Using Social Networks In Business Organizations: Analysis Of Starbucks Coffee Chain Company

The Objective of Research

Communication is one of the key components in any business organization with the contemporary world today. Social networks are now the recent frontier in facilitating communication in many business organizations in implementing their market strategies. For instance, Facebook is often used as an idea for the many businesses in creating the presence of the social media (Traud, Mucha, and Porter 2012). This is because Facebook network incorporate simplicity and flexibility to use hence attracting more business owners. The Google+ has also attracted many businesses in the social network world due to its unique advantages like increasing favorable ranking in the google search in integrating the networks throughout for that particular product(Neti, 2011). To all the entrepreneurs, social networks in their business organization seems to be the next big thing. This is because the discoveries within the technology has allowed the easier way of meeting a big crowd of individuals which has greatly reduced the cost and time spent by the business organizations(Howard et al., 2011).

 The social network technology has enabled the entrepreneurs to reach out the virtue market presented as one of the stepping stone in earning in a competitive market other than creating brands.  Most business organization have also gone in establishing the online marketing for the purpose of making it easy for their customers to order the products without visiting the product store(Friesen and Lowe, 2012). Therefore, the main object of this research report is to help the entrepreneurs to understand the roles of the social networks through analyzing the case study of the Starbucks coffee chain company. The report will as well incorporate the analysis of both the disadvantages and advantages of using the social networks within Starbuck an American coffee chain company.

1. To understand the roles of the social networks within the business by examining the case study of the Starbucks.
2. To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using the social networks in the Starbucks.

The main objective of the research has already been stated above. The research setting shall be the Starbucks an American coffee chain company. This research will be carried out for a period of about six months which start September 2018 to December 2018.

Starbuck is one of the leading roaster, retailer and the specialty in branding the coffee globally. The business organization has about 12000 licensed companies operating in the north America, Europe, Asia pacific, middle east and the Latin America(Musteen, Francis and Datta, 2010). The social network has played a crucial role in the daily operation of the Starbucks as the main communication podium. For example, through the social networks many individuals have been able link and communicate some of the experiences and the current news to each other(Amichai-Hamburger and Vinitzky, 2010). In the Starbucks, the role of the social network on the customers’ retention shall be examined. This shall be through evaluating the way the business organization is able to promote its classical products to a wide range of the individuals. The use of the social network often frequent especially among the young people in the United State which makes it easy in sharing the commodities. One of the research conducted recently showed that digital behaviors as highly influential aspect on the expectations and behaviors of customers. The success of business can only be established through satisfying the customers’ needs and inviting the new consumers by making goods easily available(Fischer and Reuber, 2011).

The Scope of the Project

Therefore, embracing the social networks in the business organization like Starbucks comes with a number of benefits. The first benefit is the reduction of the cost leading to an increase of income. The social networks provide the avenues for the advertisements which is conducted at affordable prices since only the internet network, electricity and the electronic devices are only needed(Wu et al., 2011). With the appropriate audiences, the social network saves the Starbuck the high investment in the marketing budgets needed in salaries and promotion of their products through the various agents(Networks, Universit and Calabria, 2012). For instance, Starbuck uses the twitter, Facebook and Telegram channels in making their advertisement with minimal visits to the fields to meet their potential clients. The process has been facilitated by the new discoveries in technology like the phones with cameras of high resolution making it possible to take the image of their products and upload them on socials media(Zhou, Zhang and Zimmermann, 2013).

Secondly, the social networks platforms provide an appropriate avenue for the continuous branding of the commodities. For example, this research report shall examine the way the Starbucks is able to use the twitter and the Facebook in acquiring the feedback from their clients. Such information is critical since it may be used in coming up with the new trends of branding their products and the potential expected quality deviations. With such data the Starbuck can be able to optimize their commodities in order to satisfy the consumer’s needs to invite more consumer to buy the products(Baruah, 2012).

The third advantage is that social networks are able to provide upgraded networking chances where the individuals may link with the company and other individuals within the similar business(De-Marcos et al., 2014). These social networks provide an ideal platform for exchanging the ideas essential in developing a specific business. Interacting with other business organizations allows them to learn the new business ideas. Starbuck can acquire the new branding practices by examining the posts from other companies meant in reaching the targeted audiences(Othman and Othman, 2014).

On the other hand, the social network could have some disadvantages within the same organization. One of these disadvantages is the freedom of expression regulated by the constitution of United States. Various companies may respond nicely to satisfy the needs of the customers while on the other side, the same clients could comment negatively about the organization compromising the reputation of that company. The employees from the same organization may as well decide to take a revenge through giving negative reactions on the same social network platform. Secondly, in order to maintain interactive session on the social network platforms, it calls for the dedication of time and resources(Shankar et al., 2010). This is because every active site for any business organization needs continuous monitoring and responding to all questions raised by both potential and the current clients. Again, it means the organization require a high level of innovation which is not mostly free with many individuals hence incurring some cost to facilitate the same. Lastly, exposing the business on the internet might present the leakage of the information, cyber-crime or even hacking important systems to the organization(Neti, 2011).

