Executive Summary………………..2
Case Study…………………………3
Research……………………………7
SWOT...............................................13
Goal………………………………...14
Objectives…………………………..15
Audiences…………………………..16
Influentials………………………….17
Messages……………………………18
Strategies/Tactics…………………...19
Evaluation Criteria………………….20
Calendar…………………………….23
Budget……………………………....24
1
Executive Summary
Overall our public relations campaign is to direct our efforts to increasing public
awareness for our company, Tully’s Coffee. In the following report we will show an
extensive public opinion analysis, in which we found that consumers did not frequently
visit or consume Tully’s coffee products. In our campaign we set out to increase social
media presence through Facebook, and Twitter, and also gain positive expose through
traditional media outlets such as newspapers and television news sources. Tully’s has a
unique opportunity to grab consumers in the coffee industry because of their local brand
identity, and their recent purchase from T.V. show star, Patrick Dempsey.
Our strategies include placing Tully’s in various events around the Seattle area,
which will gain expose and brand awareness within the community. The goal of our
campaign is to get people to talk about Tully’s coffee; we need to make our coffee
relevant to people. In our report we have created a SWOT analysis for you, the reader to
understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the
company. We have identified the audiences we are attempting to reach through our
campaign and have laid out extensive objectives strategies and tactics for reaching those
audiences.
2
Case Study
Tully’s Coffee is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler that was based and founded in
Seattle, Washington in 1992. Tully’s main product is coffee, but also sells baked goods
and coffee related supplies. The location of Seattle is important because a large emphasis
is placed on drinking coffee, and coffee has become a large part of Pacific Northwest
culture. In fact, there is one coffee shop for every 4,000 people in Puget Sound. Tom
Tully O’Keefe founded the company with the intention to rival the already expanding
Starbucks coffee. Starbucks was the first and most prominent competition to Tully’s
coffee and that carries through to today.
Currently, Tully’s has roughly 180 stores located in the Greater Puget sound area
of Washington and in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Idaho, Arizona, and has 6
international stores. There are 100-plus committed stores in Singapore and South Korea
and 385 stores currently open in Japan. They currently have revenue of around $50.8
million and having 889 employees.
Tully’s Coffee Company is one of many successful coffee companies in the
United States. The company is within the top ten most prosperous coffee and espresso
companies to date. Tully’s has recently gained notoriety from the purchase of the
company by famous actor Patrick Dempsey who stars in the hit TV show Grey’s
Anatomy. The same can be seen as an important attribute because not only did the sale
put Tully’s in the news, but their new owners include a very popular actor whos
television show is also based out of Seattle.
Tully’s Coffee is involved and active with social media websites such as
Facebook and Twitter. The company created a Facebook page in 2009 and has been very
3
active since. They have over 252,000 current likes. They post about new drinks they are
testing out and ask people their opinions, as well as posting about new locations being
opened and new promotions being offered. Every couple of days they try to involve their
fans by posting polls about favorite drinks and pictures of their drinks to entice their
audience. Tully’s also has a Twitter account where people can follow them to get news
about events, promotions, drink specials and provide feedback to the company. Tully’s
has over 10,000 current followers; it is a great way for the company to connect personally
with customers and show them their opinions are valued. Tully’s tweets about current
events happening in Seattle, as well as asking customers what drink t hey ordered and
how they liked it. With currently over 4,000 tweets they keep information up to date as
well as communicate with followers multiple times a day. The fact that Tully’s updates
their Facebook and Twitter statuses frequently is important, because people appreciate
interactive advertising; such as the deals featured on social media accounts.
Drinking coffee has become a multi-million dollar business, and caffeine has
slowly become the number one drug choice in the world according to bodybuilding.com.
It is the world’s most popular psychoactive substance. Caffeine has unprecedented
popularity as a stimulating beverage in the form of coffee, tea and in a wide range of
energy drinks. In the USA alone, the equivalent of 168m of coffee per person, or a cup
and a half for each of its 275 million inhabitants is consumed every day. Of course, many
drink significantly more than this. With so many people drinking coffee today the coffee
industry is still on a rise. Foreign countries such as China are really starting to take on the
American ways of coffee drinking by allowing Starbucks onto its every street corner.
