Sunday, October 26, 2014

Starbucks Connecting with the Groundswell One Cup at a Time

          
mystarbucksidea.com

    
         Have you ever waited in a long line at Starbucks? It can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating when your order’s wrong. Recently, Starbucks announced the development of an ordering app being tested in 150 stores in Portland, Oregon. The app allows you to order and pay for your favorite short, tall, grande, or venti in advance, then quickly pickup your order.
In Chapter 11 of Groundswell:winning in a world transformed by social technologies, authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff describe the importance of tapping into customers ideas and needs. They write,

 “One of the benefits we’ve seen of engaging with the groundswell is that your organization goes through a mental shift—you become so engaged with your customers that you walk in step with their needs and wants.” 

With their community, Starbucks walks in step with your needs and wants.
Starbucks’s success in mobile payment came about in 2009 after a customer need came to light. After the company learned customers used gift cards they bought for themselves in an effort to easily pay for their coffee or food, they saw an opportunity for you
mystarbucksidea.com
and took it creating the mobile card pay app. It is no coincidence this app was generated out of your needs. Starbucks connects with customers needs via the groundswell and their own community at mystarbucksidea.com. Their latest ordering app idea was customer generated idea via the community blog dating back as far as 2011. Here’s one from a customer:
 
mystarbucksideas.com
Similar to what Dell did with their customers through Ideastorm and Bell Canada did for employees with ID-ah! in chapter 12 of Groundswell, Starbucks’ community allows you to submit an idea—with a Starbuck’s account—to the customer. Then vote on ideas through a points getting system. The site categorizes
mystarbucksidea partners
ideas by popularity, recent, and top all-time ideas. These categories break down into subcategories based on topics like entertainment and technology. You can also view ideas once submitted and now are being put into action. Starbucks ensures you know they listen. They have two “Idea Partners” ready to help you with any idea. They post the ideas on their Twitter feed for @MyStarbucksIdea.  

Starbucks made great progress with this blog and has followed the six dimensions described in Chapter 13 in creating this culture:

1.      Experience
2.      Resources and Organization
3.      Process
4.      Measurement
5.      Commitment
6.      Culture

Starbucks attained the social maturity described in Chapter 13 of Groundswell with this blog and additional social media sites. Li and Bernoff describe why an array of companies has similar problems, they argue:

“The reason for commonality is this: fundamentally, social technology requires companies to move away from traditional mass marketing and management techniques and concepts of control toward empowering and connecting individuals, whether customers or employees. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Sony, Ernst & Young, or Bank of America—this process is difficult.”


By empowering and connecting individuals, Starbucks creates 
new technologies. It hasn’t been easy for the company, not every idea is a winner. With this blog, Starbucks relies on you to help them succeed in the groundswell. Beyond helping them succeed with apps and user blogs they get to know you and what works. Will you use Starbucks' latest user generated app idea to get your coffee fix?
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Social Media Monitoring Project: Let's Go to Old Navy

Old Navy


Do you like to shop? If you do, you probably shopped at an Old Navy. As a frequent shopper of the brand, I have compiled both quantitative and qualitative research on the company over the past month. My research highlights Old Navy's latest campaign celebrating 20 years of shopping and their commercials with actress Amy Poehler. We'll review these campaigns as they relate to Groundswell  using positive and negative feedback from users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and several style blogs. Before we get to that, let's review the brand.

About Old Navy                       

Old Navy is a retail and accessories store owned by Gap, Inc. The stores were first opened in August 1993 by then President of Gap Inc. Millard Drexler under the name Gap Warehouse. It was a success from its infancy, and in 1994 was renamed Old Navy.

  • The first official Old Navy store opened in Colma, California. 
  • Old Navy has stores internationally in Canada, China and Japan.
  • The first retailer to reach 1 billion dollars in 1997. 
  • Old Navy officially markets its retail products on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.


