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.
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
