Filippo Pamato
Leonardo Orecchio
Marta Marchioro
Silvia Martin
present…
MyStarbucksIdea.com
• Starbucks was born in 1971 as a small company with a single store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market and
in few years it had a rapid growth investing both on the quality of its products and on customers fidelization.
• Its advertising campaign is exclusively focused on the creation of a direct relationship with customers
investing a lot on the social media strategy. So, the firm has created a Brand Community that had a great
success, in consolidating the brand.
• According to this strategy in March 2008 MyStarbucksIdea.com was
founded.
• This crowdsourcing activity is the most vital aspect of its Social Media
Strategy, indeed users can share their ideas, suggestions, frustrations
and also vote the best advices on this mini Social Network. The most
voted ideas are implemented by the company in its shops and the
customers, in this way, feel appreciated and play an active role in the
Starbucks Experience.
What ALEX WHEELER, VP Global Digital Marketing For Starbucks, thinks
about MyStarbucksIdea.com…
• “For six years, our passionate customers and partners have been sharing their ideas with us on
MyStarbucksIdea.com, and we have listened and acted upon many amazing innovations that we have
received from this online community”
• “From digital rewards to new coffee flavors to the little extras, like
splash sticks, that make your day easier, our customers have
incredible ideas that we can bring to life in stores worldwide”
• “We don’t know what the next big idea from our customers may be,
but we're thrilled to keeping listening, engaging and making
adjustments to improve the Starbucks experience for fans
everywhere.”
CLASSIFICATION OF THE BUSINESS MODEL
•
•
•
My Starbucks Idea adopts quite an
atypical business model, as it is
likely to be a hybrid between a
Platform and a Content and
Product Market.
Starting from the latter, the site
deals with “the sale of content or
products
that
are
created,
developed or selected by crowds”
but the sale only happens on
physical stores, and not on the
same site, which it is only
concerned with the development
of such products and services.
On the other hand, the site shares a lot of features with the Platform business model, because it is used to create
and implement crowd projects, but it does not share its typical monetization policy. Revenues come both from the
development of a more brand-loyal and involved customer, both from the realization of ideas in Starbucks’ stores.
GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION
• Everybody could share its Starbucks idea telling what people thinks about other advices and join the
discussion.
• The platform is also accessible in countries where there aren’t Starbucks shops, such as in Italy, and the
website is monitored by internal and third-party accessibility consultants in order to identify usability issues
and discover new solutions to further improve the accessibility of our site.
• “Starbucks is committed to diversity, inclusion and accessibility in everything we do. These core values are
fundamental to the way we do business and come through in the experiences we design for people – both in
our coffeehouses and on the web.”
WHERE STARBUCKS SHOPS ARE LOCATED
WHERE THE PLATFORM IS ACCESSIBLE
PERFORMANCE MEASURE OF THE PLATFORM
All the ideas proposed by the customers are divided into three groups:
1) Product ideas deal with creation, innovation or improvement of the final products
sold in the stores, including beverages and food, but also with new technologies,
merchandise and advertisement. This category collects the majority of projects: among
134.722 ideas submitted, 602 have been realized (0,45%);
2) Experience ideas are about the processes of ordering, payment and pick-up, the
atmosphere and the location of the physical stores; here 248 of the 44.544 ideas have
been successful (0,56%).
3) Involvement ideas are a way to build a community of users, inside and outside the
US, and to improve social responsibility. This category, which presents 25.459 ideas,
204 realized is the one with the highest percentage of projects accomplished (0,80%).
The total number of ideas submitted is 204.725, while only 1.054 (0,51%) have been
realized.
PROS AND CONS OF THE PLATFORM
FREE IDEAS: Starbucks receives new
fantastic ideas for free from its
customers.
CUSTOMER LOYALTY: the fact that
some ideas are implemented
improves the customer engagement because clients feel
like Starbucks is listening to them and this give an edge over
its competition.
DIRECT CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS: people can vote and
comment other ideas encouraging the adoption of that
intention and get direct interactions with each other in
order to improve the level of engagement (a sort of virtual
brainstorming)
HUMAN COLLABORATION: in any service industry is
important to listen the advices of people you serve (and
also the employees) in order to show that the company
cares about individual needs.
