Companies around the world are becoming increasingly creative in a bid to beat surmounting competition and remain profitable and feasible. Marketing remains one of the areas where companies capitalize in to reach existing and potential customers. Crowdsourcing is a recent marketing strategy where companies require people to provide feedback and solutions. Moreover, Crowdsourcing allows customers to participate in product development by generating ideas either free or for a price. The corporations then work on the feedback received to design products and services that match diverse client’s needs. The advancement in communication technologies has given rise to several social media platforms, which have in turn fueled crowdsourcing. A focus on Starbucks establishes how crowdsourcing, social media, and mobile campaigns contribute to the organization’s marketing strategy success.
Starbucks’ Utilization of Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing has become a significant marketing strategy since paves the way for interacting directly with the clients who in turn offer solutions. Starbucks, a multinational coffeehouses chain is one of the companies that has benefited from the adoption of this marketing strategy. The company picked up this marketing strategy in 2008 two years after Jeff Howe coined the phrase. At this time, Starbucks created its crowdsourcing platform, which it dubbed My Starbucks Idea . The idea was to create a two-way dialogue that would allow for the discussion of ideas and products to enhance a sense of closeness with customers (Hossain and Islam, 2015). My Starbucks Idea allows customers to share ideas about anything that is linked to Starbucks ranging from flagship products to how the Starbucks experience could be improved. Visitors are free to view the publications while the platform subscribers are free to vote, submit, or comment on the posts. In addition to the platform, Starbucks has another hub, Idea Partners, which comprises of more than 40 employees with expertise in different areas. These employees review the posts in the crowdsourcing platform and from here present the popular and practical ones to the relevant decision-makers.
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Ideas in Action is another of the company’s online section that highlights all the ideas that the company is working on and which would be available. The best thing about Starbucks is the fact that it gives credit to the individuals who come up with these ideas. This strategy motivates the members to own the brand and endeavor to improve it through the crowdsourcing platform. The crowdsourcing platform at Starbucks has led to high levels of innovation as well as new products. The most visible products of the crowdsourcing strategy are Brailled Starbucks gift cards and menus for blind customers, energy drinks, and splash sticks. Moreover, the platform has informed Starbucks to ship to military bases at a discount in addition to donating unsold coffee, packaged foods, and baked goods to local charities.
How Crowdsourcing Influences Marketing Strategy
Crowdsourcing is a significant marketing tool since it can mobilize people to engage with brands and products online. The people who engage with the products are from different backgrounds meaning that there will diversity of feedback, experience, and ideas. The diversity of ideas means that a company will manufacture its products to meet the needs of a global clientele base as opposed to locals. Allen Chandrasekaran and Basuroy (2018) assert that crowdsourcing can help to generate ideas that go beyond the brand to even business outlook, organizational structure, employee relations, and company logos. In a way, companies can review their business and human resources policies so that they are aligned with customer preferences.
The other benefit that is associated with crowdsourcing is that is cost-effective meaning that it significantly reduces marketing costs. The reason for this claim is the fact that crowdsourcing allows for the completion of several tasks at a lower or no cost. In a traditional setup, marketers would have to travel from place to place, placing posters, and conduct face-to-face interviews. Crowdsourcing then becomes very effective considering that companies get real-time and timely feedback, which they can use to improve their brands (Devece, Palacios, and Ribeiro-Navarrete, 2019). In the same manner, crowdsourcing is a great tool for stock management in that companies only sell the products that are in demand. In a way, crowdsourcing informs production decisions to ensure that there is neither under nor overproduction that could lead to wastage.
Impact of Mobile and Social Media Campaigns on Starbucks’ Marketing Strategy
Technological advancement has brought a revolution on how companies market their products and services. Unlike in the past, whether companies placed their ads on cable television networks, the radio, or the billboards, companies now place their ads on social media platforms. The platforms that include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow for real-time marketing and feedback. Starbucks is a success story thanks to the utilization of social media platforms to get feedback on its products and services. Starbucks My Starbucks Idea is visible on Twitter, a social media platform with 330 million active monthly users (Cui, Liang, and Li, 2020). The company created a twitter account by that name paving the way for subscribers and visitors to contribute to product development.
In addition to Twitter, Starbucks promotes My Starbucks Idea on YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook, which also attracts significant traffic. The company comes up with relatable content that is suited to each of the social media platforms' user experience. Cui, Liang, and Li (2020) note that Starbucks adopts a multilingual approach on its Facebook site to introduce employees and products to clients from around the world. Starbucks capitalizes on its 13 million Instagram followers by posting high definition videos of photographs as well as creating animations. These strategies are aimed at reaching out to followers who are focused on understanding the coffee culture. In the same manner, Starbucks uses Pinterest to showcase tea rituals, its products, and coffee-related gadgets. Together these mobile and social media platforms contribute to brand awareness and interact with clients, which are the chief aims of marketing.
References
Allen, B. J., Chandrasekaran, D., & Basuroy, S. (2018). Design crowdsourcing: The impact on new product performance of sourcing design solutions from the “crowd”. Journal of Marketing, 82 (2), 106-123. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0481
Cui, L., Liang, Y., and Li, Y. (2020). The study of the customer involved service innovation under the crowdsourcing: A case study of MyStarbucksIdea.com . Journal of Industry-University Collaboration , 2 (1), 22-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIUC-12-2019-0018
Devece, C., Palacios, D., & Ribeiro-Navarrete, B. (2019) The effectiveness of crowdsourcing in knowledge-based industries: the moderating role of transformational leadership and organizational learning. Economic Research , 32 (1), 335-351. 10.1080/1331677X.2018.1547204
Hossain, M., & Islam, K. M. Z. (2015). Generating ideas on online platforms: A case study of “My Starbucks Idea”. Arab Economics and Business Journal, 10 , 102-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aebj.2015.09.001
