experience matters

Last week, Starbucks launched My Starbucks Idea. Many have likened the social site to Direct2Dell, or more recently, Dell IdeaStorm.  I think any brand who creates a forum to sincerely listen and proactively and consistently respond to all types of ideas and/or complaints deserves some applause.  The consumer side of me really commends that.  

The marketer side of me, also supports the initiative, but notices a fundamental difference between the two corporate forums listed above.  Dell’s IdeaStorm fosters communication on product development for items that have a lifecycle once purchased by a consumer, versus a Starbucks purchase and consumption which arguably starts and finishes over the course of thirty minutes.  It will be interesting to see if MyStarbucksIdea can offer a sustainable idea-generating community given that very short purchase cycle. Along the same vein, it will also be a challenge for Starbucks to offer ‘acceptable’ solutions to consumer concerns with such a low-price product. I know what you are thinking – a $5 coffee is not ‘low price,’ but in comparison to how a consumer feels about purchasing a vacation, a vehicle or mobile phone service – there isn’t a lot of thought put into the research and consideration phase of the purchase.   

This is a huge endeavor for Starbucks; they have to manage the comments and feedback. If they don’t, obviously they will turn away those community members who have placed their trust in the site forum.  This ‘pass-fail’ criteria isn’t what excites me as a marketer. I’m interested in seeing if a) the site itself causes enough positive buzz around the brand to increase sales or b) if the ideas generated on the site actually increase traffic and sales.  Currently, some of the top “experience” enhancement ideas are loyalty program suggestions, complementary wi-fi requests, and faster ways to order are all being considered by Starbucks management.  Kudos to Starbucks, but it will be interesting to see if they can make the site and the community topics sustainable and provide a value proposition beyond the initial launch.  I’m going to be the optimist here, and say that they will prevail as long as they ramp up the categorization of the ideas generated and make the community itself a little more user-friendly.  In the next phase, they should also look to garner ideas from conversations that are happening in other communities – now that’s a feat.