SOCIAL LISTENING

Dutch Bros

I decided to do this blog post on the company that I work for, Dutch Bros. Dutch Bros, popular privately owned coffee franchise, was founded not only on the basis of serving killer coffee, but serving a cup of love along side every cup of joe. I found interest in Dutch Bros because I like what they stands for and their commitment to their culture. Dutch Bro's Broista's are typically known for their great customer service and happy presence.

With that being said, they also often become the laughing stock of twitter for their over-the-top, loud good morning's and crackhead energy.

Here's a few tweets to help explain...







As you can see, Dutch Bros values customer interaction and connection. One could say Dutch Bros' Value Proposition is their motto "Get up early, stay up late, change the world".  Another strong message Dutch Bros sells, as Creative Director Dan Buck put it, is "just to love our customers" (Buck, 2015).  As you can see in the above screenshots, there's a mixed response to the kind of service Dutch Bros provides. For example, twitter users Becky, Katty, Nicholle, and "edm christy mack" expressed love and appreciation for their broistas whereas users Natalia, Delani, and McToph made a mockery of Dutch Bros service. Whether you're a fan of Dutch Bros or not, you have to admit that they are doing a good job at promoting their intended message and Value Proposition. As a broista myself, I strive to leave the customer feeling just as excited about their coffee as their are about their next trip through my stand. Dutch Bros not only does an excellent job of selling their culture and values to their employees, but the employees (for the most part) do an excellent job of then spreading that love and culture to their customers.

Dutch Bros did not engage in the tweets I shared on here earlier I think mainly due to the volume of interactions they get every single day (it's a lot to keep up with). I have had the privilege however, to attend several Dutch Bros leadership events over the past couple years in which Travis Boersma (founder of Dutch Bros) has responded to complaints such as these. Trav has always responded to company complaints such as these the same: keep spreading love. Trav's focus with his company has always been to spread love, and I think this is a genius marketing plan on his part because it's something that not many companies focus on "selling". You can go to just about any coffee shop and get and over priced drink made with under-extracted espresso, but Dutch Bros is the only place intent to create connection.  In the words of The Dutch Creed, employees strive to "talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet" and "to wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile" (The Dutch Creed).

If I was the brand manager, I would go above and beyond in promoting the shit out of Dutch Bro's Value Proposition. Instead of focusing so much on selling their culture to their own employees, I would work towards selling the culture straight to the customer, that way every person who drives through a stand  knows what to expect to get out of their experiences. Hopefully a strategy like this would help reduce the amount of complaints concerning crack-head energy and overly curious broistas.
In addition to this, something I would change is Dutch Bros physical marketing strategy. Dutch Bros invests heavily in social media ads and pop ups rather than promoting through billboards and street signs. I believe if they were to increase their numbers in signs and billboards, their sales would improve (especially their rates of first time customers).

This assignment really brought to light the amount of attention to detail that a company must pay in order to successfully market themselves. As we discussed all week long, the more connected a company gets to a certain political group/agenda or religion/belief system, the smaller their pool of potential clients gets. When looking at Dutch Bros, the same sort of thing is happening and customers are split into two groups: people who love it, and people who hate it (the experience, not the coffee). Dutch Bros employees will ask you how your day is going ten times out of ten, and those who don't want to be bothered may choose a new place to get their coffee alltogether. Dutch Bros made a bold marketing move in centering their company around connection (their biggest challenge), immediately shrinking their pool of potential customers (so far, it seems that their strategy is paying off).

Resources 

https://dutchbros.com

“The Heart of Dutch Bros. Success.” Built Oregon, 23 Feb. 2015, www.builtoregon.com/2015/02/love-fuels-dramatic-dutch-bros-success/.