With an increasing rise in the coffee industry and such a high demand for it, Tully’s
4
hoped to grab a share of the market. Unfortunately, for 20 years Tully’s has struggled in
the shadow of Starbucks, earning a profit in only one year out of 10. Coffee businesses
are supposed to be recession proof, no matter how bad the economy, people will always
find a way to get their caffeine fix in before the morning starts.
In October 2012 Tully’s officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing only
stores that were “unprofitable”. One of their glaring deficiencies was paying off
investors, which included a $378,000 bill to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of
Vermont, who in 2009 bought Tully’s wholesale business for $40.3 million. In
bankruptcy auction Tully’s was purchased for $9.15 million by an investment group
headed by popular TV actor as stated earlier, Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey’s group has
promised to retain all of Tully’s 480 employees and to also uphold the million-dollar
commitment they had to customers who had purchased prepaid coffee cards. With the
Dempsey deal, creditors are repaid with interest and employees and store leases are kept.
As media coverage is concerned, in the recent years Tully’s has received mainly
negative press. With news spreading about filing for bankruptcy and their unprofitable
locations it has given them an image of instability. However, with the recent purchase by
Dempsey Tully’s has the opportunity to be seen in a new light, and because Dempsey is a
likeable figure by the general public that works in their favor as well.
As for competition, while small local based coffee stands are considered
competitors, their closest competition is Seattle based Starbucks coffee, as well as
Caribou Coffee, Tim Horton’s, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Coffee beanery, Seattle’s Best
and Peet’s coffee. Tully’s offers most all-comparable espresso items as their competitors,
but also sells a couple items that set them apart. Tully’s offers milkshakes and soft serve
5
ice cream, which is unique because other competitors their size such as Starbucks does
not offer it. In addition, Tully’s also offers local based foods from local vendors and
businesses, which shows them as being supportive of their local communities.
6
Research
Methodology: We surveyed a total of 116 people. 48 were male and 68 were female.
44.1% of the participants were between the ages of 18 and 24, 37.3% between the ages of
25-31, 5.9% were between the ages of 32 and 38 and 12.7% were above the age of 39.
The survey was conducted over the period of Monday, January 28th through Tuesday,
February 5, 2013. We conducted the survey in an online format, asking friends to fill out
the survey through social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. We chose to ask
questions that helped us to understand how well known Tully’s is, how many of the
participants drink Tully’s coffee, who they thought Tully’s biggest competition was and
if they would be willing to follow Tully’s via social networks.
Analysis: According to the results, 41.4% of the participants in our survey were male and
58.6% of the participants were female. The first question asked was how often do you
drink coffee? 39.3% responded that they are daily coffee drinkers and only 17.9%
responded by saying they never drink coffee. This question was designed to get a grasp
for how many of the participants consumed what our client’s product is, coffee. The next
question was: Have you ever heard of Tully’s Coffee Company? This question was
important to establish how many of the participants had even heard of our client.
The majority of people (79.5%) had heard of Tully’s. 20.5% of participants had not. This
was surprising, because as our members of our group are all from the Pacific Northwest,
7
we assumed everybody has heard of Tully’s.
The next question we asked was: How often do you visit Tully’s? We asked this question
because while the participants may know the company, they aren’t necessarily customers.
Only 28 participants responded to this question, and an alarming majority of 82.1% of
people said they do not drink at Tully’s coffee and only one person responded to being a
loyal Tully’s customer and drinking Tully’s three or more times a week. Considering
82% is a large number of participants who do not ever drink Tully’s, we wanted to know
if the reason people did not go to Tully’s is because they were in an area where there
wasn’t a convenient location. We asked if a Tully’s was located closer to them if they
would go more often.
