How Starbucks makes money from 3.8 million Facebook fans

Posted by Melissa Allison (reprinted from seattletimes.com)


Starbucks passed Coca-Cola last month as the most popular brand on Facebook, according to InsideFacebook.com, and plans to leverage those and other digital relationships during this fall's national rollout of its instant coffee, Via, BrandWeek reports. (StarbucksGossip.com posts say the launch begins Sept. 1.)

Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks' digital strategy director, tells BrandWeek that the chain relied heavily on digital channels to promote its Free Pastry Day last month. Nearly 600,000 people RSVP'd for that event on Facebook. "That was a digital and PR effort we would say is widely successful," Wheeler said. Almost a million people RSVP'd "yes" or "maybe" to its promotion last holiday season with Product (Red) to contribute 5 cents for every beverage purchased to the AIDS-fighting project.

"Facebook has been really great about it. They are thrilled with the success," she said. "They have lots of other brands. [Our success has them now asking,] 'How can we even do this? How can we repeat the success for them?' It speaks to the power of the Starbucks brand and how well it connects with our consumer in this space."