There are a few things that I'm susceptible to. Getting some sort of achievement is one of them. Whether it's a diploma or other kind of physical certificate, a ribbon in Farmville, or just a gold star, I'm into it. If it involves large coffeehouse chains where I go to get my obscenely large teas in the late afternoon and the social media application that I'm currently obsessing over on my Blackberry? I'm totally willing to admit I'm game.
Back on topic. Starbucks and Foursquare. Jennifer van Grove from Mashable reports that Starbucks, (not so stealthily) in light of their public butt-whooping by McCafe, that they'll be teaming up with the innovative, mobile, social media client.
For those of you that don't know, this is foursquare. Foursquare is a GPS-based system that uses your phone to gauge your current location- publishing it to the Internet along with different messages or 'shouts' that you can add to your message. This alert can be published to your Facebook or Twitter, where you can tell your friends to come meet up with you or to try the new Dark Cherry Mocha. (I haven't tried it yet, but it's just an example.) For every check-in you have, you earn points on Foursquare. Starbucks is getting in on the check-in craze.
Starbucks visitors who check in at retail locations using Foursquare will earn customer rewards. Although there’s no financial incentive or free coffee to begin with, customers can unlock the “Barista badge” after five checkins.
Of course that’s just the beginning; the coffee behemoth plans to use Foursquare as a testing ground for alternative reward strategies and to unlock “the pulse of the experience” for each store.
If you think this is a straight-up play to offer location-based mobile coupons, think again. The New York Times Bits Blog writes that the company is “hoping to use Foursquare to provide even more meaningful prizes, like invitations to special events, photo-sharing or online reputation scores.
Starbucks is one of Foursquare's most popular check-in locations, so to take advantage of social media for advertising is smart at this point- not necessarily new, because Tasti-D-Lite has already gotten in on the trend, but definitely smart. McCafe, monetarily, has been overtaking Starbucks by a mile. Starbucks is using social media to try and make up that gap and according to sources, it may work. It has changed the question from "Are we willing to pay 3 dollars for coffee?" to "Is it really worth the three dollars?" and that alone is huge. Marketshare has changed drastically, but I do think that by playing on peoples' needs to participate in social media, Starbucks may start to close that gap.
I love this idea. My problem is, no one cares where I am and when. The people that care probably already know where I'm going, and I don't need to tell them again. If I were to get some sort of free incentive, such as Starbucks Gift Cards or something, I may be more inclined to use Foursqaure. If I am only earning a virtual prize, I really don't care. I don't play Farmville, or even anything virtual on the Internet. While I feel that this is a good advertising ploy, I don't think the idea will be long lasting, because at some point the novelty will wear off.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Allison on this one. Online incentivising doesn't fly with me. And people constantly knowing my location? It sort of makes me think of a bad breaking news segment where people are stalked by people on social media. Even though I'm addicted to Starbucks, the rewards wouldn't push me to use FourSquare to begin with because I just don't agree with the concept that people know where you are constantly.
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