An Analysis of Social Media's Impact on Starbucks Promotions

This report examines Starbucks' utilization of social media platforms in its promotional activities. It analyzes the effectiveness of these platforms in driving revenue, attracting customers, and building brand image. The report delves into Starbucks' specific social media campaigns, including those on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, highlighting their strategies for customer engagement, data mining, and integrated marketing communication. It also explores the company's customer relationship management through social media, including their approach to corporate social responsibility and how they connect with customers emotionally. The literature review provides insights from various authors on the benefits and drawbacks of social media marketing, while the objective of the research paper is to analyze social media's effectiveness on the revenue of the company. The scope of the research covers using social media as an effective marketing tool for internal and external communication purposes. The report also addresses the integration of web 2.0 technologies, comparative analysis of advantages and disadvantages, and customer satisfaction derived from the customer complaint portal.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA IN PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY OF STARBUCKS
Social Media in promotional activity of Starbucks
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The following text is based on the research done on cafes social channels, used in their
marketing purpose and what are the advantage and disadvantages that they had to face. Based on
the research done in the business, there are also some arguments on the effectiveness of the
business’s promotion strategy. Further, there is the objective and scope stated for further research
and strategy area to explore on.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Objective of the research paper.................................................................................................4
3.0 Scope of the research topic........................................................................................................5
4.0 Literature Review......................................................................................................................6
5.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendix........................................................................................................................................17

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1.0 Introduction
The chosen organisation is Starbucks Cafe and how effective these social channels are in
receiving the good outcome that they get from societal review and feedback. This chapter
analyses the social network of Starbucks cafes and how they use it according to their advantage.
The Number of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Twitter, Sound cloud followers is
evidence to "how they are doing it right". Starbucks has many product offerings baristas. The
literature review below argues about their social networking plans. There are many advantage
and disadvantage of using social media to promote or for any communicative purpose. The
interaction among the business and the customer s crucial for a business and that what is backed
up by this media (Kaplan, and Haenlein 2010). They have made the coffee a socialising tool for
people visiting their outlets and then providing WiFi is a cherry on top for people who are
willing to spend time during the coffee break. Company's social channels are exquisite and have
certain touch, look, feel, a tone is evident in their physical and online presence. Their increased
sales and traffic in online websites and improved ranking on the search engines are evident to
their harnessed opportunity from social websites (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang 2012).
According to their industry market research report, the social media outlook is enhanced by their
feedback management and customer relationship management done through media channels.
2.0 Objective of the research paper
 To analyse the effectiveness of the usage of social media on the revenue of the company
 The project objective is to explore on the rate of social media usage in the cafe industry
for comparison with Starbucks.

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 To analyse the efficiency of the media tools used by Starbucks in attracting more
customer base
 To analyse the new plans put forward by the company for incorporating more options in
their social campaign tools
 To analyse the customers of Starbucks in order to know the amount of satisfaction they
derive from the customer complaint portal of the company
 To analyse the customer relationship status of the company depending on the social
media performance
 To analyse the gap in the theory mentioned in the literature review of the paper
3.0 Scope of the research topic
Using social media as an effective marketing tool is reasonable. There is also an aspect of using
the media for internal and external communication purposes. The business, which is very
dependent on the outsourcing models and wants to expand their business offshore, the project,
can be helpful for those entrepreneurs to seek the help of social media to communicate and for
marketing purposes. The integration of web 2.0 technologies is also effective for those who want
efficiency in supply-chain management. This research is also based on the efficiency of the
media tools that have been used by Starbucks. The Twitter presence is very effective in using the
customer engagement and always surprises their followers. The effectiveness of this research is
also extensive in incorporating their media plans on their business model. Their organisation
objective is to use the data they carefully collected from the front-end counter. However, there
are some complaints regarding the use some of the private information of the customers, the
overall satisfaction of the customer base negates the negative impact some of the customers
gives. According to Gillin (2013) the relevant customer relationship theory that they apply in

