Just how social is coffee?
Mark Stuart,
Insight Executive,
Yomego
28th July 2011
Our latest SMR mini-league for NMA compared the UK’s 5 biggest Coffee chains, to see how their daily blends have translated into social media reputation.
The list is pretty skinny
What is strikingly obvious about the UK coffee market is the domination of three high street coffee chains: Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Costa Cofee. In the case of Starbucks, its
extensive physical reach (a quick search on Starbuck’s store locator returns at least 50 results for London’s W1 post code alone) is replicated across social channels
– Starbucks boasts 24million Facebook fans and over
1.5million twitter followers. Caffe Nero by contrast, has just over 400 locations, equivalent to one store for every 48 Facebook fans, while Costa focuses its attention in growing markets, each targeted through country specific Facebook pages, led from the
main Costa Facebook page, which has a core following of 195k likes.
Wake up and smell the coffee
Coffee Republic, AMT and major player, Caffe Nero can all boast independence as a key business differentiator, whilst Starbucks and Costa are seen very much as the global
powerhouses of coffee, which can impede on the companies’ efforts to drive engagement and loyalty in social spaces. Starbucks, however, has capitalised on its size and
reach and is significantly ahead of the game when it comes to social media engagement. Initiatives such as giving away coffee in store, via a Facebook voucher and the around
the world tab, have helped to give the brand a much more human feel. It also showcases its fairtrade credentials wherever possible. Both Costa and Nero are lagging behind with
their social engagement, with neither brand yet to make a concerted effort to build long-term advocacy through a sustained social media strategy.
Encouragingly, AMT and Coffee Republic appear to see the value of social, although each takes a very different approach. AMT has presences on both Facebook and Twitter, yet fails to populate the profiles, so engagement is limited. Coffee Republic,
conversely, appears to be building up to a grand unveiling, through a range of ‘coming soon’ social buttons on the coffee chain’s website.
Grinding down the competition
In what was perhaps a surprise outcome of our SMR mini-league, Caffe Nero pipped Costa Coffee to second place on the Coffee Chains’ chart, yet Costa’s Facebook page
has gathered almost twenty times more likes than Caffe Nero. A flurry of social activity over a two day period, which saw Caffe Nero presences activated on both Facebook and Twitter,
then flooded with various content, certainly helped their claim, particularly as it gave 19k fans a place to discuss the coffee chain, yet it is the in-store service which sets them
aside. With customers praising all aspects of Caffe Nero, they were the highest scoring coffee chain in terms of satisfaction over the previous three months, its success in brick and
mortar should definitely aid the development of social presences.
One for the road
Starbucks, and more recently Costa Coffee, have both been working on replicating the American coffee chain, introducing drive through services, yet in many ways this could well be
seen as a move which isn’t considered particularly social, as the brand creates a personal coffee experience for customers, rather than a shared experience. By not engaging these
individuals in-store, this perhaps highlights the need for a stronger brand presence in social, to build customer advocacy.
While the smaller chains may not be able to compete with the Starbucks’ app, integrating Facebook and Twitter through its eGift feature, they can utilise social through a
range of different, less costly methods to ensure they remain at the forefront of the consumers mind when it comes to buying coffee. One example could build on Coffee Republic’s
developing ‘Club CR’, an idea loosely based around a connoisseurs club, creating added value for
customers who sign-up to the incentive. In its early stages it appears to be similar to Costa’s loyalty card idea, yet if it effectively integrates with social, it could open the
coffee chain up to numerous possibilities, while dramatically increasing the company’s reach in the process. Alternatively, for those lesser known chains, like AMT, giving its
social media presences a shot of life, with promotions similar to Starbucks’ Facebook voucher, could create conversation to extend the both the chains reach online and off.
Check out how they all scored on our SMR Coffee Chains mini-league table for NMA.