Starbucks Social Media Analysis Aman Mavani, Noah Sochaczevski, Julanna Zhang, Christine Zhu BUS 490 - Senior Capstone Prof. David Schweidel 9/16/2022 The influence of Social Media on consumer spending and business trends has evolved significantly throughout the years. From the rising power of influencers to sponsored content in mass media, every industry has experienced positive growth from plugging into the power of social networks. In this capstone session, we conducted an Excel analysis of Starbucks social media activity data, revealing a handful of dates with significant changes in social media activity and sentiment. By cross-checking these dates with the current events at the time, we examine the potential influence of said events on the general sentiment expressed on public platforms. While it is worth noting that correlation is not equivalent to causation, we believe there is value in considering news events as a factor for brand image and success. To complete the analysis, we followed the instructions provided in the supplementary word document. To streamline the date identification process we constructed a robust and dynamic excel formula. By combining IF and AND statements, we identified the dates based on our required criteria - above the usual comments and below the usual quality of comments. This resulted in the required dates and a number of empty cells. By removing duplicates (only blank spaces), a consolidated and clean list of dates was procured (on sheet 1 of the excel). From this list, we filtered through Starbucks-related news from those specific dates and discussed the feasibility of it creating negative social perception or sparking increased engagement (see Exhibit 1). While there were certain controversial events that clearly caused significant increases in negative social media attention, many of the dates revealed no extraordinarily attention-grabbing publicity. A majority of the news articles cover topics related to business operations, financial performance, or sensationalized consumer reactions. 3 key stories offer an in-depth insight into such performances. For example, the launch of the red holiday cups in 2015 sparked backlash across religious communities, as Starbucks received criticism for allegedly promoting a Christian holiday and imposing beliefs on consumers. Another example of sensationalized consumer reaction was an overwhelmingly negative response to the decision of Starbucks to have baristas write ‘race together’ on drinks, in an attempt to promote discussion of racial barriers through coffee orders. While these actions may have been imposed with positive intent, there was a misalignment in the execution and acceptance of such initiatives. Actions we personally perceive to be not as vital, such as Obama being photographed entering a Starbucks, still were correlated with low-performing sentiment from an online presence. Through analysis of multiple scenarios, it is worth noting the positive and negative effects of such surveying. Understanding context and the value of consumers is a vital component of marketing and targeting demographics, but at the end of the day numbers only represent so much significance in the grand scheme of things. The result of this survey revealed the influence of key events such as quarter earnings and long term project announcements on public sentiment. For future considerations, this project demonstrated the value of utilizing statistical modeling as a way to reflect consumer behavior and tie in to brand performance. Exhibit 1: Collection of Dates and Associated News Events Jan ~16, 2014: Released new app update, publicized collection of user info but said they would “protect info” - Likely customers dissatisfied Jan 23, 2014: Strong Q1 results Jan 24, 2014: CEO saw surge of online orders, put more emphasis into the app Feb 11, 2014: Comedian opened “Dumb Starbucks” in LA, was shut down by LA Health Department due to health concerns but also was a parody bringing attention to Starbucks - Nathan For You show Mar 13, 2014: released order ahead features & expanded K-Cup collab May 28, 2014: most expensive Starbucks drink ever ordered, gained publicity June 5, 2014: founder of SBUX foundation invested 3M in China in 3 years June 9, 2014: Obama goes to Starbucks June 12, 2014: Starbucks runs new campaign “barista promise” July 3: 2014: Nothing August 22nd 2014: florida man ruins pay it forward scheme September 15th, 2014: Mar 3-19, 2015: Starbucks started a #RaceTogether campaign - The CEO of Starbucks defended the coffee chain's new campaign to address race relations by asking employees to write "Race Together" on the side of customers' cups to start a dialogue with customers Apr 24-25, 2015: Register system outage: Starbucks gave out free coffee to apologize for outage Nov 8-9, 2015: New red Starbucks cups spark controversy wtih upset Christians feeling as if Starbucks is “waging war on Christmas”
