Starbucks is the largest coffee house company in the world with 19,435 stores in 58 countries. Due to Starbucks mass-scale success they have often been the subject of negative PR. During Starbucks rapid growth in the early 2000s, they were criticised for driving out smaller coffee firms with fierce tactics. Starbucks have suffered from many controversies since they started business which is why they now know the importance of PR as a strategic business function.
Starbucks latest strategy is to ‘listen’ to their customers and then coincide this with a marketing campaign. Through customer feedback Starbucks found that UK coffee drinkers liked their lattes stronger and decided to put an extra shot of coffee in every latte. This move has gone hand-in-hand with in store promotions claiming ‘it’s personal.’ Starbucks now write every customers name on their cup and promise to make the drink perfect, if it isn’t they will make it again until it is.
Listening is an important aspect of business and making customers feel special will make them come back again and again instead of going to one of Starbuck’s competitors. This strategic move will no doubt add to Starbucks continuing success as the world’s largest coffee shop.
This is a really good example of how consumer relations can help to repaire a tarnished reputation of an organisation; Making the public feel included is an important part of PR.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a good idea for them- I actually have been served with really bad service before in Starbucks and for that reason use Costa instead. It is a great way to revive reputation and to keep loyal customers.
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in this, an article that I read in the Daily Mail : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2120796/Starbucks-admits-Strawberry-Frappuccino-contains-crushed-bugs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
--Starbucks using bugs as food colouring? Kinda gross.. but then again, McDonalds never lost customers after the whole head chicken nugget thing (if thats even true).
I think the most important thing is to make customers happy and Starbucks will have their good reputation. Personally, I was surprised then they asked my name for the first time. Even it's a bid weird, they are doing a great job in customer services. Especially in Greenwich!:)
ReplyDeleteGood idea! Clearly hearing the negative criticism about driving away smaller coffee stores and trying to introduce a more local feel to their stores. In the grand scheme of things they are a global machine but they seem to be tackling this the negative side of that and finding ways to appear less profit hungry and more customer satisfaction orientated.
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