One of the most important components of social media marketing is differentiation. Differentiation is the element of uniqueness or ability to set a company apart from its competitors. Applied to marketing strategy, differentiation is the ability of a brand to create a unique and memorable customer experience across platforms. Two companies that use social media very differently to market similar products are Starbucks and Kaladi Brothers Coffee.
The Starbucks Approach
The Starbucks brand has become synonymous with fast, efficient service that emphasizes the customer experience. Starbucks’ mission is to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” with goals of “creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome. Acting with courage, challenging the status quo…Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results. We are performance-driven, through the lens of humanity”.
With this in mind, the brand’s strategic focus is building and maintaining a strong brand community with loyal customers. Metrics to measure community engagement and brand loyalty include top of mind, link clicks, likes, comments, shares, and brand mentions. Such metrics can inform the creation of more targeted and valuable content.
The Power of Visuals
Starbucks is active across most social platforms where it focuses on the promotion of visually engaging, product and experience-focused content. Starbucks occasionally features employee profiles and actively participates in holiday trends and cultural shifts like the increase in awareness for diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, much of its Instagram feed is filled with product photos and user-generated content (UGC). The brand has taken advantage of video content using Instagram’s Reels and IGTV features. YouTube delves into the history of the company and offers coffee how-to’s using short and long-form content.
Video & UGC
Video is the most effective medium to communicate with consumers. The application of this knowledge in a social strategy means Starbucks is keenly aware of its target audience’s wants and needs. The brand knows where to find its engaged audience and understands how to create content that consumers find valuable on each platform. The integration of UGC puts customers front and center, offering them the chance to engage directly with Starbucks for customer support, reviews, and community-building opportunities. The depth of Starbucks’ understanding of its target customer offers it the chance to truly inspire its followers while delivering the most valuable content possible to build an ever-stronger relationship with its loyal brand community. This fact alone makes the Starbucks model highly unique and effective.
Kaladi Brothers Coffee
Kaladi Brothers Coffee (KBC), a coffee roaster founded in Alaska in 1984, began as one small coffee cart. The brand has grown to over 200 employees with national distribution and 17 locations. KBC’s vision is to “be the standard by which all other coffees are judged” with the strategic goal of acting as a catalyst for community. The spirit of KBC’s values is similar to that of Starbucks’, but the use of social media to advance those goals is vastly different.
The Power of the Human Face
Kaladi Brothers is focused mainly on social platforms that promote two-way communication with audiences like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Each of these platforms is used by KBC to communicate directly with customers to address customer service, answer questions, and share UGC. The brand’s content consists mainly of local partnership announcements and content that focuses on the human experience. The brand differentiates itself through its deep connection to the Alaskan community. Content across platforms focuses on people and their experiences with one another and with Kaladi products over pure, product promotion. The attraction to the brand comes from a yearning to join the tightly knit community that KBC was born out of and continues to develop. Its efforts to continuously build community relationships in person and online help to achieve the brand’s goal of becoming a catalyst for community.
Takeaways
Much can be learned from both brands. It is important to keep in mind the difference in scale and scope of each and how that impacts community development strategies. Regardless, both companies have built strong followings across social platforms by promoting community engagement and development using various forms of social content. The key takeaway is the power that community has to build a brand and gain longtime, loyal customers. UGC plays a strong role in achieving such goals and understanding audience needs and wants is also vital to the success of brands of any size.
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