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While 32.1% responded that even if a Tully’s was located closer to them they would
probably not go, and 10.7% said they would definitely not go, 42.9% said they would
probably go and 10.7% responded that they would definitely go. This means that 53.6%
of people would convert over to Tully’s if there were a more convenient location. We
must take into consideration that many of the survey takers could be living in Ellensburg
while attending CWU, where there is not a Tully’s. This question let us know that it isn’t
necessarily that people don’t like Tully’s coffee, but it’s lack of availability that makes
them go elsewhere for coffee. We also asked what their most important reason for
choosing where to buy coffee was, and most people (41.9%) said it was about store
convenience.
Another surprising answer in this survey was from the question: When was the last time
you purchased a Tully’s coffee or product? Considering the majority of people never
went to Tully’s we assumed this question would have the same type of results. However,
34.7% of people said that they had purchased a Tully’s product that day.
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This answer may seem conflicting, but it shows that while they may not physically visit a
Tully’s, they can buy their products in grocery stores.
We also asked the survey participants what they considered Tully’s biggest competition
was. The majority of people (70%) agreed that Starbucks is Tully’s biggest competition.
This was especially interesting, because in the focus group we conducted everyone
agreed that small coffee stands were Tully’s biggest competitors. In the online survey,
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only 10.8% of people thought that small coffee stands were in competition with Tully’s.
Another 13.5% of people thought local coffee shops were Tully’s biggest competition.
Another question that had to be asked was whether or not people knew about Tully’s
recent business changes. In October of 2012 Tully’s filed bankruptcy and early this year
celebrity Patrick Dempsey bought the company. 41.9% of people said they were aware of
business changes while 58.1% were not.
We gave the participants an option to fill in what they had heard about Tully’s recent
changes. We had 10 responses that said they heard Patrick Dempsey recently bought the
company and only 4 responses saying they knew Tully’s had filed for bankruptcy.
The last question we asked was whether or not they were willing to be connected to
Tully’s via social networks if they offered specials through those sites? Usually when
people are offered deals they are more willing to be connected through sites such as
Twitter and Facebook, but 63% of people said they were not willing to be connected.
11
The large majority of people know what Tully’s is.
Most people that participated in the survey never visit a Tully’s
The majority of people are unwilling to connect to Tully’s via social media
12
SWOT
Strengths
 Local company
 News exposure
 Quality Product
 Unique specialty products
 Have a fan base to work with
Weakness
 Bankrupt
 Has to compete with Starbucks
 New leadership
 Negative publicity
Opportunities
 New ownership-New direction
 Can expand products
 New promotions
Threats
 Price of coffee beans increase
 Brand loyalty decreases
 New ownership changes direction
of company
 Change taste of coffee
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Goal
In light of Tully’s recent business changes, we would like to raise awareness of Tully’s
new brand identity and increase the amount of current and potential consumers.
14
Objectives



Raise awareness of Tully’s brand identity through social media. (Increase
Facebook likes 50% from 251,000 to 375,000 within the next year)
Increase brand recognition 15% in six months through various promotions, and
product placement
With new ownership in place we want to see a 10% increase in investment
capital and repeat business.
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Audiences
Company Shareholders
 Stakeholders are a public for Tully’s Coffee since it is a public company and
stakeholders have large amounts of money invested into the company.
Stakeholder’s opinions were taken into account in the company because their
investments were what were at stake. Shareholders influence Tully’s because they
are the ones investing, helping to put money into the company so it can expand
and have resources to reach consumers.
The Government
 The government is a public of Tully’s Coffee because they dealt with the
bankruptcy process. They keep close tabs on how the company is being run, and
potential moves they make.
Consumers
 Coffee drinkers are a general public because they are the consumers. From our
focus groups and surveys we found a lot of people don’t frequently go to a Tully’s
store, but some buy their products from the grocery stores; such as their coffee
beans or Keurig machine K-cups. Tully’s is a local brand, and therefore their
standards of quality matter to the consumers. Tully’s needs to keep these
customers, as well as expand to the others who drink coffee at other
establishments. Consumers are influential because they are the ones that will help
Tully’s grow and develop a more prestigious brand. Without Consumers the
company would fall back into bankruptcy.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
 The coffee bean company that supplies Tully’s would also be a public and were a
major factor when deciding the new ownership of the company. One reason
Starbucks wasn’t able to obtain the ownership of failed Tully’s stores was because
of the resistance of the coffee bean supplier who didn’t want to sell to the
Starbucks Company. They influence Tully’s because their brand of coffee is
connected to the quality of coffee beans they receive. Without unique coffee
beans a cup of Tully’s coffee does not taste the same.
