In 2008 Starbucks experienced declines in sales for the first time in history. In turn, MyStarbucksIdea.com was launched for customers to post suggestions, ask questions, complain, you have it. Starbucks also has about 6 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers.
VP of Starbucks says these social medias helped re-boost business because they were “not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment.” Starbucks’ Twitter page, w about 775,000 followers, is run by the Brad Nelson, a 28 year old barista. Every day he engages in conversations with Starbucks customers about their frustrations, offerings, and casual chit-chat. Starbucks has just seen its first US same-store sales gain in two years! Wow, you go Starbucks! How can other companies use social media to boost sales?
Reference: York, Emily Bryson. “STARBUCKS GETS ITS BUSINESS BREWING AGAIN WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.” Advertising Age 22 Feb. 2010: 34 Vol. 81, Issue 8
5 comments:
Sounds like Starbucks gets it. A friend just pointed me to this SXSW talk by Gary Vaynerchuk covering this very topic... it's a must-watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEYjvifUdeM
Interesting. Reminds me of hearing that Pizza Hut changed their recipe recently based on feedback from social networking.
I agree with companies reaching out to their consumers and seeing how they can improve. With social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook it can be done so easily. If the company can get feedback from their costumers they can really focus on what they need to improve.
It sounds like their approach was successful because it wasn't about marketing, but about customer service. It's also being used like a massive focus group for market research.
Lucky for us they could afford to dedicate a full staff person on this one task & set an example of what could work, and work well.
Thanks for the video Marek-he makes an interesting point. Businesses nowadays who actually care and listen to their customers are at a much greater advantage. Most companies only care about themselves and how to increase sales, but if you make an effort to care about customers first it will bring you sales in the long run. Our "word of mouth world" relies on good customer service. We are are too aware of marketing schemes nowadays, we can see through them. That's why companies need to pay more attention to the importance of the soft sell.
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