Case Study: My Starbucks Idea

by Michael Troiano on January 11, 2009

Starbucks has a site dedicated to distilling customer feedback, called My Starbucks Idea. Definately worth checking out. From the home page:

Help shape the future of Starbucks – with your ideas

You know better than anyone else what you want from Starbucks. So tell us. What’s your Starbucks Idea? Revolutionary or simple-we want to hear it. Share your ideas, tell us what you think of other people’s ideas and join the discussion. We’re here, and we’re ready to make ideas happen. Let’s get started.

Looks like it launched in July of last year. Who knew.
I’m split right down the middle on this one (hence Bele, of Charon. I have some issues.)
On the one hand, this is the cutting edge of social media adoption. Starbuck’s brand challenges have been well documented. Why not engage people with an affinity for the brand in driving its resurrection? What could be more web 2.0 than that?
On the other, why drive that effort from a central destination on the Web, a place they need to drive people to, instead of engaging them where they are… OUT THERE… on the social networks, where the conversation about Starbucks is already underway? Fish where the fish are, as they say in places where they fish.
Maybe it’s better to have a destination site, so only people who really care about the brand participate. Then again, maybe it’s worse, since die-hards aren’t the ones most likely to attrit.
Thoughts?

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