Employees
 Employees are a public of Tully’s because they are directly affected by what the
company does and how successful they are. When Tully’s was purchased in
Bankruptcy auction one of the agreements made was that stores would not be shut
down and employees would be keeping their jobs. Without dedicated employees
Tully’s wouldn’t be able to run effectively.
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Influentials
Media outlets
 Newspaper- The Seattle Times is influential because it is the predominant
Newspaper in Seattle and articles written are viewed by a large audience in the
area
 King 5 News-Predominant news cast in Seattle Area, large audience tune in to
listen to the news
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Messages
1. Shareholders
Primary message: Tully’s needs continued support for business advancements
Secondary message: Needs shareholders to continue to invest because new
ownership led by Patrick Dempsey within the new ownership will begin to
grow and prosper.
2. Employees
Primary message: Tully’s needs continued support from their employees, as
the business will continue to grow and prosper from new ownership and
business changes
Secondary message: Needs to continue to have employees who believe in
Tully’s coffee, who will continue to work hard and provide a positive
atmosphere for customers to want to visit and return.
3. Consumers
Primary Message: Tully’s needs continued loyalty from customers and repeat
business from consumers who will bring in business from others through past
positive experiences and satisfaction.
Secondary message: When you are a loyal consumer you save money by
receiving discounts from contests and punch cards.
Secondary Message: When you drink Tully’s you are supporting a local (if in
the North West region) coffee establishment
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Strategy and Tactics
Objective 1: Consumers
Strategy 1: Game and promotions in social media platforms.
Tactic 1: Present a photo contest on Facebook; The person who takes
the most unique picture with either a cut out of new owner Patrick Dempsey, or a Tully’s
brand coffee cup will win a coffee date with Patrick Dempsey. The contest will be judged
by how many “likes” a photo receives. The winner will provide their contact information
and the gift card will be sent to them.
Tactic 2: Keep Tully’s Facebook updated with current information
about products, promotions and relevant coffee industry material. Post at least two times
a day to show customers Tully’s dedication to social media
Tactic 3: Have a month promotion where Tully’s manager at a
particular store takes a picture of a Tully’s coffee cup next to their shop. The first 15
people to come in and say they saw the photo on social media will get 50% off their
purchase.
Strategy 2: Use Twitter as a means to keep audience connected with Tully’s
and paying attention to social media on a daily basis.
Tactic 1: Put on Twitter page telling public that first 10 people to
retweet a specific post wins a $20 gift card to Tully’s coffee.
Strategy 3: Relations and presence in big Seattle events.
Tactic 1: Host a Breast Cancer awareness marathon: Place Tully’s
booth along the course with water and small cups of coffee for participants. Events such
as these have big turn outs and it is for a great cause. People see our logo and our
connection to the city of Seattle and start to build a relationship.
Tactic 2: Booth at Bite of Seattle: allows for consumers to enjoy
Tully’s coffee while being part of the community, while also getting the brand seen
and remembered.
Tactic 3: Hosts Trivia night. Offer coffee at discounted price.
People come in and enjoy a trivia night while drinking Tully’s coffee at one our
locations.
Objective 2: Employee
Strategy 1: Employee recognition
Tactic 1: Managers or other employees put name of exceptional worker into a
drawing: Once a month a winner is drawn and given a $25 gift card to spend how they
please.
Objective 3: Shareholders
Strategy 1: Keep Shareholders informed
Tactic 1: Hold an annual shareholders conference to talk about where
the direction of the company is heading, what was done in the previous year to
increase sales and keep Tully’s relevant in the industry. Allows investors to
know what is going on with the company and why there investment dollar is so
important to the company.
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Evaluation Criteria
Objective 1: Consumers
Strategy 1: Game and promotions in social media platforms.
