THE PHARAHOS Filippo Pamato Leonardo Orecchio Marta Marchioro

THE PHARAHOS Filippo Pamato Leonardo Orecchio Marta Marchioro Silvia Martin present… My. Starbucks. Idea. com

My. Starbucks. Idea. com • Starbucks was born in 1971 as a small company with a single store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market and in few years it had a rapid growth investing both on the quality of its products and on customers fidelization. • Its advertising campaign is exclusively focused on the creation of a direct relationship with customers investing a lot on the social media strategy. So, the firm has created a Brand Community that had a great success, in consolidating the brand. • According to this strategy in March 2008 My. Starbucks. Idea. com was founded. • This crowdsourcing activity is the most vital aspect of its Social Media Strategy, indeed users can share their ideas, suggestions, frustrations and also vote the best advices on this mini Social Network. The most voted ideas are implemented by the company in its shops and the customers, in this way, feel appreciated and play an active role in the Starbucks Experience.

What ALEX WHEELER, VP Global Digital Marketing For Starbucks, thinks about My. Starbucks. Idea. com… • “For six years, our passionate customers and partners have been sharing their ideas with us on My. Starbucks. Idea. com, and we have listened and acted upon many amazing innovations that we have received from this online community” • “From digital rewards to new coffee flavors to the little extras, like splash sticks, that make your day easier, our customers have incredible ideas that we can bring to life in stores worldwide” • “We don’t know what the next big idea from our customers may be, but we're thrilled to keeping listening, engaging and making adjustments to improve the Starbucks experience for fans everywhere. ”

CLASSIFICATION OF THE BUSINESS MODEL • Starting from the latter, the site deals with “the sale of content or products that are created, developed or selected by crowds” but the sale only happens on physical stores, and not on the same site, which it is only concerned with the development of such products and services. On the other hand, the site shares a lot of features with the Platform business model, because it is used to create and implement crowd projects, but it does not share its typical monetization policy. Revenues come both from the development of a more brand-loyal and involved customer, both from the realization of ideas in Starbucks’ stores. • • My Starbucks Idea adopts quite an atypical business model, as it is likely to be a hybrid between a Platform and a Content and Product Market.

GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENSION • Everybody could share its Starbucks idea telling what people thinks about other advices and join the discussion. • The platform is also accessible in countries where there aren’t Starbucks shops, such as in Italy, and the website is monitored by internal and third-party accessibility consultants in order to identify usability issues and discover new solutions to further improve the accessibility of our site. • “Starbucks is committed to diversity, inclusion and accessibility in everything we do. These core values are fundamental to the way we do business and come through in the experiences we design for people – both in our coffeehouses and on the web. ” WHERE STARBUCKS SHOPS ARE LOCATED WHERE THE PLATFORM IS ACCESSIBLE

PERFORMANCE MEASURE OF THE PLATFORM All the ideas proposed by the customers are divided into three groups: 1) Product ideas deal with creation, innovation or improvement of the final products sold in the stores, including beverages and food, but also with new technologies, merchandise and advertisement. This category collects the majority of projects: among 134. 722 ideas submitted, 602 have been realized (0, 45%); 2) Experience ideas are about the processes of ordering, payment and pick-up, the atmosphere and the location of the physical stores; here 248 of the 44. 544 ideas have been successful (0, 56%). 3) Involvement ideas are a way to build a community of users, inside and outside the US, and to improve social responsibility. This category, which presents 25. 459 ideas, 204 realized is the one with the highest percentage of projects accomplished (0, 80%). The total number of ideas submitted is 204. 725, while only 1. 054 (0, 51%) have been realized.

PROS AND CONS OF THE PLATFORM FREE IDEAS: Starbucks receives new fantastic ideas for free from its customers. CUSTOMER LOYALTY: the fact that some ideas are implemented improves the customer engagement because clients feel like Starbucks is listening to them and this give an edge over its competition. DIRECT CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS: people can vote and comment other ideas encouraging the adoption of that intention and get direct interactions with each other in order to improve the level of engagement (a sort of virtual brainstorming) HUMAN COLLABORATION: in any service industry is important to listen the advices of people you serve (and also the employees) in order to show that the company cares about individual needs. POSSIBLE FREE – RIDING PROBLEM: competitors could find the ideas posted by Starbucks’ customers for free and implement them in their companies leading to a loss of profits and confidentiality. So Starbucks directors need to introduce a comprehensive Social Media Policy to provide guidance to their workers and customers. POSSIBLE DISPLEASURE WITHIN CUSTOMERS: the rate of projects implemented is very low (<1%) so users may feel neglected and not heard

