Business Studies

Digital Marketing

The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the role of social media in marketing and how businesses apply customer relationships strategies and tactics used to enhance customer loyalty.

Select an organization that is active on social media. Analyze the company’s social media campaign and the customer relationship strategies and tactics the company applies to enhance customer loyalty. In 500-750 words, address the following areas:

Social Media Platforms: Describe the social media platforms used by the organization and discuss the relevance of these platforms to the audience using specific examples.
Frequency and Engagement: Discuss how often the organization is posting on social media and provide examples of ways the organization is actively engaging with users (i.e. responding to or liking comments, reposting user’s content).
Customer Relationships and Loyalty: Discuss two customer relationship management strategies and/or tactics that the company is employing to enhance customer loyalty and whether you think these are effective. Justify your ideas with specific reasons, facts, and examples.
Recommendations: Discuss two ways the organization might improve its social media campaign and support your recommendations with illustrative examples.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

BS Applied Marketing and Advertising 3.5; BS Marketing and Advertising 5.5

Apply customer relationship management strategies and tactics to enhance customer loyalty for product and services market.

ANSWER

Starbucks use of Social Media in Marketing

The evolution of marketing has been transformed through the innovation of various social media platforms. These platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram have created a personalized experience in marketing, allowing close interaction with businesses and their customers. With millions of people owning accounts on these platforms, companies have developed their own social media pages to interact with their customers, market new content, and receive direct feedback concerning their level of service in terms of quality. The most common social media platforms with many active users include Twitter and Facebook.

According to the statistics provided by Facebook’s annual report, over 1.9 billion people use the social media platform daily. This means that companies have an audience of 1.9 billion potential customers if only they have the knowledge to employ efficient marketing strategies to their advantage (Subramaniam, 2020). Therefore, the ability of the company to utilize these platforms properly is directly proportional to their success. In this case, Starbuck has mastered the art of customer engagement, as it is active in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, among others. Their ability to maintain relevance and communication with existing and potential customers has helped them become one of the most successful franchises in the world. This essay analyses the techniques in marketing employed by Starbucks through the use of social media.

As mentioned, Starbucks has mastered the art of social media engagement with its customers. The company is active on both Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, Starbucks has 36 million followers (Subramaniam, 2020). The company uses Facebook to notify its customers of new kinds of beverages. It also advertises old beverages that the company stopped producing to mark different anniversaries in different countries. Some of the beverages with the most likes on Facebook include the Zombie Frappuccino and Pumpkin Spice Latte. The ability of Starbuck to create such names creates excitement within their audience. When they post these beverages and their different flavors, especially new ones, the excitement is seen when many people like their posts and share them with their friends (Subramaniam, 2020). Facebook also posts new commercials concerning different beverages and new locations. Customer care can give feedback and views concerning them, and most of their comment sections are filled with customers expressing their excitement and eagerness to try the new stations.

In addition, the comment section is not only limited to applaud and comments only but critiques as well. As one searches through their comments, there are several instances of customers expressing their negative encounters with either their employees or the quality of beverage served. Starbucks quickly responds to their messages by apologizing and encouraging them to directly inbox their negative experience for proper investigation (Melancon & Dalakas, 2018). This form of concern towards customer dissatisfaction is what sets them apart from other companies. It shows care and concerns, an important attribute in marketing for companies to remain relevant and gain new followers.

Twitter is also another platform that Starbucks utilizes to stay connected with its customers. The company has 10.9 million followers on Twitter, including former president Barrack Obama. Facebook allows its users to post brief and precise posts on their platforms that people can read, understand, like, and retweet for their followers to see (Taecharungroj, 2017). Starbucks has many creative and unique posts that help create its followers entertained and excited while looking forward to new beverages. For instance, one of their posted posts reads, “its peppermint to be. Peppermint Mocha is here!” alongside a picture of a colorful cup of the drink. Such posts help them maintain their relevance, and their followers always enjoy their unique way of introducing new products to their liking. Starbucks has focused its Twitter Strategy on sharing the experiences of its followers, and it has only helped them grow its account (Taecharungroj, 2017).

However, given their mastery of using social media platforms to their advantage, one would expect Starbucks to be extremely active in these platforms. On Facebook, Starbucks only posts three times a week to either inform their customers of more locations and beverages or gift vouchers or price discounts. According to Chang (2020), Starbucks uses the element of only posting what is relevant, understanding what their customers need to know, and always keeping them eager for new posts on their platforms. The ability to create a sense of eagerness within its consumers helps them generate more conversation once something is posted. Customers are aware that once Starbucks posts something on their social media platform, it is meaningful and creative, and exciting and hence creates a form of movement, making every consumer want to be associated with it.

The company also employs efficient customers relationship management to promote customer loyalty. For instance, Starbucks encourages its customers to take pictures of themselves while enjoying their beverages. The photo with the most likes is normally posted on their website and other social media platforms (Chang, 2020). The winner also receives various gift vouchers, generating millions of people to participate in these forms of challenges. This is an effective method of customer engagement as it is not only existing, but it helps keep the interactions with millions of its customers, as they earn the privilege of being posted and rewarded by Starbucks. Another technique that Starbucks uses is their video campaigns that hail ‘heroes’ within the community (Chang, 2020). One of their most influential campaigns is ‘upstanders’ that features ordinary people in America that help bring a difference in their communities. This helps them create an atmosphere of caring and unity and feature people who impact the community that would otherwise not be noted by other companies.

References

Chang, W. J. (2020). Experiential marketing, brand image and brand loyalty: a case study of Starbucks. British Food Journal.

Melancon, J. P., & Dalakas, V. (2018). Consumer social voice in the age of social media: Segmentation profiles and relationship marketing strategies. Business Horizons, 61(1), 157-167.

Subramaniam, T. V. (2020). Impact of social media on digital marketing: starbucks marketing strategy on Twitter. Case study, 2, 1-7.

Taecharungroj, V. (2017). Starbucks’ marketing communications strategy on Twitter. Journal of Marketing Communications, 23(6), 552-571.