Public Relations of Starbucks free essay sample

Today’s society lives in a fast-paced environment and we expect businesses to accommodate to our needs quicker than ever. In our fast moving business world creating just the right image in the public’s eye is essential for the survival for any organization. Public Relations professionals have to deal precisely with this aspect of every business. These professionals work hard at developing a good, positive relationship between a firm and the public it serves. Investing in good public relations for your business will help achieve its objective efficiently. Effective Public Relations can create and build up the image of an organization. During times of adverse publicity an effective Public Relations can remove the misunderstanding and can create mutual understanding between the business and the public. This paper will focus on how Starbucks uses public relations to create brand and influence public opinion. It will then focus on how the 21st century has help Starbucks adopt social media websites to help promote its business. We will write a custom essay sample on Public Relations of Starbucks or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Next, we will look into a couple of crisis Starbucks has dealt with. Lastly, we will look into similarities and differences between public relations campaigns of Starbucks and a nonprofit organization. Starbucks is a roaster and retailer of coffee with over 9,031 company-operated retail stores and 7,972 licensed stores worldwide. (Starbucks Corp. (NMS: SBUX)) Starbucks is a business that prides itself on more than just retailers of coffee, but being a place for people to come in and chat, meet up or even work. I know this was true for me, I use to use Starbucks coffee shops to work on my homework, back when I attending classes in-residence. I had the toughest time trying to do homework at home so I would either go to the coffee shop or the library. â€Å"We’re a neighborhood gathering place, a part of the daily routine† (Starbucks, 2011). Public Relations play a vital role in developing a credible and recognizable brand online and offline for any business and it harnesses the power of third party testimonials in the media. It delivers a tremendous return on investments because the articles and stories generated n the media are credible. When a PR program is implemented in conjunction with marketing and advertising programs, a brand can be developed and strengthened over time. A brand is not tangible. A successful brand lives in the minds and hearts of your customers. It is all of the things they think of when they think of your company or your product. Starbucks Public Relations professionals recognized this when building the brand of their company, since the very first store opened in 1971, Starbucks as a brand has been evolving. The Siren has been a part of Starbucks from the beginning. â€Å"Her image, originally derived from a twin-tailed siren in an old sixteenth-century Norse woodcut, was at the center of Starbucks original logo. She embodies Starbucks and our coffee – evoking coffee’s allure and its seafaring tradition† (Brand Evolution FAQs, 2011). Senior Vice president of marketing at Starbucks, Anne Saunders, said â€Å"it really is about connecting with someone in a more intimate, experiential way that we think will have longer lasting ability to build affinity than a 30-second TV commercial or an ad† (Echols, 2011). Starbucks spends very little money on advertising, preferring instead to build the brand cup by cup with customers and depend on word-of-mouth and the appeal of its storefronts. They relied on consistent service and quality to get customers talking, and once they started talking, it seems they did not stop and the Starbucks brand was born. The public relations decision to leave it to the consumers to spread the word about the new brand was sketchy to other big-named businesses, but this word-of-mouth technique has served the company well in more ways than one. According to our text, â€Å"Today more than ever, the world needs not more information but also savvy communicators and facilitators who can explain the goals and aspirations of individuals, organizations, and governments to others in a socially responsive manner† (Cameron, 2008). This choice has been effective for Starbucks by separating itself from the mass commercials thrown at the public, but the technique itself lends Starbucks an air of sophistication. By not falling into the hype of commercials in its marketing, Starbucks established what it values most- people rather than profit. Starbucks technique of brand marketing has given other Public Relations professionals a creative method to follow when creating campaigns for their clients. It’s not always effective to do what everyone else is doing. Sometimes it’s not about keeping up with trends. In order to keep a positive image in the public’s eye it is crucial for any business to run a public relations campaign, however, the traditional modes of running such a campaign are slowly becoming obsolete. It is more necessary now than ever for businesses to update their public relations campaign for the 21st century, and tackle the new methodologies and tools, which include blogging and social media sites. The Internet allows companies to take on a new benefit that they would not be able to use in the real world. Having the availability to create services online will ensure your brand is stronger than the rest and the web is just to place to do it. Unlike other media, online customers can interact with the brand and its identity in a way no other medium can offer. Our text said, â€Å"Public relations personnel are expanding their communication tools to account for the fact that no single mass medium will be a good vehicle for reaching key publics† (Cameron, 2008). Social media sites, like Facebook is a huge opportunity for businesses to promote their brand online to millions of people at once and at no cost. Starbuck’s social media strategy incorporates several different elements into the mix and combined together, these elements create a social media plan that works well to create millions of fans for the brand and keep them involved in what the brand is doing. Starbucks uses social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to create a digital dialogue with its customers. Alexandra Wheeler director of Digital Strategy was hired on by Starbucks to â€Å"conduct research into how the company could use digital media and explain to the business how it could help drive customer satisfaction and sales, as well as save money† (Shore, 2010). Soon after Wheeler provided the company with the necessary information Starbucks entered the social media scene with the ‘My Starbucks Idea site’, which allowed customers and employees to interact and suggest ways of improving the company’s services and products. Since the beginning of Starbucks, they have been testing social media sites and have used such sites to help promote events and activities â€Å"such as free pastry day, which successfully drove around 1 million extra people in-store to buy a coffee and claim their free pastry† (Shore, 