Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Emily Bishop

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Table of Contents
I.

II.
III.
IV.
V.

Case History
A. Situation Analysis
B. Pre-Campaign Research
C. Planning
D. Implementation
E. Evaluation
Case Evaluation and Recommendations
Case Summary
Appendix
Works Cited

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

I.

Case History
A. Situation Analysis
Starbucks Coffee Company first opened in Seattle Washington in 1971. When Starbucks first
started out they were only selling coffee beans and machinery. In the 1980s they started to sell
drinks and from that point on they have been growing in popularity to reach the 16,000 locations
they have all around the world. From their original owners of Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and
Gordon Bowker, to the current CEO Howard Schultz, Starbuckss organizational structure ranges
from CEO to board of directors three managerial levels, two supervisory levels and finally their
baristas. Starbucks also is a public cooperation, which allows the public to buy shares of the
company. Starbucks as a cooperation values their employees who they refer to as partners, rather
than employees. In the past Starbucks has had several successful PR campaigns, almost too many
to name.
B. Pre-Campaign Research
Upon looking at the PRAS case analysis prior to their Green Earth Month Starbucks did a
series of pre-campaign research. This research was done in order to gauge the reactions, and
participation of their target audience. This research indicated that the environment is the number
one social cause consumers care about (Global findings). Furthermore nearly two thirds (56%)
of people have more trust in a brand that is ethically and socially responsible (Global findings).
One of the final facts that they found in their pre-campaign research was that 67% if core
costumers considered themselves environmentally responsible (Global findings). Furthermore
the Edelman Goodpurpose study found that 64% of consumers are more likely to recommend a
brand that supports a cause. Another place that Starbucks got their information from is their own
website. MyStarbucksIdea is a website owned and operated by Starbucks, with the purpose of
being a forum where Starbucks customers can go and post things they would like to see the
company do or change (appendix A).
C. Planning
In planning this campaign Starbucks Coffee started with main goals and objectives, and then
strategized on how to reach those. Their first goal was to serve 25% of the beverages made in
our stores in reusable serveware or tumblers by 2015 (Starbucks struggling). During this
campaign Starbucks had two main types of objectives, awareness, and action objectives.
(Appendix B) Their awareness objectives were to "advance public awareness of Starbucks
environmental leadership and build upon the current reputation in terms of commitment to
environmental stewardship. (PRSA) The other awareness objective was to deepen relationships
with customers and partners around the world in order to reestablish and strengthen loyalty to the
star bucks brand (Starbucks launches). One action objective was to inspire U.S. customers and
stakeholders to join Starbucks in its efforts to reduce waste and positively impact the
environment by driving participation in Earth Month programs (PRSA). Another action
objective was to generate awareness surrounding their global month of service with six key
events. These were supposes to engage partners (employees) and customers. They also wanted to
create excitement and have people want to attend these events. (Starbucks launches)
The strategy for the Green Earth Month campaign consisted of five key milestones.
According to the PRSA case analysis of this campaign these milestones included a Green
Spark tumbler promotion, 2009 Global Responsibility Report, a second cup summit, spring
street event, and thought leadershipexecutive opportunities. Through this strategy Starbucks
wanted to synchronize communication, develop a broad media angles. To do this Green Earth
Month consisted of using traditional channels to create awareness and to broadcast six main