Old Navy & Social Media: Entering the Groundswell


Embracing in the Groundswell: Twitter & Old Navy's 20th Birthday Campaign


 With its latest campaign starting this month celebrating Old Navy’s 20th birthday, let's take a look at #selfiebration:




Old Navy 


Old Navy 
With #selfiebration Old Navy is embracing you--the customer--in the groundswell:
  • #selfiebration is your contest- It's not about the brand, it's about you.
  • Retweets on @oldnavy official twitter page & the brand's website.
  • Doesn't tell you what you want, asks you what's your wish and they may make it come true.
@OldNavy Twitter Page Takeaways:
@OldNavy
  • Great for campaigns and listens/retweets when beneficial to them.
  •  Retweets are from bloggers and websites highlighting Old Navy in a positive manner.
  • No customer support answers- if a problem is retweeted on @ONCustServ the majority response redirects you to call customer support.
  •  Have disgruntled employees with twitter handles @ON_Problems and @ OldNavy_Probs.
  •  Not reaching out to the "rebels" of the company, we'll talk more about this problem in part 2.                         

Talking in the Groundswell: YouTube & Old Navy's Commercials


 Old Navy needs to market their clothes through traditional marketing. The retailer partnered with Chandelier Creative to produce commercials starring actress Amy Poehler. Here's one of the outtakes:

                      



Old Navy YouTube Takeaways:
Old Navy Channel-YouTube
  • Rather than share just commercials that run on television, Old Navy frequently post behind the scenes videos.
  • The store frequently keeps conversation in mind, they want you to talk about the funny commercials.
  • The videos that go viral engage all social media sites telling users to be apart of their community.
  •  Its not about the clothes, its about having fun, one of the main marketing themes of the retailer.

Listening in the Groundswell:Facebook, Instagram & Customer Connections

Old Navy listens to it's customers through brand monitoring and   their community is growing daily. Let's take a look at what you are saying on Old Navy's Facebook & Instagram pages:
Old Navy- Facebook
Old Navy Takeaways from Facebook & Instagram:
  •  Number of likes and dislikes allow ability to understand how buzz is shifting. 
  • They find those who are generating the most buzz for them.
  • Facebook responses are instant, unlike Twitter responses talk to you, not at you.
  • Facebook focuses heavily on sales  
  • You can shop through Instagram.
  • Instagram creates enviable looks that you want. 
  • Instagram doesn't show you, it shows them.


Energizing in the Groundswell: Pinterest & Style Blogs 

Pinterest and the style blogs work hand and hand. If you view the retailer's Pinterest page, you can see what the bloggers are saying:

  • On Pinterest, customers can "like" and "repin" style ideas creating a community that energizes customers. and brand enthusiast. 
  • Both on Pinterest and style blogs, it seems as if some of these creators are sponsored by Old Navy.




A Month in the Groundswell: Old Navy's Social Media Findings 

So what does all the social media engagement mean? Let's review some of the data collected over the last month using Google Trends, Social Mention and Ice Rocket.


How the Social Media Savvy Customer Feels


What does the chart below mean? Here's a quick review of terms:
  • Strength- the likelihood your brand is being discussed on social                 media 
  • Sentiment- the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to                      those that are generally negative
  • Passion- a measure of the likelihood that individuals talking                      about your brand will do so repeatedly 
  • Reach- a measure of the range of influence

Let's take a quick look at what's being discussed and what people think of Old Navy in the past three weeks :
                      
                       Sept. 30               Oct. 12               Oct. 19

The results over the last month indicate a relatively strong presence among social media users. It also suggest that Old Navy has more of a positive outlook in the eyes of users, but it could use more people to be passionate about the brand as most sentiments remain neutral. Old Navy's reach also remains about the same overtime indicating a need for more social media followers both nationally and internationally.


Google Trends is a tool that uses a ratings scale of volume to monitor search topics overtime. Below you will find the search results for the term "Old Navy":
                            


Week of October 6 
Week of October 13


Months of August and September

These results suggest a peak interest in the brand starting on Fridays, when most people shop. The months of August and September are important to look at because of the high interest in shopping around back to school. You see interest slows at the end of September.

This is a tool that monitors buzz about a brand. In this case we use it to measure the amount of blog post mentioning Old Navy and #selfiebration. Let's take a look: 



With these results we see that within blogs, which are huge at Old Navy, there is about 132 post daily. This is huge in terms of the groundswell. It looks like #selfiebration is beginning to catch on with a total of six post in the blogosphere.

Old Navy is a leader in the groundswell. In part 2 of this project, we will take a closer look at how you, the customer gets buzz for the retailer on social media, and we will see how the data collected has changed over time, especially regarding the fairly new campaign #selfiebration, we we also take a look at the employees and how they relate to the groundswell movement of Old Navy. 
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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Billy Eichner and Fast Food Giants Engage in a ‘Street’ Fight

            Comedian and Parks and Recreation guest star Billy Eichner waged a Twitter war on Burger King on October 12th and embraced the power of marketing via twitter. After tweets from his followers, Eichner accused the burger joint of copying his Funny or Die act/Fuse television show “Billy on the Street” for their latest commercial. 