2010). This year’s marketing proposals include â€Å"social-media efforts and advertising for Frappuccino- which the company said has been the most engaging product on Facebook in the last year, as well as a digital scavenger hunt featuring Lady Gaga† (MORRISON). Starbucks also used social media to promote their 40th anniversary and a new website MyStarbucksSignature allowing its customers to create customized drinks. It is evident Starbucks has properly researched the benefits of using social media to promote their brand and interact positively with their customers. The holidays are a big part of any retail store and Starbucks is just the same. Again, the company reaches out to the help of social media to utilize the power of promotions during this time. â€Å"The coffee makers have used a streaming music service called Pandora to create a playlist and then encourage listeners to go in store to collect their free ‘All You Need Is Love’ CD. To collect their free CD customers must spend 15 dollars or more and in return Starbucks have pledged to give one dollar to fight aids in Africa for every CD that is given away† (Starbucks uses social media for holiday promotions, 2009). Additionally, Starbucks has created special Flikr and Facebook pages where coffee drinkers can post holiday themed pictures of them and also submit digital drawings to their Starbucks Love Project site. (Starbucks Red, 2011) Starbucks has promised to give 5 cents to Red, the company’s charity brand, for everyone of the first million images that are submitted. Starbucks have revealed that last year their use of social media was merely a trial but now they feel that it has become an integral part of their marketing strategy. Just like any business there are peaks and pitfalls, and Starbucks has seen their fair share of both. In 2001 Starbucks came under attack by the Organic Consumers Association. The Organic Consumers Association used the Internet to launch their campaign against Starbucks, attacking them for using genetically engineered products, primarily their milk. The Organic Consumers Association refused to meet with Starbucks until their demands were met. (Fair Trade vs. Starbucks , 2011) While monitoring their campaign site, purefoods. org, Starbucks worked out their crisis management plan. First, Starbucks CEO released a letter talking about the use of genetically produced products. They also changed their internal community such as their partners and employees. He addressed consumers’ concern for the use of these products and decided that Starbucks would now offer an rBST-free milk option with future plans to make all milk rBST-free milk if supplies allowed it. They continued their actions to manage the situation and were successful in keeping their good name by handling this crisis in an informative, prepared manner. (Butler, 2008). Even more recently, Starbucks has come under scrutinty for the way it has been treating its members of the Armed Forces. A former Veteran tried to walk into Starbucks with his service dog and the manager went on a rampage about why the Veteran thought he could bring the dog into a public place like Starbucks. He didn’t believe the dog was a service dog and kicked them both out and refused service to the individual. Starbucks released a statement apologizing to the customer and hoped they could serve him in the future. Nonprofit and for-profit businesses have multiple similarities and difference. The process of marketing also differs, with the biggest differing factor being the purpose of for-profit marketing is to encourage customers to buy, while the purpose of nonprofit marketing is to encourage people to give. â€Å"Nonprofit, or not-for-profit, organizations can be defined as organizations whose main purpose is to serve the public interest and are noncommercial† (Cameron, 2008). The returns on investment vary between the two, although the principles of marketing remain the same, some of the methods must be different. (Devaro, 2007). The purpose of marketing for-profit businesses is to inform potential customers in your target market know about your product or service and how it can benefit them, with a goal of selling it in exchange for money. The corporation keeps the money, and the customer enjoys the product or service he/she has purchased. For profit marketing also focuses on developing new markets for existing products or identifying markets for new product lines. Whereas, a non-profit business markets the work it does or cause it supports, instead of a product or service. Our text says, â€Å"the crucial difference is that no shareholders receive dividends, all excess funds are reinvested in the institution, and they are tax-exempt† (Cameron, 2008). The purpose of marketing is to build awareness of an issue and gaining financial support from the public for a particular cause. The customer gives money to the organization in exchange for the opportunity to contribute towards its humanitarian work. As with for profit marketing, the result is that the corporation keeps the funds, while the individual retains the knowledge that the organization uses his money to make a difference for its cause. For-profit companies can market using a variety of common methods, such as marketing mix, target market identification, position, branding, and public relations and advertising. Not for profits may also use the majority of these methods; for instance, the non-profit will conduct market analysis to identify potential donors and sponsors. The nonprofit advertises the work it does using similar media as for-profit, such as online and print, radio and possibly television advertising. Public relations professionals work just as hard as they do in for profit environments to build the visibility of the organization, maintain its reputation and establish its image as an authority in its field, while direct sales are likely to take the form of a request for a donation. The key difference between the marketing of the two types of businesses is the fulfillment of the customer need. The for-profit marketing customer has a need of his own that he fulfills by the purchase of the goods or services; the nonprofit customer recognizes the need of others and his ability to help accomplish it through donation of his time, money or service. For this reason, retail sales of the primary product or service do not apply to the nonprofit corporation. Many nonprofits do conduct retail sales of promotional items to help raise funds, but this is not their primary product or service. In conclusion, Building and promoting a brand takes a lot of consideration and methodical processing, however, if a company puts forth the effort and research for good public relations professional they can make exceptional head-way on the competition. The changes in the 21st century have made it easier for companies, both for-profit and non-profit businesses to communicate easier with their consumers. The way businesses handle their Public Relations will further enhance the likelihood through its own growth and development and will produce more successful public relations practitioners and leaders and advance the profession’s contribution to society.