Starbucks

Anyone for a VIA? Frappuccino? Bali Coffee? Such is the appeal of Starbucks that you can enjoy one of their drinks pretty much anywhere in the world. Whether at home, in store, or on the go, the Starbucks brand appeals to millions, just ask their 23m Facebook fans, or 1.5m followers on Twitter. After taking 17th place in our Top 50 Brands in Social Media, is it any real surprise they top the Coffee Chain chart?

Recommendations: As Starbucks grows, the company is likely to receive increasing criticism as a global corporation, so more must be done to continue to promote the brand’s “localised” theme, in order to build a sense of community around the brand. There are opportunities to execute this through the Starbucks Digital Network, and by creating spaces for citywide communities or even individual stores.

Starbucks could even take inspiration from the Pepsi Refresh project, bringing a community spirit to each independent Starbucks location by doing something to give back to local areas. Although Starbucks is so easily identifiable, its satisfaction score is relatively low in comparison to its competitors, and as the market leader, giving something back to the community is something which could extend brand loyalty, while also inviting customers to explore their neighbourhood.

Caffe Nero

The award-winning Caffe Nero pips Costa Coffee to second place in our latest chart, as a result of constant coverage and high levels of praise from customers for their coffee, service and café session CDs. The coffee chain’s own online presence however, leaves a lot to be desired. The UK’s largest independent coffee retailer signed up to both Facebook and Twitter in April 2011, posting a string of updates over a two day period and then vanishing quicker than you could say “Frappelatte”.

While they may have created a flurry of (fairly low quality) content, you’d need “a microscope to look at that tiny picture” says Camilo Mesias on their Facebook, they have amassed almost 19k likes on a relatively bland Facebook page with no landing tab, and no evident strategy. A total of 59 tweets were posted from the @_CaffeNero Twitter account, with even check-ins from users being retweeted.

Recommendations: It appears someone within Caffe Nero had a few too many coffees on the 12th April and went into overtime creating social media platforms for Caffé Nero. Now that the profiles are there, along with 19k fans, a strategy should be put in place in order to maximize the potential of social media. The existing partnership with 7digital, along with sponsorship of the Cornbury Festival, starring Status Quo, could bring an even wider focus to the chain’s online presences, reaching an even greater audience. Should Caffe Nero give social another shot, placing the emphasis on quality, independence, and the chain’s origins will help to bring a little taste of Italy to more users across the web.

Costa Coffee

Costa Coffee has a strong following on Facebook with 183k likes on a frequently updated page. A ‘country selector tab’ also lets users find their country specific Facebook page, a nice way to ensure users receive updates tailored to them, yet with few unique features, the appeal of each page is limited.

Costa’s presence on Twitter has often been criticised by numerous social media blogs including Dan Martin from Business Zone. Many others question the authenticity of the @CostaCoffee account, particularly after a stream of spam tweets from the now suspended @Costa_Coffee_UK. Although the account could have been set-up to reserve the Costa name, with only one tweet posted since October 2008, it is clear that the coffee chain has failed to embrace the joys of micro-blogging. After launching their drive-through service, perhaps the coffee chain will begin to realise the benefits of two-way interaction with customers.

Recommendations: Despite its reluctance to engage in social media, the company achieves a high level of organic brand references, most of which are positive. Whitbread have announced ambitious plans to double the number of Costa Coffee outlets, and creating brand loyalty through social media could prove vital to the success of these new stores. Not only could the Costa page provide coupons and news about the new stores, they could also broadcast recruitment opportunities, adding value to the Costa page and creating positive news coverage in the process.

Coffee Republic

While Coffee Republic’s website may claim their official Twitter and Facebook presences are ‘coming soon’, it hasn’t stopped a few of their franchises kick-starting things themselves. One particular example is Oxford’s Coffee Republic (@CoffeeRepOxford), which offers special deals like a free father’s day drink, while spreading news of in-store promotions or menu items via its Facebook account.

This independent thinking is a positive step in improving the low reach score of the coffee chain, yet it also highlights the group’s decentralised approach to social media, through the lack of a social media strategy. It is apparent that the head office is acting upon this, as they look to create online conversation through their own ‘Coffee Republic’ community site, yet there is still a lot of work to be done. Besides a recent photography contest where users could win £1000 of vouchers to spend at a specialist camera store, there appears to be no real incentive for people to join the site and a lack of social presence has perhaps prevented conversation from spreading further.

Recommendations: Coffee Republic appears to be refuelling its online strategy as we speak, although the promise of social presences “coming soon” doesn’t specify a timeframe. A ‘Coffee Republic – Jordan’ Facebook page with 2k fans shows clear potential on Facebook, but the brand must implement an effective over-arching strategy to succeed internationally on this channel. While individual stores have shown a keen entrepreneurial spirit in surging ahead with their own social engagement, the danger is that this will create an inconsistent tone of voice and representation of the brand.

AMT Coffee

In the world of high street coffee brands, AMT is one of the smallest, with just 55 sites throughout the UK. They have however announced plans to increase operations by 20%, which could help to increase the coffee chain’s reach, perhaps enabling them draw closer to their nearest competitor, Coffee Republic. The company will, however have to work on improving its reputation as it grows.

Although before April of last year AMT did not accept debit or credit cards, the brand has recently upped the ante, impressing bloggers and journalists alike in it’s pioneering adoption of contactless payment technology.

MT Coffee is present on Twitter and Facebook, however these attempts to interact with customers does not seem to be having the same impact as competitors’ efforts. A lack of followers and likes limit the amount of customer interaction and content from AMT is minimal, and out-of-date (for example, details for a competition which closed last autumn are still on AMT Facebook page).

Recommendations: AMT has recently shown that it is ready to embrace new technologies. As a significant number of AMT Coffee chains are based within train stations, it could consider using geolocation apps such as Foursquare or Facebook Places to deliver incremental revenue and drive loyalty when customers are near POS. One idea could focus on a customer’s journey, where the distance is measured between checkins at AMT Coffee branches. Users could then be given a free coffee or discount for travelling greater distances between checkins.