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Social Media Analysis

Advertising Media Planning • Zhai Mengjie

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STARBUCKS Social Media Analysis Agenda

INTRODUCING STARBUCKS COFFEE

STARBUCKS FACEBOOK FANPAGE

COMPETITORS OF STARBUCKS

SWOT ANALYSIS

INSIGHTS

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STARBUCKS

BEHIND-THE-STARBUCKS-SCENE: FRONT STAGE vs. BACKSTAGE

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STARBUCKS “ To inspire and nurture the human spirit”

•Starbucks is a coffee chain of U.S.,

established in 1971. Now it is the world's

largest coffee chain, whose headquarters

is located in Seattle, Washington, USA.

• Starbucks was a small coffee retailer

until the current chairman Howard

Schultz purchased it in 1987, and Schultz

changed it to a dark green café. Since

then he led the company across several

milestones.

•In June 1992, Starbucks was listed on

the stock market as the first professional

coffee company, which rapidly promote

business growth and brand development.

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STARBUCKS “ To inspire and nurture the human spirit”

• In addition to coffee, Starbucks also provide

tea, cakes, pies and other goods. The

creative coffee cups of Starbucks are as

popular as coffee itself. There are nearly

12,000 Starbucks stores across the world,

throughout North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the

Pacific.

• To some extent, coffee consumption is a

cultural consumption, for cultural

communication is needed in an environment

created by cafe culture which can infect

customers, allowing them to enjoy and to form

a good interactive experience. Through coffee,

Starbucks sends a special taste to customers.

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STARBUCKS Facebook Fan Page

•Starbucks uses its Facebook Fanpage to interact with its customers, promote

their new products and raise some events. In addition to the official fanpage,

there are also a number of Starbucks fanpages that cater to different locations

and areas where Starbucks is open, like Starbucks UK, Starbucks Brasil,

Starbucks Mexico, Starbuckscoffee Myeongdong and so on. The following

contents are based on the official one.

•Starbucks has 35,330,159 Likes . The Facebook page updates

frequently but irregularly, sometimes once a day, and sometimes once a week.

There are many likes and comments about the updated pictures.

•The content can be categorized by means of:

•Promotional - posts that advertise Starbucks goods and services such as

new products, important issues of Starbucks like “Sustainable Store

Design in Action” to attract fans.

• Interactive - posts that require consumer responses like the event

discussing how to make iced coffee better with experts , and funny creative

pictures that cause resonate.

•Personal - posts that are made by starbucks, including photos, restaurant

pictures, and the like.

• Informative - posts that include recipes( not many).

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STARBUCKS Facebook Fan Page

The good:

July is the hottest month in a year,

and when you’re tortured summer

with sweat, maybe the picture of

ice coffee will cool you and wake

up your demand for ice coffee.

The link is given and you can

obtain a lot of professional

knowledge of ice coffee from

experts. It’s good to interact with

consumers and to promote new

products friendly.

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STARBUCKS Facebook Fan Page

The bad:

This picture is moving, and the text “Fathers teach us courage. Dads teach us

joy!” is also able to raise spiritual resonance. But neither of them have

relationship with Starbucks or coffee. Attention to the first comment showing in

the page, “coffee teaches us energy!” Maybe Starbucks can learn from him!

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STARBUCKS Facebook Fan Page

The bad:

And among the comments, there are some negative words about

Starbucks. Although Starbucks gave quick response, the words also had some

bad influence.

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STARBUCKS Competitors of STARBUCKS

•Costa was founded in London by brothers

named Bruno and Sergio in 1971. Based on

traditional Italian baking method, they add it slow

baking. Now you can find Costa stores all over

the world.

1,035,507 Likes

•McCafe is a coffee brand owned by

McDonald. It was born in Australia in 1993.

Now you can see Mccafe as an independent

coffee shop, and also it can stand in a

corner of McDonald.

21,024 Likes.

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COSTA Facebook Fan Page

The good:

“We're reminiscing over our #CostaNutty photo competition this morning. How

nutty was this image??? Thanks for the image Hollie Elizabeth Morris!”

Organizing an interactive game to attract customers' participation, and posting

the photos on the page, all these sound interesting. The picture posted is funny

and gives a perfect advertisement.

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COSTA Facebook Fan Page

…

The bad:

This picture shows Costa’s new product for summer. It looks delicious and we

all want to have a taste, but it appears too many times on the page, 8 times

from June to August. It will cause aesthetic fatigue of visitors, and they may

think that the operator of the facebook fanpage is lazy and boring.

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MCCAFE Facebook Fan Page

The good:

The picture and text “who wants one” are attractive, which is good for

communication and interaction. Although these are only two cups of common

coffee, they convey the friendship and kindness of the brand. The comment “I

miss Oro Frappe!!”is a good proof.

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MCCAFE Facebook Fan Page

The bad:

This picture is a failure. On one hand, it has nothing to do with the brand. On

the other hand, negative sentences are unfit to appear here, especially dirty

words. That will cause your visitors uncomfortable. The comment circled tells.

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STARBUCKS SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

The contents on facebook are quite fruitful, including pictures, short stories,

events and so on. The advertisements for products are friendly, not hard.

Starbucks updates the fanpage fluently which can make a good relationship

with consumers.

Weaknesses:

Interactive contents are short, and there is some useless information on its

fanpage.

Opportunities:

On one hand, facebook is very popular among young people who account for a

significant part of Starbucks’ consumers. On the other hand, with the fast step

of the society, many people choose fast food and drinks like Starbucks. So

they may view the pictures on Starbucks’ facebook while drinking a cup of

Starbucks coffee.

Threats:

Starbucks’ competitors are making efforts to run their facebook fanpage, too.

So what Starbucks needs is not only to make coffee better but also to make its

fanpage better.

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STARBUCKS INSIGHTS

Similarities:

All the three brands promote their products by pictures and text. They all

pay emphasis to promotion and interaction.

Differences:

The content of Starbucks’ page is more plenty than the others. It not only

promote new products, but also publish some activities to attract visitors.

To the products, there are kinds of coffee, and also you can see many

beautiful cups and sweet dessert on Starbucks’ page. Costa’s page pays more

emphasis on events and activities. Mccafe’s page is in a poor maintenance.

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STARBUCKS Recommendations

Starbucks should pay more attention to interaction. For example, to

publish some activities by this platform, like a “drawing competition”.

Consumers may get a free empty cup when they buy Starbucks’ products, and

they can draw on the cup and then post the photo of the cup on the page.

Starbucks will choose some photos to post on its fanpage. The photo getting

the most “Likes” will be the winner.

Add cultural code to new products and activities, so that when clients

enjoy the delicacy, they will feel a sense of story and mood. The story can be

posted on the fanpage.

In some important days of Starbucks, editor of its fanpage can post the

stories or events happened on that day before. Visitors can know Starbucks

more and experience the growing of the brand.

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STARBUCKS Front stage vs. Backstage

Front stage ：

On March 26 of this year, if you buy a

pound of Tribute Blend (or Tribute Blend VIA),

you can get a free 12oz drink. (But in US and

Canada only)This event was posted on

Starbucks’ facebook fanpage.

We can see Starbucks’ saleswomen’s

dress through this picture and gain a

friendly impression of Starbucks stores.

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STARBUCKS Front stage vs. Backstage

Backstage:

Starbucks is doing the environmental protection. In 2003(up to May 15), they

logged over 400,000 hours of service. That conveys their social responsibility

to consumers and make consumers know that they not only sale coffee or

cookies, but also do many other important public things at the backstage.