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their everyday workplace, have enforced their ability to become the more effective in their social
channel. There also a gap while analysing the arguments, which has been mentioned in the
literature review. The comparative analysis is drawn in between the advantages and
disadvantages of using social networks in cafes.
4.0 Literature Review
According to Burt, Kilduff and Tasselli (2013), several companies use social
networks to promote their products online, to build long-term relationship with customers and to
strengthen the brand image of the companies use Social networks. Use of social networks can be
profitable for companies in the long run.But according to Malthouse et al. (2013), customers feel
that their privacy is intruded as companies constantly use marketing and statistical tools like data
mining software to constantly track personal information of customers like their phone number,
shopping habits etc.
One example is promotion of popular product of cafes online. The business launches a
Facebook app to increase the popularity of its products. Users can learn about the product using
the app. The social campaign of Starbucks was promoted with a tagline “Make Someone Smile-
Send them a light Note.” The business was successful in this social media campaign to promote
its new products. The company used Facebook and Twitter ads to target particular cities. The
campaign was tailor-made and personalized and well-coordinated (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis
2014).
Business including cafes also promotes the launch or return of its products online.For
example, Starbucks celebrated the return of café Pumpkin Latte in the United States. The café is
privileged to have millions of fans and during the promotional activity, fans could earn points

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using a Facebook app by solving a challenge every day or making a new creation every day.
Users could also shout-out slogans of the café in their city. The city, which was the winner of
this campaign, was Chicago followed by Seattle (Järvinen et al. 2012).
Business as cafes promotes themselves on Twitter with a campaign called “Tweet a
coffee”. The promotional campaign helps business like cafes in data mining as the business is
able to accumulate huge data base of Twitter handles, credit card information and mobile phone
id of users. Research firm Keyhole found out that during a campaign, twenty-seven thousand
fans of Starbucks twitted a coffee, thirty-four percentage of the users also purchased multiple gift
cards. It was estimated that cafe had access to databases of more than fifty-four thousand
customers and $180,000 worth of coffee was sold during the promotional campaign (Tuten and
Solomon 2014).
Business promotes its brand in Instagram by posting pictures of people behind the scenes
of the business. The business like cafe builds relationships with its huge customer base by
reposting pictures of its fans holding coffee cups of cafes at different locations. This promotional
campaign helps business to strengthen its brand image as fans of the business get an opportunity
to see interesting behind the scenes pictures of the business.
An integral part of the coffee culture business is to drink the coffee in a beautifully
decorated cup. Business takes leverage of visually appealing social media platform Pinterest to
post pictures of appealing and eye-catching pictures of its products. The business makes use of
various Pinboards to post pictures of its products on Pinterest, like cafes post pictures of gadgets
of coffee, tea rituals and comfortable spaces of their café where one can relax and enjoy a
soothing cup of coffee.

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Business applies the concept of Integrated Marketing Communication in their social
networks as an online promotional tool strategy as business uses every social media platform to
promote the café. The business makes use of Youtube channel to promote itself, for example,
cafes post several delicious recipes of coffee like the procedures to make Coffee Lemonade and
Cold brew Mocha ice cubes. Business including cafes also maintains customer relationship
management by proving information “About our food” where customers get to know the food
they are consuming.
The business uses social networks to build a good relationship and connect with their
customers online. Business uses emotional tool to connect with the customers. Their marketing
strategies in social networks do not push the products to the customers but connect with them
emotionally so that customers feel privileged to purchase its products. A brand is about narrating
a story, a brand is about connecting personally with customers. Every time customers see news
from business like cafes in their newsfeed, they have the feeling to curl up in their beds on a lazy
Sunday with a cup of coffee. This is the way business connects with their customers they sell
comfort and happiness to them and not just a product.
According to (Järvinen et al. 2012), business makes use of social media campaigns to
take active part in corporate social responsibility. Business uses social networks to do charitable
campaigns like raising awareness of AIDS
Business uses social networks to promote its products online in Australia with the help
of its website. The business like cafes organizes campaigns like Free Fair trade Coffee Hours.
Business uses the promotional campaign on its website to invite customers to visit certain stores
in Australia on some particular date and time to enjoy a free product or service.

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The business also builds mobile App in Australia. Customers are allowed to locate stores,
check menu, and re-load cards using this mobile app (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi
2012).
The business makes use of Social network to develop a community of its customers and
employees. The mission of business is to make difference in lives of people of its community of
customers and employees. The motto of business is to bring together and connect people of its
community and to ensure that the people of the countries where business has presence feel
connected and act as a catalyst of change to make the world a better place to live in (Kaplan, and
Haenlein 2010).
The business also makes use of Social Networks to connect volunteers across the globe
to the community. These volunteers are involved in several good causes that are beneficial to the
human race. The business also nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit among young people by
arranging Social Entrepreneurs Fund. This fund can be used by creative and innovative
entrepreneurs to solve challenging problems of the community (Zaglia 2013).
Business takes advantage of social networks to connect people from 75 countries where
the business is present. Corporate social responsibility is a responsibility of the world-renowned
businesses and they ensure to offer to its customers high quality and ethically sourced products.
The business invests in education, training and development as a part of its CSR activities.
Information about all these activities is available online (Weinberg and Pehlivan 2015).
Business ensures that it takes active participation in environmental concerns. The
business uses social network to provide customer information about how the business recycles its
wastes to have a greener planet. The business like Starbucks uses social network to let members