Tactic 1: Increasing awareness through Social Media through Facebook by
promoting a Patrick Dempsey photo contest
Measuring Success 1: By February 2014, tactic 1 success will be measured through the
amount of likes and shares the post receives. The winner of the contest will be
determined by the photo with the most “likes”.
Tactic 2: Keeping Tully’s updated with current information about products,
promotions, and relevant material, posting twice a day to keep Tully’s a dedicated and
relevant company in social media.
Measuring Success 2: By February 2014 tactic 2 success will be measured through the
amount of posts per day and the interaction the posts receive. Data will be collected
through the Facebook page and numerical data of “Likes”, “Shares”, and friends will
show the success of Tully’s Facebook interactions daily.
Tactic 3: Promotion that invites Tully’s manager to take a picture of a Tully’s
coffee cup next to their store and post on Facebook, the first 15 people to come into a
store and say the saw the photo will get 50% off their in store purchase.
Measuring Success 3: By February 2014 tactic 3 success will be measured through the
sales and popularity received that day/week through 50% off transactions. Stores will
measure the amount of success by how many 50% off transactions were run through their
tills.
Strategy 2: Use Twitter as a means to keep audience connected with
Tully’s and paying attention to social media on a daily basis.
Tactic 1: Increasing awareness through Twitter by promoting “retweets”
and rewarding the first ten people with a $20 gift card to Tully’s.
Measuring Success: By March 2014 tactic 1 success will be measured by the numerical
data of the amount of “retweets” the post receives. Success will also be measured by how
many followers the contest brings in. Tully’s can measure this through a starting number
of followers and the increase in followers during and after the promotion.
Strategy 3: Relations and presence in big Seattle events.
Tactic 1: Hosting a breast cancer awareness marathon by placing a Tully’s
Coffee Company booth along the course with water and cups of coffee for
participants.
Measuring Success: By April 2014 tactic 1 success will be measured through the amount
of participants the marathon receives. Numerical data of participant signups and
donations will measure the overall success. Customer feedback will be through word of
mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts
and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the
success.
Tactic 2: Provide a booth at Bite of Seattle that will boost brand awareness
and involve the company within the community.
Measuring Success: By April 2014 tactic 3 success will be measured through the amount
of product gone through within the day. This will show how many people received
Tully’s product and will determine a rough estimate of how many eyes saw Tully’s
branding. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and
20
participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online
survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the success.
Tactic 3: Hosts Trivia night. Offer coffee at discounted price.
People come in and enjoy a trivia night while drinking Tully’s coffee at one our
locations.
Measuring Success: By March 2014 tactic 2 success will be measured through the
amount of sales received that night. Numerical data will determine profit as well as
customer feedback which will determine overall satisfaction of event. Customer feedback
will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged
to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and
statistics will determine the success.
Objective 2: Employee
Strategy: Employee recognition
Tactic 1: Managers or other employees put name of exceptional worker
into a drawing: Once a month a winner is drawn and given a $25 gift card to spend
how they please.
Measuring Success: By May 2014 tactic 4 success will be measured through store and
company feedback. The feedback will be through surveys and manager written weeks
evaluation reports.
Objective 3: Shareholders
Strategy 1: Increase Sales by 10% over the next 15 months by providing incentives for
repeat business.
Tactic 1: Tully’s will promote a punch card that encourages customer business
through a buy ten get the 11th free purchase
Measuring Success: By July 2014 tactic 2 successes will be measured through the
amount of sales, and the amount free purchases received from the 11th punch. This will
show how many people obtain the Tully’s punch card as well as how effective repeat
sales are altogether. Sales can be measured through end of day sales reports and overall
secondary data within the company.
Tactic 2: Providing an incentive for repeat business within one day, by creating a
receipt that allows customers to receive 50% of with proof of purchase in the morning.
Measuring Success: Tactic 2 will be measured through the amount of sales received that
day from the incentive. Till transactions will measure numerical data that will show the
number of 2nd day purchases and how much more profit was gained through the
incentive. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and
participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online
survey or social media.
