Tag Archives for twitter

Starbuck’s answer to McCafe: messaging disaster?

Starbucks logo
Image via Wikipedia

In a New York Times article today,  Starbuck’s answer to McDonald’s McCafé $100 million dollar blitz is:

“If your coffee isn’t perfect, we’ll make it over. If it’s still not perfect, you must not be in a Starbucks.”

In the article Terry Davenport, chief marketing officer at Starbucks, is quoted as saying..

“[Competition] is trying to just commoditize coffee and take it down to a level where all coffee’s the same, and if coffee’s coffee, you might as well buy the cheap stuff. … We just don’t believe that to be true. That’s why we wanted to tell our stories.”

See more of what Starbuck’s is saying and the ads on their blog.

So, what is the story? At Starbuck’s, we make a mistake once but never twice?

I am disappointed that the message for the ads has to be driven by negative undertones. I understand they hope to drive social media to help by employing a Twitter promotion contest. And negative news is good news, but for an iconic brand who defined a category for so long to not see a positive message to push is concerning.

If you want a story, talk about heritage or the fair trade efforts that you have helped to implement for farmers or even the premium ingredients. This type of story is real and authentic vs. “just don’t buy the other guy’s stuff”.

Comments welcome!

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Developing your insight feed is critical to being relevant

This is the sixth in a series of short posts related to The CMO Agenda research. Informed by recent CMO conversations and CMG Partners‘ collective experience helping top marketers develop marketing strategy, we have compiled a list of seven ideas or jump starters for further conversation. These are meant to spark discussion, ideas, and action as we all enter a difficult 2009.

Whether developing new products or looking to increase loyalty, having a continuous stream of customer insight that draws on many different sources is important. This feed needs to be constant and plentiful. Technology is making it easier to find new ways to gather and make use of customer insight with limited resources.

Customer research and voice of the customer programs like councils and feedback meetings are the more traditional ones many marketers employ.  Marketing organizations should not forget the many simple everyday ways to accomplish this via tools like email, google alerts, RSS feeds, Twitter or talking with the services or sales representatives. The important thing is to make it an integral part of your day / week.

What can happen if you are not watching/listening?

Many should not forget the Motrin campaign that had so much twitter backlash over a weekend after the launch of a new “hip” mommy ad that the parent campaign pulled the ad. Don’t let this happen to you! Ensure your insight and listening post are capturing as much feedback as possible.

An example of a company doing this well is Dell with their IdeaStorm.com, where users generate ideas for new features or often irritating sales and marketing practices or service policies. The community can then vote on them which helps Dell focus and prioritize.

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Renewed definiton of brand

Skittles.
by photographer PiccoloNamek and
image via Wikipedia

This is the fourth in a series of short posts related to The CMO Agenda research. Informed by recent CMO conversations and CMG Partners‘ collective experience helping top marketers develop marketing strategy, we have compiled a list of seven ideas or jump starters for further conversation. These are meant to spark discussion, ideas, and action as we all enter a difficult 2009.

The transparency and accountability of brands is increasing as new uses of the Internet drive the democratization of voice — shifting knowledge and control from marketers to consumers. This trend is forcing marketers to adopt non-traditional methods of brand management to ensure the brand is consistent not only in communications but through all customer touch points. As one CMO put it, “everything we do communicates.”

If you beleive that the true definition of a brand lies with the perceptions of consumers not with the marketing leaders, then the extreme brand management practice would be for consumers to drive the expression of the brand. Well maybe not, but this is exactly what the maker of Skittles has done (knowingly or unknowingly).

In March, Skittles re-launched their website, which used social media tools for content: Twitter for “Chatter”, Facebook for “Friends”, Wikipedia for “product information” and YouTube for “Media”. This was heralded by some and refuted as a circus trick by others (see a previous post for my take).  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find information on the performance of the campaign.

This example, whether good or bad, does provide a new theory for brand managers and bring to reality the old phrase “a brand is what others say about you, not what you say about yourself.” How will you begin to renew your brand management practices to align with consumer voice?

Mirror post at cmgpartners.com/blog

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Skittles is turning over the brand to consumers

Skittles
Image by Special via Flickr

The maker of Skittles, Mars Snackfood, is turning over the brand to consumers. The new website design at skittles.com, designed by Agency.com, is linked to social media content as its website content. The site includes wikipedia for product information, twitter comments on the home page as news and “chatter”, YouTube channel for video and Facebook to see Skittle friends.

This is a very innovative idea and I give a lot of credit to the courage of the brand managers at Mars Snackfood. Not many corporations would try something like this and I think this point is lost in the blog and twitter chatter of pros and cons.

More importantly, this is a great experiment on turning the keys over on your brand. I would say that Skittles is a fairly one-dimensional product that makes it easier to experiment than say a company like IBM.

The Bottom Line:

Short-term this is a stunt that has and will continue to get a lot of press, giving a renewed voice to one small brand in a crowded category. Success.

Long-term, less sure how this will play out, but I value the experimentation and courage displayed by the marketing team and agencies. Transparency and control are very sensitive topics for marketers and corporations to address head on and Skittles (a little brand that could) is leading here. The lesson for marketers is to watch, listen, and learn from this live experiment happening before us.

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The transition from one-way to two-way communication in marketing

Word-of-mouth is powerful

Word-of-mouth is powerful

Reading “A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation” on WSJ.com and attending the Internet Summit 08, there is a new shift in traditional marketing thinking. The old school of thoughts was that a marketer was the beacon or held the megaphone to tout the message to the silent masses. While this still happens in some mediums (e.g. TV), it is no longer a one-way street entirely. Via social networks, blogs, microblogging (e.g. twitter), and mobile communications, consumers have the chance to talk back and in some cases unite for the benefit or detriment of a company, brand, product or service. One recent example for consideration is the Motrin Mom campaign.

I think this trend is interesting, but it is not a new concept! It is human nature to tell others about good and bad experiences and to help those we know whether it is find a plumber or buy detergent. What is new are that tools and technology have “democratized influence”, as Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis, stated at the Internet Summit 08. It is now easier and more efficient to spread word-of-mouth and people are now using these tools as their source for information in purchase decisions whether online of offline.

For more visit the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association 101 site.