The Literature Reviews

There are number of questions that have been developed in order to come with the secondary and primary research questions for this piece.

The primary research questions

What are disadvantages and the advantages of using the social network in Starbuck?

The secondary research questions

What are the key roles of the social network within the Starbuck organization?

Does the disadvantages and the advantages within the Starbuck affect the population outside the organization?

Research designed and methodology is one of the key areas within this research report. In this case a number of factors are required to be considered in designing the nature of the methodology like whether qualitative or quantitative. Considering such factors, it’s clear that will employ quantitative analysis. This is because the aim of this particular project and the kind of information collected from the participants need to meet the main objective so that the concepts can examine(Hendrickson, Rosen and Aune, 2011).

Quantitative method 

Therefore, the numerical values shall be examined and the close-ended questionnaire will be used as the instrument in this context. Likert scale shall be employed in the questionnaire with only three options like A standing for agree, B for the Neutral and C will be the option for disagree. The participants will be requested to fill the questionnaire in full in order to notice the advantages and the disadvantages in details. The sampling method will be random which prevents the issues of biases and the sampling method is precise and easy. Considering the size of the sampling, the number of participants shall be only 100 from within the Starbucks and outside mainly their consumers(Shankar et al., 2010). This size of the sampling was chosen with reference that there are number of individuals who can give the disadvantages and the advantages of the social network regarding the Starbucks. Participants from this organization will be vital in providing the information on the key roles of the Social network platforms at Starbucks. On the other hand, the effects of the advantages or the disadvantages on the population outside the Starbucks will be recorded and the clear image of influence of the social networks on business organizations will be shown in details(Trainor et al., 2014).

Qualitative method

Qualitative analysis method will be used in getting the reasoning and the insights of both the Starbuck’s clients and the employees towards the benefits and the challenges of the social network in marketing. The collection of the data will involve interviewing various participants through open-ended questions one-to-one basis.

The Research Questions

In order to analyze the data obtained from this research, various tests will be carried out to provide the fine details of the disadvantages and the advantages of the social networks within Starbucks. That means the questions contained in the questionnaire must be reliable. Thereafter, the regression and correlation shall be done independently in order to obtain the advantages and the disadvantages of the social networks in Starbucks.

Data obtained from significant and recurring themes in which the data collected through qualitative method will be methodically searched to obtain the patterns to provide clear description of various phenomenon.

There are many challenges that might be experienced during this research project. The following

are some of the main challenges;

1. The research is based on Starbucks alone meaning it can never be generalised. Hence the outcome might not perfect when compared using a number of business organizations.
2. The size of the respondents is small due to time and resource constraint hence very difficult in fulfilling of the questionnaire
3. The research has employed the quantitative approach which calls for more authenticated study.

The project must be completed within the stipulated time frame which is four months that began on September 2018 up to December 2018. The number of the participants is significantly high hence more time is required in fulfilling the overall questionnaire. The major part of the research is completing the literature and the introduction which has already been completed in the past one month. The participants shall then be invited and the questionnaire will be completed within the two months. Analysis of the data will then be conducted; the conclusion and the recommendations of this research project will be offered. The last month will be utilized in presenting the research project. The table below gives the summary of the activities for this study(Kim and Ko, 2012).

Activities	September 2018	October 2018	November 2018	December 2018
Developing the research topic; collecting the primary and secondary data
Obtaining the permission from the university to conduct the research
Formulating the questionnaire
The filling of the questionnaire
Data analysis, conclusion and recommendations
Compiling the research report
Presenting the research report
Submitting the report

Conclusion

Almost all the business owners, social networks seem to be the next big thing. This is because the discoveries within the technology has allowed the easier way to meet a big crowd of customers which has greatly reduced the cost and time spent by the business organizations. The social network technology has enabled many organization like Starbucks to reach out the virtue market in a competitive market other than creating brands. Starbuck is one of the leading roaster, retailer and the specialty in branding the coffee globally, social network has played a crucial role in the daily operation of the Starbucks as the main communication podium. Through the social network, the business organization is able to serve about 12000 licensed companies operating in the north America, Europe, Asia pacific, middle east and the Latin America. Therefore, the main object of this research report is to help the entrepreneurs to understand the roles of the social networks through analyzing the case study of the Starbucks coffee chain company. The report will as well incorporate the analysis of both the disadvantages and advantages of using the social networks within Starbuck.

Research Design and Methodology

References

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