POSSIBLE FREE – RIDING PROBLEM:
competitors could find the ideas posted by Starbucks’
customers for free and implement them in their
companies leading to a loss of profits and
confidentiality.
So Starbucks directors need to introduce a
comprehensive Social Media Policy to provide guidance
to their workers and customers.
POSSIBLE DISPLEASURE WITHIN CUSTOMERS: the rate
of projects implemented is very low (<1%) so users may
feel neglected and not heard
TYPE OF SUPPORTERS ENGAGEMENT
Consumers :
• their favorite coffee place is paying
attention to them
• they belong to Starbucks community
• their idea will be selected for execution
Company:
What is My Starbucks idea for…
• it keeps marketing and product development fresh thus creating
a business value which is a key to keep up with competition and
to grow the brand value.
• reinforce brand loyalty
• it creates an active engagement, thanks to the direct consumer
interaction
• My Starbucks Ideas helps to increase customer involvement, motivation and address the acquired needs. By connecting
with marketing strategy concept, customers feel involved in the policy, product and the environment design of the store.
• In the platform there is also a blog, called “ideas in action”, written by Starbucks’ staff, that describes how they put in
practice consumers’ ideas. In this way, they make the consumers active part of the community, the clients are the center
of attention, so to reinforce the brand loyalty, and the sense of belonging.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE SUPPORTERS
• Starbucks’ primary target market is men and women aged 25 to
40; they account for almost half (49%) of its total business
• Young adults, aged 18 to 24, represent 40% of Starbucks’ sales;
this audience grows 4,6% each year
• Kids and teens aged 13 to 17 account for just 2% of Starbucks’
sales, but most items for kids are purchased by the parents
ILLUSTRATION OF A SPECIFIC PROJECT
On November 20, 2013 community member Genevieve728 shared her simple yet intriguing idea:
“Why not have a cup design contest to bring some more fun and exciting cups to the stores?”.
In the next few days the post received over 510 vote-points and was noticed by a Starbucks responsible.
Soon the White Cup Art Contest was launched on Starbucks' blog: customers from US and Canada had 21 days,
between April and May, were asked to submit their vision for a new design cup by drawing on the regular ones
and submitting their photos.
The projects was launched on a website and received help and visibility on the social media accounts of the
company: a Facebook album was created, a specific space on their Pinterest profile was given and an hashtag
was released on Twitter, just to mention a few. In this way, Genevieve728's idea was able to reach a part of the
large online community related to the brand:
Facebook – 37.866.836
Twitter – 6.920.000
Pinterest – Starbucks Loves, 102.164 followers
Instagram – 3.500.000 followers
In June a winner was selected among those 4.000 people who had
subscribed their designs: B. L. Thompson, a 19 years old girl from
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The winning cup was then printed on Starbucks'
reusable cups and sold online.
THE PROJECT EXPLAINED BY STARBUCKS’
STAFF
•
"It all started with an idea to get people excited about our reusable tumbler. We knew a fresh design would be
key—but what to feature on this unique canvas?
•
For the answer we looked at you. We asked all artists, drawers, and everyday doodlers to submit a design they'd
like to see featured on our reusable tumbler. We were simply overwhelmed by the response. Over 4,000 inspired,
creative, and amazingly unique designs came pouring in through our social media channels. The very first
#WhiteCupContest had begun.
•
Selecting just one was incredibly difficult, but there was something about the design by Brita Lynn Thompson that
grabbed us. It was unlike anything we've ever done on a cup before. It's expressive, artful, and handcrafted nature
simply captured the spirit of the white cup.
•
Today, we’re extremely excited to announce that you can purchase this unique tumbler exclusively at
StarbucksStore.com. These are a limited edition—so get yours before we run out! We can’t wait to see these
beautiful reusable cups in our stores time and time again.
•
With such an overwhelming response maybe we should try this again. Good idea? Let us know—that's what My
Starbucks Idea is all about."
LIST OF INFORMATION SOURCES
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
http://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/learn-more/my-starbucks-idea
http://blogs.starbucks.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Starbucks
https://twitter.com/starbucks
https://it.pinterest.com/starbucks/
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/04/01/My-StarbucksIdea-Turns-5-040113.aspx
http://blog.betterific.com/2014/03/25/starbucks-crowdsourcing-success/
http://www.talkwalker.com