Strategy 2: Brand recognition
Tactic 1: Establish Product Placement within Patrick Dempsey’s TV show: Grey’s
Anatomy.
Measuring Success: Tactic 1 will be measured through the amount of brand recognition
Tully’s receives after the show airing. Tully’s will establish Facebook posts and Tweets
21
that encourage viewers to watch the show and recognize the label. Numerical data of
responses will determine success as well as word of mouth stir.
Tactic 2: Create reusable with Tully’s logo that will allow for product recognition and
notoriety
Measuring Success: Tactic 2 success will be measured through the amount of cup sales
received. Sale reports will create a statistical profit and amount of cup sales. Customer
feedback will be through word of mouth and they will be encouraged to share their
thoughts and opinions through an online survey and social media.
Strategy 3: Patrick Dempsey meeting with the public
Tactic 1: Have Patrick Dempsey show up at random locations posting on social media
hours before, for customers to show up and meet Dempsey.
Measuring Success: Tactic 1 success will be measured by the amount of participants that
each “Dempsey Doppler” creates both in store and through social media. Store sales will
measure profit gained and media will measure popularity. Customer feedback will be
through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to
share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics
will determine the success.
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Calendar
February
-Launch Facebook
Patrick Dempsey
Photo Contest.
- Best photo with a
cut-out of Dempsey
wins Tully’s gift
card.
-Winner decided
based upon the most
“likes” on photo.
-Month promotion
with manager’s
photo of Tully’s
coffee cup in front of
store. First 15 people
to come saying they
saw the photo gets
15% off.
March
-Twitter promotion
-First 10 people to
repost certain tweets
receives 20 dollar
gift card to any
Tully’s store.
-Tully’s Trivia Night
-Offer discounts
during the trivia
night.
-Raffles and Tully’s
prizes for winners.
-Include questions
about Tully’s to get
people more aware
of the brand.
April
May
-Host a Breast
Cancer Awareness
Marathon.
-Employee and
Customer
appreciation week.
-Set-up Tully’s
booths throughout
the course.
-Employees can
bring family and
friends in for
discounts.
-Main Tully’s banner
at staring line.
-Have Tully’s booths
handing out cups of
water and coffee in
Tully’s brand cups
and labeled water
bottles.
-Customer
appreciation: Buy
two coffees get the
third free sale.
-15% off all pastries
for the week.
June
July
-Product placement
within Patrick
Dempsey’s hit TV
show, Grey’s
Anatomy.
-Bite of Seattle
-Reusable Tully’s
coffee cups. Get the
brand out into the
community to be
seen more often.
-Offer discounts for
the community
during the event
-“Dempsey Doppler”
-Have Dempsey
show up at random
Tully’s locations to
meet and greet staff
and customers.
-Have Tully’s be a
part of the event.
(Possibly a sponsor)
-Brand awareness
opportunities.
-Tully’s punch card
-Offer customers the
chance to redeem
more coffee with
their morning
receipt.
-Post on Facebook
and Twitter 2 hours
before he shows up
to increase hype and
awareness.
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Budget
Contests on Social Media
Public Appearances
Detail
Per Item Cost
Total Projected
Photo Contest on
Facebook For Coffee
Date With Dempsey
Post Twice a day on
Facebook
Tully’s Cup Picture
Contest
Retweet Contest $20 Gift
Host Breast Cancer
Marathon
Refreshment Booth
Bite of Seattle Coffee
Booth
Trivia Night
$0
$0
$0
$0
15@$3.50
$52.50
10 People@$20
200 People@$1.50
$200
$300
1000 People@$0.75
$750
10% off a Coffee
50 People@$0.35
Staff of 50@$3.50
$17.50
Employee and Customer
Recognition
Free Coffee for Winning
School Faculty
Incentives for Repeat
Business
Bring Receipt in 50% off
next
50@$1.75
$87.50
Brand Recognition
Product Placement in
Grey’s Anatomy
Post Pictures of Fans
with Dempsey on
Facebook
1 Placement@$500
$500
$0
$0
Dempsey Doppler
$175
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