What’s Brewing At Starbucks? A Multichannel Marketing Strategy Complete With Happy Hours, Frappuccinos, And Cat GIFs

I remember reading an article about the history of the Starbucks brand and how CEO, Howard Schultz, looked to change the in-store design and focus to make everything be more about the experience, more than just the product. Because in reality, everyone can use a good beverage, and while Starbucks beverages are amazing (IMHO), they had to consider how to effectively build brand equity.

Schultz focused on details such as the height and positioning of the coffee machines to ensure customer interaction and to encourage a more personal customer-barista exchange. Needless to say, he knew what he was doing and it worked.

Taking this concept into the digital age where a once linear sales funnel has exploded into a spider web of touch points, Starbucks recently launched a multichannel marketing campaign using MMS and SMS to promote the Frappuccino.

To kickoff this campaign, Starbucks launched a commercial promoting the 10-day Frappuccino Happy Hour (May 1-10) where they brought Happy Hour Back and offered half-off Frappuccinos.

They used the air time and attention to cross-promote the larger summer-long campaign via Facebook, Twitter, the company website, and inside the Starbucks app, where the call-to-action encouraged customers to opt-in for “Frappuccino Fun All Summer Long.” By sending a simple text to 2122 with keywords such as “WHOOHOO,” “SMILE,” and “STRAW” the initial opt-in MMS response appears.

In my SMILE MMS response, I received an “Intergal-CAT-ic” gray cat holding a Frappuccino, then holding its paws into the air and spraying the multicolored diamond graphic (that is weaved into each outlet and used to create a cohesive experience) into the universe as the cat welcomes you to the Frappuccino Galaxy. (And oddly enough, this cat looks like the one I had as a kid, although he didn’t have superpower paws.)

In totality, the campaign will send about six SMS and six MMS messages each month to those who opt-in.

There is also an interactive presence that uses a Tumblr platform. When visiting Frappuccino.com, the site encourages interactivity by inviting customers to submit photos depicting their own Starbucks experience. Also, the Frappuccino has its own Twitter and Instagram accounts, but doesn’t just regurgitate information from the main Starbucks account – those accounts have their own agenda.

It seems that as of now, this campaign has received positive attention and applause from fellow marketing professionals due to the company’s [so far] flawless execution of leveraging the mobile platform – through both their widely successful loyalty app and through the use of SMS and MMS. The technology supporting this campaign, specifically SUMOTEXT, which is behind the SMS and MMS responses, is key to the success and bringing mobile into the game like never before.

And overall, the creativity, cadence, and messaging on each platform seems to be working together to create a full experience for any customer, no matter which platform he/she prefers and how each customer chooses to interact with the brand.

Welcome to the world of multichannel digital marketing where Starbucks seems to have mastered the art through the execution of this clever campaign.

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/1kflTli