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

service events to their community, partners and costumers. They also focused on using their own
personal owned and social channels to help get the message out. Finally by using cause-relatedmarketing Starbucks sought out third party partners in order to improve their credibility.
Like most campaigns this campaign had a few different tactics employed. One of the tactics
that was selected was that Starbucks wanted to use the already existing new coverage to further
their cause. Starbucks also wanted to not only get their message out there; they wanted to be the
ones sharing it. To do this Starbucks partnered with the aforementioned traditional media
channels. The last few tactics that Starbucks used in this campaign were to attract local media
attention, get third party supporters to not only help with the projects, but also to help get the
word out. The final tactic was to create the six main events to fully gain and maintain the interest
of the communities that Starbucks was trying to help.
D. Evaluation
This campaign was largely evaluated by the statistical information gathered both at the events
hosted by the campaigns but also numbers taken after the campaign had ended. Overall the
numbers of this campaign highlighted the success of the Green Earth Month. Some of the
statistics that prove the success of the events are that, 90% of people said they had a good or
amazing time, and a further one fourth of people felt that Starbucks was a valued part of their
community (Starbucks launches). Moreover the numbers that were taken after the campaign had
ended showed that 1.2 million costumers participated in the tumbler promotion or earth day
coffee give away. And finally one of the major aspects of this campaign evaluation is that Green
Earth Month enhanced costumer perceptions of Starbucks by 57%-80% (PRSA).
II.
Case Evaluation and Recommendations
A. Research Step
The initial situational research was well done; Starbucks Coffee did a good job at knowing
what was going on in regards to themselves in the media. This shows a good use of
environmental scanning, because the company was prepared and had already started thinking
about, and executing some solutions prior to releasing their campaign. However while their use
of environmental scanning was good Starbucks coffee forgot to research what their opponents
either had done in the past or were doing currently. This could have been bad for the company
because they could have done something similar to what their competitors did that had gone
wrong.
The pre-campaign research that was done was very in depth; the researchers got a lot of
information that was needed in order to make the campaign a success. The amount of costumers
aware and wanting to help the environment was a crucial addition to the campaign. The 2009
Edelman Goodpurpose study noted that nearly six out of ten consumers (58% of are looking for
brands to do more for them than just provide them with a product of service. (Edelman
Goodpurpose report) Because so many people were both concerned about and wanted to help the
environment meant that the issue the corporation had chosen to work on would benefit them.
These numbers also indicated who their target audience should be, highlighting the low-hanging
fruits. Another great aspect to the secondary research that was done was that the idea came off of
Starbucks MyStarbucksIdea website. This meant that this ides would be well received because
their customers were already calling for a campaign similar to this one.
Continuously because of the amount and quality of research done Starbucks Coffee was well
prepared to launch their campaign. Through the research that was done not only did the company
find out an issue to target. The issues they selected to work on fit into not only their mission
statement, but also the companys organizational goals.

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

B. Planning Step
The planning stage for Starbucks Coffees Green Earth Month started after the research had been
done and evaluated. One of the first things that the corporation did was to make their goals and
objectives. The main goal for this campaign was to be serving around 25% of their drinks in
reusable cups by 2015. However this was an over ambitious goal, because in the prior the
amount of drinks served in reusable cups only jumped from 1.5%-1.8%. That is a 0.2% jump
over a year, and their goal was to jump 24.2% in 5 years. The next year there wan only a 0.1%
jump, and in 2014 Starbucks changed their goal to them serving 5% of their drinks in reusable
mugs by 2015, a number they still will mostly not get. During this campaign Starbucks had
several different objectives, both awareness, and action. However one thing that I noticed
through this study is that of all the objective statements not one meets the criteria for an objective
statement. (Appendix C) Therefore while the objective statements are present and meet most of
the criteria they do not meet them all.
As mentioned above the research step helped to locate the key publics for this campaign. In
this instance the key publics were Starbucks customers, partners or employees, and
service/environment enthusiasts. These publics were targeted because they were seen as low
hanging fruits. They were seen as such because they all either had loyalty to the company or the
environment. Furthermore these audiences were seen as low hanging fruits because the idea for a
push to reusable cups came from them. The customer group were the ones who asked for
something like this on the Starbucks MyStarbucksIdea website. The partners had a strong
loyalty to the company because they are employed by Starbucks. And finally the
service/environment enthusiasts just like to help wherever they are able to. These were the right
key audiences for this campaign.
This particular campaign was lacking in a theme statement. Not having one while not
detrimental to the campaign is an odd choice. An example for a theme statement for this
campaign could have been reuse and save. That statement might have worked because the
company wants people to use reusable mugs, and doing so saves not only money but also the
environment. Starbucks primary message through the whole campaign was to call everyone
together to help the environment. Continuously this was an overarching message for the entire
campaign, because it was prevalent for each event that took place. One of their secondary
messages that played very well off of their primary message was to bring and use reusable cups.
Starbucks encouraged the use or reusable mugs by offering their customers free coffee in a
reusable mug or tumbler on Earth day. This message was simple as well, and it seemed very easy
to do. The messages that were chosen were very well thought out and well executed.
Furthermore the strategies that the company elected to use were very well thought out and
chosen systematically.
Along with the different strategies there were also several different tactics employed in the
campaign. The media choices that were made were not the best. This is because Starbucks really
only announced the campaign on their own media sources also with a select few other media
outlets. In fact every blog post that was analyzed noted that they could only find information
about the campaign on Starbucks personal website.
Lastly these campaign strategies and tactics could not have been executed well without
proper budgeting. For this campaign the budget was well managed and appropriate funds were
given where they were needed.
C. Implementation Step

