STARBUCKS VS.

CARIBOU COFFEEBy Jennifer O’Neal

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Table of Contents◦ Executive Summary

◦ Background Information

◦ Store Locations

◦ iPhone/Android Apps

◦ Blogs

◦ Social Mention

◦ Social Media◦ Instagram◦ Twitter◦ Facebook◦ Pinterest ◦ YouTube◦ Snapchat

◦ Strategies and Suggestions

◦ Winner2

Executive SummaryWhether you need it to wake up or take hip photos, coffee is a part of your daily routine. Coffee is available on every street corner ranging from name brand shops, local shops, and even fast food chains. Today, it is crucial for a brand to move away from push advertising and start using various social media platforms in order to be successful. In this brand analysis, I will go through the background, store location and social media use for two coffee competitors, Starbucks and Caribou Coffee, to see who is best captivating the audience’s attention and meeting their needs.

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Background Information ✺ Starbucks v Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in

1971 by Gordon Bowker, Zev Siegl, and Jerry Baldwin who were professors at the University of San Francisco.

v The founders were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment after a friend taught them his style of roasting coffee beans.

vStarbucks operates worldwide with 23,768 locations. There are13,227 in the USA, 2,204 in China, 1,418 in Canada, 1,106 in Japan, 872 in South Korea, and more.

v Starbucks serves hot and cold drinks, whole bean coffee, micro ground instant coffee, espresso, lattes, Teavana products, juices, Frappuccinos, pastries, seasonal offerings, sandwiches, drinkware along with ice cream (grocery stores only).

v The Starbucks logo is an image of a twin tailed mermaid, which is based on a 16th century “Norse” woodcut. The primary color is green for the founder’s alma mater. 4

Background Information ✺ Caribou Coffee

v Caribou Coffee was founded in Edina, Minnesota in 1992 by John and Kimberly Puckett. Caribou Coffee is now headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

v John Puckett was working as a management consultant before he decided to become an entrepreneur. After taking a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, he decided to start a coffee company with his wife to capture the spirit of accomplishment they felt in their vacation.

v The initial concept of Caribou Coffee was a five-day week schedule aimed at downtown businessmen. Their logo was “Life is short. Stay awake for it”.

v There are more than 273 company owned coffeehouses in 18 states as well as 203 franchise locations in 10 countries.

v Caribou Coffee sells specialty espresso beverages, coffee blends, tea, sandwiches, baked goods, and related merchandise.

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Store Location ✺ StarbucksStarbucks locations are classified as trendy, hip and contemporary. When you walk into a Starbucks, you will always see high school and college kids cramming for an exam or a local professional reading the newspaper. With the dim lighting, dark colors, and soothing music, Starbucks encourages its customers to sit and relax in their modern study space. Around the register, Starbucks has signs promoting their Starbucks Rewards program where customers earn stars for every purchase for sweet deals and treats. Even better, Starbucks Rewards has three levels customers can reach with better rewards for more stars. This reward program encourages customers to keep coming back and reach the highest level. 6

Store Location ✺ Caribou CoffeeCaribou Coffee locations are much more cozy and warm compared to Starbucks. With large leather chairs and fireplaces throughout the stores, Caribou captures the essence of being up in the mountains during the winter. The atmosphere is so relaxing that multiple customers will buy a cup of coffee, curl up with a blanket and read a good book. Throughout Caribou’s locations, they advertise their Perks reward system where program participants can earn special deals on certain drinks and pastries. Caribou Perks keeps its customers happy with discounts and deals, but without offering different member levels, like Starbucks, the customers are not as motivated to come back.

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iPhone/Android Apps ✺ Starbucks ◦ The Starbucks app gives consumers the opportunity to enjoy the experience of a

Starbucks store through the convenience of their own mobile phone. The mobile app allows users to load money onto a digital card, custom order their drinks for quick pick up, find the nearest Starbucks location and earn stars for every purchase to ultimately reach the Gold card. By reaching the Gold card level, users get birthday rewards, free in-store refills, and member events/offers throughout the month. By providing the opportunity to earn stars for every dollar spent, Starbucks customers keep coming back because they feel appreciated for their loyalty and engagement with the company.