Marketing in the News

Marketing in the News

Disney Box Office 

The title of this article immediately drew me in: In 2019, the box office belonged to Disney. Reading this article after a quick google search caught my eye and got me thinking, was the box office really owned by Disney all of 2019? Then I thought back to all of the Disney movies released over the past year- The Lion King, Star Wars, Captain Marvel, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, Cats, Aladdin, and the list goes on. This article interests me because, with media and television being one of the biggest markets in the world, it's crazy that one business/brand would be on top of it all, raking in the majority of the money made in that market for the year. The article goes on to talk about how Disney was able to dominate the movie industry even with a couple failing films, including the theatre remake Cats. Coyle says, "You're either "The Lion King" or you're "Cats" (Coyle, 2019). This shows the two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to the industry. The Lion King grossed over $1 billion dollars, whereas Cats box office grossed a skimpy $61 million dollars (Coyle, 2019). Another main point driven throughout the article is the newly risen battle between theatre production and online streaming. With the rise in online streaming, theatre profits are slowly declining and are predicted to continue to decline. 

Disney's Value Proposition is making the most captivating and interesting movies intended to entertain all ages. This article is relevant to today’s world because it discusses Disney’s great successes over the last year, and talks about the challenge to come in 2020 to release bigger and better movies. With the release of  top-grossing Star Wars and Avengers movies in 2019, 2020 is already predicted to be an average year for Disney success in sales. The ending question of the article was what is going to happen to Disney in 2020. How is Disney going to deal with a decline in sales from 2019? Are movies such as “James Bond” “Wonder Woman” and “The Rock” going to keep Disney from, in the words of Coyle, greater volatility (Coyle , 2019)?  Disney’s recent marketing approach is remaking films. Over the past few years, they have focused on remaking classic Disney films with new, bigger, and better technology and filmwork. For example, Disney remakes such as Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Marry Poppins, and several others, have brought an entire new category of film to the industry. Movies like these are all great examples of Disney’s new and unique marketing approach. 

If I were in charge of Disney branding and marketing, I would continue to remake classics. These remakes draw in not only younger audiences, but also older audiences with sentimental connection to the originals. With that being said, I would stop making sequels to some of the movies that have recently came out. For example, Frozen was an incredibly successful movie (and Frozen 2 as well). But that should be the end of that. Stop flogging a dead horse. Frozen has had it’s success, and shall have no more. The same can be said for Toy Story and The Incredibles. 

Their marketing approach thus far has been just about flawless (with the exception of the movie Cats). Disney literally does it all-everything from cartoons to real life to princess to action hero. Disney does it all. 

This assignment has taught me how to successfully dominate an industry. I’m going to be the next Disney. Just wait.

https://www.disney.com

Coyle, J. (2019, December 31). In 2019, the box office belonged to Disney. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/1eef5653bdf27f2cb1a99b56ba18cfc5

ABOUT YOU

HELLLLOOOO BA 223

(WEEK ONE)

First off, this is gonna be interesting because I can't remember if you're the only one who's gonna read this (Mindy) or if the entire class has access to this. I think I'm gonna air on the side of playing it safe (just incase all 40+ classmates have access lol). Anyways, excited for my FIRST EVER BLOG POST! No idea what my voice and personality on here is gonna be yet, so here goes nothing. 

Well anyways, what's up Mindy? I'm Sadie, I'm 20, I'm from Corvallis, and I'm now dual enrolled here studying Business Management. Like most students, I had trouble landing on this major so just recently starting to learn the ropes of the College of Business. In addition to being a full time student, I am an assistant manager at Dutch Bros (the one over on 53rd and Philomath boulevard). Initially applying to Dutch Bros, I thought it was going to be nothing more to me than an easy and fun part-time job to help get me through college. Turns out, my constant need to be in charge has forced me to take on more than a can handle and try to manage 15 credits and a busy drive thru coffee stand all at once. This need I'm talking about for a voice, an input, and a sense of control,  is the exact same thing that is motivating me to take this major ON. I'm hoping to learn more about the College of Business throughout this course and the tactics of a smart business marketer (or something like that). For real though, I'm hoping this class will not only set me up for success in my current position, but also help me prepare for any future growth as a businesswoman.  My passion lies in working with people and helping others, so I want to give myself the best platform possible to turn that passion into a career! Customer service can sometimes be a burn out, but the idea of being the lady behind the operations making it all happen sounds amazing. Excited for my venture through this major and my career!