TYPE OF SUPPORTERS ENGAGEMENT Consumers : • their favorite coffee place is paying attention to them • they belong to Starbucks community • their idea will be selected for execution Company: What is My Starbucks idea for… • it keeps marketing and product development fresh thus creating a business value which is a key to keep up with competition and to grow the brand value. • reinforce brand loyalty • it creates an active engagement, thanks to the direct consumer interaction • My Starbucks Ideas helps to increase customer involvement, motivation and address the acquired needs. By connecting with marketing strategy concept, customers feel involved in the policy, product and the environment design of the store. • In the platform there is also a blog, called “ideas in action”, written by Starbucks’ staff, that describes how they put in practice consumers’ ideas. In this way, they make the consumers active part of the community, the clients are the center of attention, so to reinforce the brand loyalty, and the sense of belonging.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE SUPPORTERS • Starbucks’ primary target market is men and women aged 25 to 40; they account for almost half (49%) of its total business • Young adults, aged 18 to 24, represent 40% of Starbucks’ sales; this audience grows 4, 6% each year • Kids and teens aged 13 to 17 account for just 2% of Starbucks’ sales, but most items for kids are purchased by the parents

ILLUSTRATION OF A SPECIFIC PROJECT On November 20, 2013 community member Genevieve 728 shared her simple yet intriguing idea: “Why not have a cup design contest to bring some more fun and exciting cups to the stores? ”. In the next few days the post received over 510 vote-points and was noticed by a Starbucks responsible. Soon the White Cup Art Contest was launched on Starbucks' blog: customers from US and Canada had 21 days, between April and May, were asked to submit their vision for a new design cup by drawing on the regular ones and submitting their photos.

The projects was launched on a website and received help and visibility on the social media accounts of the company: a Facebook album was created, a specific space on their Pinterest profile was given and an hashtag was released on Twitter, just to mention a few. In this way, Genevieve 728's idea was able to reach a part of the large online community related to the brand: Facebook – 37. 866. 836 Twitter – 6. 920. 000 Pinterest – Starbucks Loves, 102. 164 followers Instagram – 3. 500. 000 followers In June a winner was selected among those 4. 000 people who had subscribed their designs: B. L. Thompson, a 19 years old girl from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The winning cup was then printed on Starbucks' reusable cups and sold online.

THE PROJECT EXPLAINED BY STARBUCKS’ STAFF • "It all started with an idea to get people excited about our reusable tumbler. We knew a fresh design would be key—but what to feature on this unique canvas? • For the answer we looked at you. We asked all artists, drawers, and everyday doodlers to submit a design they'd like to see featured on our reusable tumbler. We were simply overwhelmed by the response. Over 4, 000 inspired, creative, and amazingly unique designs came pouring in through our social media channels. The very first #White. Cup. Contest had begun. • Selecting just one was incredibly difficult, but there was something about the design by Brita Lynn Thompson that grabbed us. It was unlike anything we've ever done on a cup before. It's expressive, artful, and handcrafted nature simply captured the spirit of the white cup. • Today, we’re extremely excited to announce that you can purchase this unique tumbler exclusively at Starbucks. Store. com. These are a limited edition—so get yours before we run out! We can’t wait to see these beautiful reusable cups in our stores time and time again. • With such an overwhelming response maybe we should try this again. Good idea? Let us know—that's what My Starbucks Idea is all about. "

LIST OF INFORMATION SOURCES http: //mystarbucksidea. force. com/ http: //www. starbucks. com/coffeehouse/learn-more/my-starbucks-idea http: //blogs. starbucks. com/ https: //www. facebook. com/Starbucks https: //twitter. com/starbucks https: //it. pinterest. com/starbucks/ http: //www. brandchannel. com/home/post/2013/04/01/My-Starbucks. Idea-Turns-5 -040113. aspx http: //blog. betterific. com/2014/03/25/starbucks-crowdsourcing-success/ http: //www. talkwalker. com