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iPhone/Android Apps ✺ Caribou Coffee ◦ Caribou Coffee’s mobile app offers similar features to the Starbucks app. The app allows

users to load a digital card, search for Caribou Coffee locations, view the menu and earn rewards for discounted drinks or an upgrade. The app is very user-friendly and classic, but it does not give users the ability to order drinks from their mobile device or reach different reward levels. These are two important features that Caribou Coffee needs to consider adding to their mobile app to encourage customers to keep coming back and purchasing their coffee.

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Blog ✺ Starbucks◦ The Starbucks blog, 1912 Pike, does a fantastic

job at giving a general view of the company, marketing efforts, and company culture. With a link on the Starbucks website, 1912 Pike gives consumers the chance to view how the coffee beans make it from the farm to the store and meet the people who make all of this happen. Also, the 1912 Pike provides recipes on how to make delicious coffee drinks and stories about their new “Upstanders” series (recognizing those who bring positive change to their communities). The Starbucks blog successfully markets its coffee products and pastries while also making sure they show the consumer that they taking great pride in the product quality, customer experience, and community impact.

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Blog ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ Caribou Coffee’s Roastmaster Blog does not

have the same content, marketing strategies, or visual appeal as 1912 Pike. The Roastmaster Blog, which is almost like a diary, contains posts from three Caribou Roastmasters about responsible sourcing, new arrivals, traveler stories, and more. This blog consists of a very basic layout with no pictures or exciting features. The Roastmaster Blog fails to engage the consumers with recipes and up to date, exciting stories the readers are actually interested in. Some examples of blog posts include Caribou Coffee staying open for Black Friday and a trip to Costa Rica to meet their supplier.

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Social Mention

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Breaking It DownStarbucks

Strength – Starbucks has a very high percentage of strength, 87%, meaning that they interact with the consumers in the right platforms with the right content.

Sentiment – Starbucks has a ratio of 5:1. This means that for every negative comment there are 5 positive comments, so Starbucks is doing well here.

Passion – With a passion of 14%, this is the area where Starbucks needs improvement. Customers are talking about the brand, but they are not doing so repeatedly.

Reach – Starbucks has a reach of 74% showing that it has a wide influence and a large fan base despite its lack of passion.

Caribou CoffeeStrength – Caribou Coffee only has a strength of 50%. Therefore, they need to improve in how they reach out to the audience along with their social media content.

Sentiment – Caribou’s sentiment ratio is 18:0 meaning that they have an overwhelming amount of positive comments from consumers.

Passion – Caribou Coffee’s passion is a 38%. This is higher than Starbucks, but they need to find ways to get consumers to talk about the brand more often.

Reach – Caribou’s reach is lacking at a 37%, so they need to find more ways to reach out to the audience. 13

Instagram ✺ Starbucks◦ Starbucks currently has 11.6 million followers

and 1,217 Instagram posts. Starbucks keeps a consistent feel throughout the page by posting high quality, eye-catching pictures of their coffee to showcase their artistic side. Starbucks does an excellent job at knowing how to take stunning pictures of an everyday item by finding the perfect accompanying details. This Instagram account feels more like a typical, coffee loving photographer than a marketing page, but occasionally Starbucks will post a link for followers to purchase an item. Just like their bio says, Starbucks continues to give followers inspiration on what to buy next, how to showcase their coffee, and how to make a beautiful creation of their own. 14

Instagram ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ Caribou Coffee lags behind with 61.8 thousand

followers and 611 posts. Caribou’s Instagram page lacks the artistic and eye catching feel that Starbucks portrays. These pictures stay within the realm of their industry, but they are more simplistic and repetitive. While Starbucks stayed clear of making their page feel like an advertising platform, Caribou Coffee does the opposite. Throughout the page, Caribou has multiple posts about BOGO or Perk Rewards. While it’s nice to know when sales are going on, Caribou’s followers don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements and promotions over and over; Caribou’s followers would much rather feel inclined to purchase their coffee organically through the inspiration of high quality and engaging pictures. It is important that Caribou Coffee changes their Instagram strategy to increase their followers and create more engagement. 15