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of its community know about how the company helps farmers have access to clean water and
mitigates the impact of climate change on its farms (Durkin McGowan and McKeown 2013).
The purpose of a business organization is not only to focus on its profit but also to
contribute to the society. The triple bottom line of business is profit, people and planet. Business
can use social networks to focus on the three bottom lines. Corporate social responsibility
indirectly affects the profit of a business and therefore business can use social networks to focus
on corporate social responsibility. Business can focus on environmental concerns, sustainability
issues, social concerns like bringing more women in the workforce or reducing the wage gap
between men and women using social networks. Professional Social networks can be used by
business especially the human resource department to identify the talent gap in the organization
and bridge the gap by recruiting people who will fit the organization. Also business can use
social networks to earn profit from the bottom of pyramid. People on the bottom of the pyramid
are people who belong to lower income groups. But business can provide services to these
people and make profit. Business especially fast moving consumer goods company can make use
of social networks to sell products like small economical packs of toothpaste, soaps, shampoo
and can use social networks to raise awareness among people living in poor economic
conditions. Business can make use of social networks to employ these people and can ensure that
they can avail services of business at minimum cost. Thus, social networks or digital platform
can be used by business not only to earn profit by promotional campaigns or connecting with
customers and build relationship with them but social networks can be used by business for
altruistic activities and corporate social responsibility.

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The business uses social networks to enable members of its community to have a
volunteer match with the help of which volunteers can work on a common social cause that
would suit their interest. Public conversation and civic engagement is encouraged among
members of its community through social network perform (Neti 2012).
The business manages dialogue between social media and customers using the 3-M
framework-Megaphone, Magnet and Monitor framework. Megaphone represents communication
from the firm to customers, The Magnet represents communication from customers to firms and
Monitor represents interaction customer-to-customer interaction. Using this 3-M model the
business analyzes the challenges faced posed by social media and comes up with solutions to
mitigate the challenges (Okazaki and Taylor 2013).
By the above examples, it can be depicted that the use of social media has many
advantages that enable business to promote its new products online, to build a community among
all its users worldwide, to promote entrepreneurial spirits among its members and to connect
volunteers with its community. But according to Tiago and Veríssimo (2014), the use of social
media has many disadvantages as well. The main disadvantage of social media is that it is that
usage of marketing tools on social networking sites is very time-consuming It often becomes
very difficult for the business to manage the various social network platforms and the challenges
imposed by them (Armstrong et al. 2015)
Social networks are aimed at building long-term relationship with customers. There have to be
people to manage the social networking sites by constantly updating product information,

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commenting on messages of public and answering their queries. Some customers may find the
social network's effort of cafes to be intrusive to their privacy as companies constantly use data
mining tools to track personal information of millions of customers online (Gensler et al. 2013).
Customers who spread negative images about the business can misuse the social
networking sites. Unhappy customers of business can post negative comments and videos about
the business on Facebook and Twitter, which can be detrimental to the brand image of the
business. There should be a team who involve themselves in managing such negative feedbacks
and pacify the angry customers so that the brand image of the business stays intact and the
perceived value of the customers about business is not harmed by any negative publicity
(Laroche, Habibi and Richard 2013)
Business is one of the most customer centric organizations assisting in customer
engagement through social media challenge. They have used it to their advantage and have good
results accordingly. Promoting its new product online and having feedbacks in the media has
long run influence and helps in new customer acquisition. The usage of it is crucial as it may
give some negative impacts and hampers the further promotion. However, one must learn its
customer attitude as it helps in building brand equity, the business has certainly done it right
(Järvinen et al. 2012).
There have been gaps in the literature which can be identified. A lot of information is
provided in the literature review about many authors which signify that business like cafes uses
the social networks online to promote their products and to build a personal relationship with
customers but further research should be carried on to identify the disadvantages of using social