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Unfortunately there was little information on the information step that I could find. For the most
part the implementation step is generally handled within internal affairs. Therefore very little
information about how a campaign was implemented can be found online.
D. Evaluation Step
The Green Earth Month was a very well executed, and extremely successful campaign. To
evaluate this campaign Starbucks Coffee used an outcome analysis approach combined with
statistics. They chose to use statistics because it allowed them to present something people could
better understand. The successes of the strategic and tactical objectives were evaluated separately
from the success of the entire campaign. There was a little bit of success as far as the goals and
objectives, however not all of their goals and objectives were met. The main goal to the
campaign which was to serve 25% of drinks in reusable glasses by 2015 was later reduced to 5%
by 2015, and still it looks like that number will not happen. However while Starbucks will most
likely not meet their goal there was an increase in the number of drinks sold in reusable cups.
Starbucks second objective to increase the relationship and loyalty between the corporation and
their employees, and costumers was a success. They determined that at the end of the events
most people had a good time and a large amount of those people wanted to come back.
The amount of people that had a good time and wanted to return to do another event like
what they went to indicated that Starbucks did indeed take the response of their key publics into
consideration when evaluating the campaign. Of the different statistics that Starbucks looked at
to evaluate the success of the event a majority were taken from people who attended the event.
Furthermore most of the statistics showed a positive and successful result as far as the key
publics are concerned.
I did not come across any statement made by the organization management upon studying
this case. This is unusual because most of the time the management will comment upon how they
perceived that campaign went. Based off of the success of this campaign the expected response
from the management would be something along the lines of, we feel that this campaign was a
great success, and that through this campaign we have managed to make great strides when it
comes to achieving our goal of helping the environment one cup at a time. This would show
that they were both proud of their campaign and are committed to further working on helping the
environment in any way they can.
This campaign did not solely focus on the present. A large part of the Green Earth Month was
to focus on the present to help the future. The goals that Starbucks set for this campaign did not
end with the month of April. In fact they continued for several years after the campaign. To prove
this point Starbucks had planned events to happen after the campaign was over to work on
achieving their goals and objectives. Moreover Starbucks still continues to offer free drinks on
Earth day if someone brings a reusable mug.
III.
Case Summary
Starbucks Coffee started as a small coffee bean and machinery store in 1971, and expanded
into the global icon it is today. With their recognition comes responsibility. Through their Green
Earth Month campaign Starbucks worked to find solutions to theyre over use of natural
resources to make paper coffee cups.
By analyzing this campaign I learned that you dont need to achieve all of your goals for your
campaign to be a success. I also learned that less could be more, Starbucks worked to keep their
messages simple in order to achieve their goals.

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Appendix
Appendix A
MyStarbucksIdea.com is a interactive website created by Starbucks Coffee in order to allow their
customers have an impact on the company. For this campaign some of the most searched items
on the website were recycling, and cups. Because of this Starbucks worked on this campaign
to give their customers what they wanted and needed.
Appendix B
An awareness objective because it aimed to bring focus, and attention onto the information, as
well as make people understand why this campaign was important. An action objective works to
focus on the response to information, as well as the audiences opinion and behavior (Chapter 6
power point).
Appendix C
The criteria for a good objective statement are that there is a target public, the objective is
achievable, the rate is stated, there is a timeline, and the objective is measurable.

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month

Works cited
Global Findings: 2009 Edelman goodpurpose Study. (10:00:29 UTC).
Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/EdelmanInsights/2009goodpurpose-global-findings
Mission Statement. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from
http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/missionstatement
PRSA. (n.d.). Starbucks Coffee Company Earth Month.
Starbucks Announces New Leadership Structure to Accelerate Global Growth.
(2011, July 11). Retrieved April 17, 2016, from
https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-announces-newleadership-structure-to-accelerate-global-growth
Starbucks Launches 10th Global Responsibility Report. (2011, April 18).
Business Wire. New York, United States. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/abicomplete/
docview/862281985/abstract/9302D5A300D64280PQ/11
Starbucks Shared Planet Global Responsibility Report 2009. (n.d.).
Starbucks Shared Planet Global Responsibility Report 2010. (n.d.).
Starbucks Shared Planet Global Responsibility Report 2011. (n.d.).
Starbucks, struggling to recycle, discounts drinks in tumblers. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 17, 2016, from
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/04/
starbucks- struggles-to-develop-recyclable-cups/1

Starbucks Coffee Company Green Earth Month