Twitter ✺ Starbucks◦ Starbucks joined Twitter in November 2006

and currently has 79.8K tweets and 11.7M followers, with very little growth since August. Starbucks uses some of the same blog and Instagram content for their Twitter while still avoiding advertisements. Also, Starbucks never deviates from their content strategy with meaningless posts. With their eye-catching pictures and inspirational “Upstanders” stories, these posts receive a high number of retweets and comments from their followers. Starbucks always responds to their followers comments, but not always in a timely manner. Responses can range from 6 hours to 24 hours, which is an area that Starbucks can improve in to show that the customers are their top priority.

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Twitter ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ Caribou Coffee joined Twitter in December

2008. Currently, they have 9,420 tweets and 124K followers, which is up 12,000 since August. Caribou posts the same content on Twitter and Instagram, which makes their Twitter page less unique and feel more like an advertising platform. Caribou receives very few retweets and comments on their posts with an average of 20-50 retweets and 3 comments. Also, Caribou does respond to their followers tweets, but they usually only respond to a complaint about 6 hours later. In the future, Caribou should respond to both positive and negative tweets in a more timely manner to improve their Twitter strategy. Also, Caribou should consider posting different and fresh content that isn’t seen on other social media platforms.

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Facebook ✺ Starbucks◦ With over 36 million likes, Starbucks

continues to post beautiful pictures of their coffee and upload videos of their “Upstanders” series. In addition, they also have some regular posts about current issues such has the #lovewins picture below, which shows that Starbucks cares about global issues. Compared to the other social platforms, this is the only one where Starbucks advertises sweet deals and rewards, but it’s so subtle and rare that their followers don’t get annoyed. Starbucks is very good at interacting with their followers on Facebook by replying to comments within minutes, which shows that they pay more attention to Facebook over Twitter. By responding so quickly, Starbucks shows that they really care when consumers are both happy and upset. To be more successful, Starbucks should pay equal attention to Twitter.

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Facebook ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ With a little over 500,000 likes, Caribou’s Facebook

page drastically lags behind. Again, their Facebook page consists of almost all the same content seen on their Twitter and Instagram account. This shows that Caribou is not fully taking advantage of the different uses these social media platforms have to offer. On the other hand, Caribou has recently started to post about their new community video project to pay tribute to those in their cancer journey. To be more successful, Caribou needs to find unique ways to integrate this tribute throughout their blog and other social platforms. Additionally, Caribou rarely interacts with their followers on Facebook and if they do, it is usually a day or two later. The lack of originality and responses hurt their Facebook practices, which has a direct impact on the number of followers.

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Pinterest ✺ Starbucks◦ Starbucks has a strong fan base on

Pinterest with 274.1 thousand followers, 3 thousand pins, and 23 boards. Over the past month and a half, their presence has grown by over 3,000 followers. The Starbucks Pinterest account is much more unique and creative than the other social media platforms, but it stays true to the overall feel. Starbucks offers boards ranging from coffee/tea recipes, hot cocoa creations, DIY coffee projects, Starbucks cup art, Red Cup contest and more. This is a smart move for Starbucks because it encourages consumers to buy their products in order to participate in the fun Pinterest activities while staying away from heavy advertisements. 20

Pinterest ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ Caribou Coffee is behind the competition with

6.9 thousand followers, 696 pins, 16 boards and no growth in followers over the past five weeks. Although Caribou has similar boards to Starbucks (Coffee DIY and Quotes), some of their boards have very little to do with the company. A majority of Caribou Coffee’s Pinterest looks like an average person who really enjoys winter clothes, coffee mugs, warm food and fall colors. Caribou seems to be missing the point of Pinterest and how it’s tailored around crafts, ideas, and projects. Ultimately, they need to focus more on engaging their followers and posting more relevant content to maintain their current fan base and attract new followers to this social platform. With the addition of a recipe or contest board, Caribou Coffee could see a dramatic increase in followers. 21

