, they use Pinterest where beautiful and attractive pictures can be posted about coffee, machines used, coffee ingredients and other positive aspects of the business (Gong, 2015).

It also uses YouTube to promote itself. Here, the company posts interesting videos related to the preparation of different coffee drinks and inform the customers about how they actually prepare their coffee which satisfies the customers. Social networks are used by the companies in order to build good relationships with the customers by using emotional tools.  It is used to connect with the customers. As per  Järvinen et al. (2012),  social networking platforms also help businesses in fulfilling the corporate social responsibilities. Like Starbucks can use such networks for creating awareness for AIDS. The business has developed apps which enable their customers to check the menu, find nearest stores and read reviews from the other customers which help them in making their purchasing decisions. Starbucks uses social networking platforms for developing a community for its users and for the employees so that they can be brought together (Culnan, McHugh and Zubillaga, 2010).

Starbucks also uses social networks to connect people from across the globe for the good causes. Volunteers are invited to contribute funds so that the common problems of the community can be solved. Starbucks is currently using social networks in 75 countries to connect people. Through this, it also makes itself capable to provide ethical products and services to the customers. It teaches the population about careful use of environmental sources and the process of recycling through social media so that the planet can be saved from serious environmental hazards (Thackeray, Neiger and Keller, 2012).

The company also uses social networks for developing its human resources. Like it attracts a pool of talent through social networks to fill the gap of the availability of human resources in the organization. The company uses social networks for various purposes which show that social networks are advantageous to the organization. But as per some other authors, it can be disadvantageous too. It involves a lot of time in generating the content and analyzing the correct content to be posted. It also needs manpower to manage and update the content constantly. It can also hamper the reputation of the brand because the users can post negatively about the brand which can influence other users (Chua and Banerjee, 2013).

Literature Review

The gaps are identified in the literature. The data collected shows that social networks are advantageous for the business while more data needs to be collected on the disadvantages of social networks for business. The research in future should be focused on the management of social networks used in business.

The main research questions for this research are:

Primary Question

• What is the role of social media for Starbucks?

Secondary Questions

• How is Social media used by Starbucks to benefit its business?
• How effective are the social networks for attracting more customer base by Starbucks
• What are the possible disadvantages of using social networks for Starbucks?

This section shows the techniques which are being used in performing the research project.

Research method: There are various methods of research. For this research mixed method of research is used in which both qualitative and quantitative data is collected and analyzed in order to fulfill the research objectives. As per this method, the data is collected from various sources in both the form i.e. qualitative and quantitative (Cooper, Schindler and Sun, 2006).

Research approach: Both qualitative and quantitative approach has been used in the research. As per the qualitative approach, the data is collected in form of opinions and details on the subject. On the other hand, in a quantitative approach, the data is collected in form of numbers and digits from different sources. This helps in gaining knowledge about the topic and conducting research successfully (Cavana, Delahaye and Sekaran, 2001).

Data collection: The data collected for the research was in a qualitative and quantitative form which is been collected from different sources. The data is collected from different sources i.e. Primary sources and Secondary sources. Primary sources are those which provide the first-hand information while secondary sources are used to collect the data which has been used already. Secondary sources which are been used in this research includes books, journals, web sources and more. The primary source is surveyed questionnaire which includes few questions which are to be asked from the customers of Starbucks to know that how social media attracts them towards the brand (Collis and Hussey, 2013).

Sampling: Simple random sampling technique is used to select the respondents of the survey in which randomly the customers of Starbucks are picked and are asked attend the survey. Their responses will be analyzed afterwards to get the answer to the research questions.  The sample size is 50 for the survey questionnaire.

Reliability and Validity: the research is made reliable by mentioning the sources from where the data for research has been taken. It is also a valid research because the data collected is not modified and is used as it is. This proves the genuineness of the research.

Limitations are those hurdles which might affect the progress of the research. The limitation of this research is that the time available for research was limited because of which not enough data is collected to conclude the research.

This is the action plan to manage the activities of the research as per the schedule (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).

S. No.	Activities are undertaken for research	Start date (2017)	Completion date (2017)	Duration (weeks)	Description
A	Research Planning	4 September	10 September	1	Initially, research plans are to be made in order to conduct research program successfully.
B	Plan implementation	11 September	17 September	1	When the plans are made, the next step is to execute those plans so that the research can be completed timely and the hurdles can be managed.
C	Gathering data	18 September	01 October	2	For this research, collecting data is a very important step. The data is to be collected from primary and secondary sources. This is the third step which is time taking and is planned that around 2 weeks will be required to collect the entire data.
D	Data analysis	2 October	15 October	2	The data collected in numerical form or subjective form will be analyzed to get the results of the research.
E	Discussion on data analysis and findings	16 October	29 October	2	Once the data is analyzed, the discussion will be done on the same. The data analysis should answer the questions of the research.
F	Conclusion of the research	30 October	5 November	1	Once the discussion is done on the data analysis and its findings, the conclusion is made on the research.

(Greener, 2008)

Conclusion 

It is concluded from the research project that Starbucks is using web platforms to revamp its business in the global markets across the world. The company is making use of different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other to reach mass population and to boost up the customer experience and the sales of the company. The research has been done with the help of primary and secondary data and the data is analyzed to get the findings. This is analyzed finally to get the results of the questions of the research. An action plan is made to schedule the research for completing it on time and the methodology is discussed to know what techniques are used to conduct this research. The social channels are nowadays becoming an essential marketing tool to attract a huge number of population and to make their business attractive. Starbucks is doing same by using social networks. It is advantageous for the company as the points of benefits are more than the disadvantages.

References

Burt, R.S., Kilduff, M. and Tasselli, S., 2013. Social network analysis: Foundations and frontiers on advantage. Annual review of psychology, 64, pp.527-547.

Cavana, R.Y., Delahaye, B.L. and Sekaran, U., 2001. Applied business research: Qualitative and quantitative methods. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Chua, A.Y. and Banerjee, S., 2013. Customer knowledge management via social media: the case of Starbucks. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), pp.237-249.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan.

Cooper, D.R., Schindler, P.S. and Sun, J., 2006. Business research methods (Vol. 9). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Culnan, M.J., McHugh, P.J. and Zubillaga, J.I., 2010. How large US companies can use Twitter and other social media to gain business value. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).

Gallaugher, J. and Ransbotham, S., 2010. Social media and customer dialog management at Starbucks. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).

Gong, X., 2015. Strategic customer engagement on Instagram: A case of global business to customer (B2C) brands.

Greener, S., 2008. Business research methods. BookBoon.

Järvinen, J., Tollinen, A., Karjaluoto, H. and Jayawardhena, C., 2012. Digital and Social Media Marketing Usage In B2B Industrial Section. Marketing Management Journal, 22(2).

Malthouse, E.C., Haenlein, M., Skiera, B., Wege, E. and Zhang, M., 2013. Managing customer relationships in the social media era: introducing the social CRM house. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.270-280.

Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Thackeray, R., Neiger, B.L. and Keller, H., 2012. Integrating social media and social marketing: a four-step process. Health promotion practice, 13(2), pp.165-168.

Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2014. Social media marketing. Sage.