          Take a look, posted below: one of Eichner’s Emmy nominated satirical game show clips and the commercial in question.

Funny or Die-Billy on the Street

vs.

Burger King-TV ad

 Eichner isn’t the first to ask questions to unsuspecting passersby on the street, but he built his brand on the way he asks the questions. Burger King seems to copy his act, even hiring an actor that resembles Eichner. Sorry Burger King, you can’t have it your way.
 So who wins this fight? Well, Eichner certainly isn’t hurting from this publicity, especially with mainstream media picking up the story and his famous friends, like Director/Producer Judd Apatow, retweeting their support. If you didn’t know who the actor/comedian was before, you do now.

          But the true winner is…McDonalds?! Yes, you read that right. The other fast food giant won this fight. Let me explain further.
 Right now the fight is mostly one-sided because Burger King hasn’t responded to Eichner’s tweets, but McDonald’s did. Burger King’s silence proves they do not understand the power of Twitter and its uncanny ability to market to the masses for free. They have not created an environment of transparency for followers and readers on any of their social media pages. Eichner and his tweets should have solicited a response from them, but it seems they are too busy with things like #whoppercrushwednesday.They should have created a marketing plan for this unexpected problem.
There is reason Burger King needs to be concerned. Before they were called out by Eichner, Burger King bought Canadian fast food restaurant Tim Horton’s and saw a sales boost 0.1% at the beginning of this year compared to McDonald's 3.3% sales decline. However, this bad press and lack of response on Burger King’s behalf could affect their momentum.
At the very least, Burger King should have responded in jest. By starting the conversation with Eichner, they would have maintained buzz on social media and mainstream media and got free marketing. McDonalds decided to tweet Eichner back, after he referred to them in these tweets:

Unlike Burger King, they continued the conversation and interact on Twitter with Eichner’s fans and fans of the fast food company, generating buzz for McDonald’s. They let Eichner and his followers know they listened and they responded appropriately inviting Eichner to McDonald’s. 
      They even went a step further and joined in on Eichner’s comedy with their tweet inviting two-time Billy on the Street contestant –and the much meme'd—Elena along with him. This tweet leads Eichner’s followers to McDonald’s page where they talk about the latest Monopoly game.
In comparing the two Twitter pages, McDonald’s is the only company listening to what its followers say and they let them know they hear them with tweets like this:

On the other hand, Burger King fills their Twitter feed with emoticons, pictures and cartoons of their food. Yes, they are having fun, but they don’t want to hear from you, at least on their Twitter page. They do not embrace Twitter correctly.


Burger King missed a great opportunity. They could have turned the situation around and gotten free publicity they needed. Instead, they let McDonald’s steal the marketing win yet again. Eichner says it best with one of his latest tweets, listen up Burger King!

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Sunday, October 12, 2014

Declining Coca-Cola Sales Energized by the Groundswell

             

ShareACoke


            It’s been a rough decade for Coca-Cola and for the soda industry. After 11 years of declining sales, something happened over the summer. Coca-Cola encouraged us to share, and we did. We didn’t necessarily share in the traditional sense of the word. We shared in the Groundswell sense and we energized a brand. Your welcome Coke, cheers to your success.



            How did the company get our attention this summer? Well, in case you didn’t see the commercials or go on Twitter or Facebook this summer. Here’s a quick recap:
Instead of the classic Coke can, Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero decided to rebrand the can in June 2014. This isn't
Coke’s first can makeover, but it is the first time the Coke can was personalized for you.  Yes, personalized meaning your name or your friends name or brother’s name or—you get the picture—appeared on a can. Finding your's became part of the fun. Posting your findings with the #shareacoke became part of the groundswell. In order to find and post we needed to buy the can, therefore the beverage behemoth posted a 0.4% gain in sales since the campaign began.
Through the groundswell Coke made their products cool again, without anyone ever needing to take a sip, unless you really wanted to. They took the focus off of what was inside the can and focused on the outside and energized the groundswell. According to Google Trends, Coca-Cola reached 65 in search data out of 100 between the months of July and August.