YouTube ✺ Starbucks◦ The Starbucks YouTube channel offers 466 videos and has 110,392 subscribers. Their

YouTube presence is very engaging and similar to the 1912 Pike blog with recipes, how-to, Starbucks rewards, Starbucks jobs, and giving back videos. Their YouTube channel also features their new Original Series “Upstanders”, which celebrates ordinary people doing amazing things to create a positive change in their community. This is an excellent move on Starbucks behalf because it shows that recognizing and supporting the community is a top priority, which generates loyal customers and high sales over time. Overall, the Starbucks YouTube channel gives the viewers carefully crafted content that is not only entertaining, but ad free.

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YouTube ✺ Caribou Coffee◦ With only 36 videos and 455 subscribers, Caribou Coffee needs a lot of improvement

with their YouTube presence and strategy. The majority of Caribou’s channel consists of a series of videos called “Caribou Season of Surprise”. These videos ask the first 50 viewers to Tweet their Christmas wish with #seasonofsurprise to have their wish come true. While these videos do in fact engage with the consumer, the channel as a whole lacks exciting, creative, and recent content showing that YouTube is not a priority. Caribou Coffee needs to focus on increasing their YouTube activity by providing videos the audience would like to see because this is a great place to deliver content that is not available on many other social media platforms.

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Snapchat ✺ StarbucksLast but not least, Starbucks reaches its customers through the newest social media platform: Snapchat. Starbucks continues to post relevant and humorous content while also telling a story. Multiple times a week, Starbucks will post various videos to their Snapchat Story showing how to make a beautiful, Snapchat worthy latte from home, Fred and Franz’s journey up the Sea Salt Frappuccino and glimpses of the “Upstanders” coloring book. These stories give a more personal side to the brand as they interact with consumers in real time. While these Snapchats encourage viewers to buy Starbucks coffee and coffee beans, they are very fun to watch. With many more examples, Starbucks continues to tie in the content from all of their social media platforms in a really cool way to reinforce their dedication to their brand, the community, and a perfect cup of coffee.

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Snapchat ✺ Caribou CoffeeCaribou Coffee is far less active on Snapchat compared to Starbucks. Recently, Caribou posted about multiple pop-up locations offering free cups of coffee. Also, Caribou continued to promote their support for cancer centers and cancer survivors around the world with donations from every cup of coffee purchased. Caribou’s Snapchat Stories consist of more text and advertisements when compared to Starbucks, which result in viewers clicking through to get rid of the notification. While it’s easy to promote your products through Snapchat, Caribou needs to find more subtle and unique ways to do so to get their viewers excited and engaged.

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Strategies and Suggestions

StarbucksWhile Starbucks has done a great job at

generating useful content and using their social media platforms, they also have some room for improvement. Starbucks needs to develop their passion by encouraging followers to participate in the conversation. Examples of this could be

posting about their recent experience, new favorite latte, or cute cup of coffee with a

beautiful background. By providing a hashtag, Starbucks will see a rise in activity among its

followers.

Caribou CoffeeCaribou needs to spend more time researching the

type of content their customers want to be exposed to on different social platforms. By shifting their focus from advertising various

products to engaging their customers with fresh,relevant content, Caribou will see a dramatic

change in their performance. Caribou’s strength will rise through customer loyalty and social media

followers, while their passion and reach simultaneously rise as consumers obtain a more

positive mindset about Caribou Coffee.

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Winner…

Whether its through their blog, mobile app, or social media platforms, Starbucks consistently gives their customers engaging, beautiful, inspirational, and unique content that they actually want to see.

With their fully developed social strategy, Starbucks will continue to retain their loyal customers while also attracting new coffee lovers with their passion for the consumer, the community, and delicious coffee.

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