Unit 17 Assignment 2: Would You Like to Buy This?
Introduction
This report will provide an outline of a digital marketing campaign which will be
produced for Starbucks to create brand loyalty, engage with customers and help
to generate user-generated content and brand awareness. It will then explore
how the new marketing campaign compares with Starbucks’ current marketing
mix and will provide further details on the social media marketing campaign
which will be produced. Finally, this report will show what the social media
campaign will look like and will justify the key decisions that have been made
regarding this campaign. It will then conclude by suggesting potential
improvements to the campaign which can be used to further create brand
loyalty.
Starbucks and its products
The largest coffee shop in the world, Starbucks, was founded in Seattle in 1971.
There are now more than 32,000 Starbucks locations throughout more than 80
countries. It offers certain meal options as well as different coffee beverages.
Additionally, it makes coffee beans under its own brand that are offered in stores
(https://www.starbucks.co.uk/about-us). They also produce Starbucks branded
merchandise such as mugs, travel cups, and reusable lidded cups for cold drinks.
Their products vary from basic coffees to seasonal hot and cold beverages such
as pumpkin spiced lattes in autumn and tropical frappes in the summer. They
also sell snack foods such as muffins, slices of cake, and physical items such as
gift cards and mugs.
P6 – Outline for a digital marketing campaign
Objectives
The objective of this digital marketing campaign is to increase brand loyalty. The
campaign will achieve this by engaging the customers and getting them involved
in the campaign (through user-generated content) and using influencers whom
customers can relate to and would follow as part of their own social media life.
The nature of the campaign would mean that it would be an ongoing, almost
competitive campaign, as users would continue to buy Starbucks to outdo each
other in their posts. This will create brand loyalty through the repeated
purchases needed to participate in the campaign.
For an objective to be successful it must be SMART, therefore, for this campaign,
the objectives are as follows:
1. Customer retention/brand loyalty (the main objective of this campaign) –
To increase brand loyalty by 8% within the time frame of 1 year from the
launch of the campaign. This will be measured via the number of
participants and posts against the campaign hashtag.
, 8% has been chosen as a realistic figure as Starbucks is already the largest
coffeehouse in the world, and therefore in a very competitive environment, 8%
seems to be a reasonable figure. The time frame of one year has been chosen to
allow enough time for the participants to travel, experience seasonal products
and post about those, and for the campaign to gain traction.
2. Were this campaign to have the objective of generating more leads, the
objective would be to generate more leads, and to increase sales by 5% in
a year following the launch of the campaign. This would be measured
through the monetary increase in Starbucks sales in that year.
5% seems realistic and achievable given the high volume of sales that Starbucks
already experiences. Using a year as a measure of time allows for the campaign
to gain traction and lead to increased lead generation and increased sales.
3. If this campaign’s focus was to be brand awareness, then the SMART
objective that would be used would be to increase brand awareness by 5%
following the launch of the campaign measured by the number of new
followers to Starbucks’ social media pages, and the results of the pay-per-
click analysis on the banner advertising within a year of the launch.
Brand awareness is quite difficult to measure, but this objective provides a close
numerical measure, increasing their followers by 5% seems achievable within
the time frame as the campaign becomes more known to the target market as
it’s pushed by social media.
Target segmentation
The target market for this social media campaign would be between 18-25
(young adults), as they are the main age range who use social media and
interact with influencers, and they are also the main age range who would get a
Starbucks and post about it. This campaign will appeal particularly to this age
range due to its nature and the way that they behave and interact with social
media.
Another target market would be commuters within the 30-45 age range who buy
Starbucks on their way to and from work. Although this arguably makes up a
large proportion of Starbucks sales, this target segment may not be suitable for
this campaign as they are unlikely to engage with the brand in the same manner
as the previous segment. This means that they are not as likely as the previous
segment to post themselves on social media with their drink in strange locations
or engage in social media competitions to do so.
A further potential target segment would be parents within the 35-45 age range
who socialise in Starbucks coffee houses. These people may view the coffee
houses as somewhere to socialise, and therefore the products may be slightly
less important compared to a comfortable and clean place to consume its
products. This target segment would therefore possibly not be as heavily
influenced by this campaign as firstly, they are not as concerned about
influencers or the competitive nature of an online contest, and secondly, this
would probably not appeal to the way they would normally interact with any
brand.