Google Trends- Coca-Cola Interest 

 According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of Groundswell:winning in a world transformed by social technologies Coca-Cola could have energized the groundswell in three ways:

1.      Tap into customers’ enthusiasm with ratings and          reviews.    

2.      Create a Community to energize your customers.

3.      Participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts.


 Coca-Cola chose to create a community where fans and people who found their can could connect and share their stories and pictures through www.shareacoke.com and post #shareacoke on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You could even create your own virtual Coke bottle with your name and easily post it to social media. Even Bruno Mars is thrilled to see his name on a Coke.
Facebook

         Before the hashtag took off, the folks at Coca-Cola had to figure out who they wanted to reach through researching their social technographics profile. They found they wanted to reach teens and millennials and took the top 250 most popular names of this demographic and put them across their cans.
      As Chapter 10 in Groundswell suggests, Twitter was extremely effective in helping this campaign go viral. It is easy to snap a picture of your soda and share it with all your followers. It truly is a key part of the groundswell because it reports on and drives the movement. Take a look at this post and the article linked to it:


 Coca-Cola is also embracing the groundswell, similar to the salesforce.com case study found in Chapter 9 of Groundswell. Li and Bernoff argue,

“First of all, customers don’t take long to tell you what they want. They use your product and interact with your company; they know what’s wrong and how things can be fixed. They have ideas your development people and management hasn’t thought of yet. As soon as you’re ready, you can tap into these sources of innovation (183)”

           
            The soda giant is ready. Their official contact us page reads like a focus group begging for input on what can be done better. You can submit an idea and ask a question from a live Coca-Cola agent. They know their sugary product has a bad reputation and listen. They want Coca-Cola’s brand to be more likeable.

Coca-Cola Contact Us


Although the personalized Coke cans disappeared off of shelves across America, Coke still tries to maintain the energy it created with its “Moments of Happiness” campaign. Are Coca-Cola’s campaigns making you happy?
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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Reading the News So You Can Skimm

 
theskimm

            Keeping up with the news today is time consuming, and frankly nerve racking. Have you had a conversation around the water cooler and pretended you knew what was being said, or sat befuddled by trending topics on Facebook or Twitter. With so many news outlets out there on mainstream media and social media it’s hard to keep up. TheSkimm, a daily email newsletter, helps you keep in the know. The tagline says it all:

“We do the reading for you - across subject lines and party lines - and break it down with fresh editorial content.”


            The co-founders of theSkimm, Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg know exactly how to market their newsletter because they are their target audience. The twenty something women market to fellow twenty something go getters; specifically women (take a look at their logo). They would be the first to argue their readership base is more than their target market.  They send newsletters to you after you sign up (it’s free!). They want you to share their brand via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and they blog using their Tumblr page. Beyond selling the brand as a news outlet, they understand you. They want you to be in on "theSkimm life" community.
            The bite-size stories theSkimm team churn out are perfect companions for posts to Twitter and Facebook. The stories themselves market the site, but the site uses clever hashtags to get readers involved. Readers post #ShowSomeSkimm, #SkimmSpotted, or #SkimmLife to get their fellow skimm’r to notice stories and engage new readers. 




The founders clearly want you to subscribe to their newsletter, but want you to know theSkimm is not another annoying email chain and the word is catching on.

            On their blog, Zakin and Weisberg share news found in their daily newsletters. They also discuss their lives and give advice as entrepreneurs. Their most recent post discusses the conflict between Israel and Hamas. However, it doesn’t tell you about the conflict. It tells you how their readers found problems with the skimm they posted. Taking on negative emails isn’t unheard of in the media, but willingly posting the negative email is another story. By writing about it in their blog, the writers let you know they hear you. Zakin and Weisberg post at the end of their blog post:

“We do our best. You have a lot of opinions. And we hear them.”


            Another post spoke about the company turning the “terrible twos”.  The writers share highlights from their second year in the business including what they learned, hiring their first employees, and a tweet from notable millennial Lena Dunham, star and creator of HBO’s Girls. A show also about twenty something girls paving their way in life (hmm, I am sensing a theme).The skimm girls even caught the attention of Today's Kathie Lee and Hoda. 
YouTube: The Skimm


By sharing trials and tribulations with you, the former NBC producers now seem like your two best friends—they’re relatable. Not all of us have our own start-up, but we can relate to chasing the dream and working hard to get there. They make you want to subscribe to their dream and learn a little something about the world along the way--at least enough to keep you talking at the water cooler. 
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