STARBUCKS
VS.
CARIBOU COFFEE
By Jennifer O’Neal
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Table of Contents
◦ Executive Summary
◦ Background Information
◦ Store Locations
◦ iPhone/Android Apps
◦ Blogs
◦ Social Mention
◦ Social Media
◦ Instagram
◦ Twitter
◦ Facebook
◦ Pinterest
◦ YouTube
◦ Snapchat
◦ Strategies and Suggestions
◦ Winner
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Executive Summary
Whether you need it to wake up or take hip photos, coffee is a part of your daily
routine. Coffee is available on every street corner ranging from name brand shops, local
shops, and even fast food chains. Today, it is crucial for a brand to move away from
push advertising and start using various social media platforms in order to be
successful. In this brand analysis, I will go through the background, store location and
social media use for two coffee competitors, Starbucks and Caribou Coffee, to see who
is best captivating the audience’s attention and meeting their needs.
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Background Information ✺ Starbucks
v Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in
1971 by Gordon Bowker, Zev Siegl, and Jerry Baldwin
who were professors at the University of San
Francisco.
v The founders were inspired to sell high-quality coffee
beans and equipment after a friend taught them his
style of roasting coffee beans.
vStarbucks operates worldwide with 23,768 locations.
There are13,227 in the USA, 2,204 in China, 1,418 in
Canada, 1,106 in Japan, 872 in South Korea, and
more.
v Starbucks serves hot and cold drinks, whole bean
coffee, micro ground instant coffee, espresso, lattes,
Teavana products, juices, Frappuccinos, pastries,
seasonal offerings, sandwiches, drinkware along with
ice cream (grocery stores only).
v The Starbucks logo is an image of a twin tailed
mermaid, which is based on a 16th century “Norse”
woodcut. The primary color is green for the founder’s
alma mater. 4

Background Information ✺ Caribou
Coffee
v Caribou Coffee was founded in Edina, Minnesota in 1992 by
John and Kimberly Puckett. Caribou Coffee is now
headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
v John Puckett was working as a management consultant
before he decided to become an entrepreneur. After taking a
trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, he decided to start a
coffee company with his wife to capture the spirit of
accomplishment they felt in their vacation.
v The initial concept of Caribou Coffee was a five-day week
schedule aimed at downtown businessmen. Their logo was
“Life is short. Stay awake for it”.
v There are more than 273 company owned coffeehouses in 18
states as well as 203 franchise locations in 10 countries.
v Caribou Coffee sells specialty espresso beverages, coffee
blends, tea, sandwiches, baked goods, and related
merchandise.
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Store Location ✺ Starbucks
Starbucks locations are classified as trendy,
hip and contemporary. When you walk into a
Starbucks, you will always see high school
and college kids cramming for an exam or a
local professional reading the newspaper.
With the dim lighting, dark colors, and
soothing music, Starbucks encourages its
customers to sit and relax in their modern
study space. Around the register, Starbucks
has signs promoting their Starbucks Rewards
program where customers earn stars for every
purchase for sweet deals and treats. Even
better, Starbucks Rewards has three levels
customers can reach with better rewards for
more stars. This reward program encourages
customers to keep coming back and reach the
highest level.
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Store Location ✺ Caribou Coffee
Caribou Coffee locations are much more cozy
and warm compared to Starbucks. With large
leather chairs and fireplaces throughout the
stores, Caribou captures the essence of being
up in the mountains during the winter. The
atmosphere is so relaxing that multiple
customers will buy a cup of coffee, curl up
with a blanket and read a good book.
Throughout Caribou’s locations, they
advertise their Perks reward system where
program participants can earn special deals
on certain drinks and pastries. Caribou Perks
keeps its customers happy with discounts
and deals, but without offering different
member levels, like Starbucks, the customers
are not as motivated to come back.
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iPhone/Android Apps ✺ Starbucks
◦ The Starbucks app gives consumers the opportunity to enjoy the experience of a
Starbucks store through the convenience of their own mobile phone. The mobile app
allows users to load money onto a digital card, custom order their drinks for quick pick
up, find the nearest Starbucks location and earn stars for every purchase to ultimately
reach the Gold card. By reaching the Gold card level, users get birthday rewards, free
in-store refills, and member events/offers throughout the month. By providing the
opportunity to earn stars for every dollar spent, Starbucks customers keep coming back
because they feel appreciated for their loyalty and engagement with the company.
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iPhone/Android Apps ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ Caribou Coffee’s mobile app offers similar features to the Starbucks app. The app allows
users to load a digital card, search for Caribou Coffee locations, view the menu and earn
rewards for discounted drinks or an upgrade. The app is very user-friendly and classic, but
it does not give users the ability to order drinks from their mobile device or reach different
reward levels. These are two important features that Caribou Coffee needs to consider
adding to their mobile app to encourage customers to keep coming back and purchasing
their coffee.
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Blog ✺ Starbucks
◦ The Starbucks blog, 1912 Pike, does a fantastic
job at giving a general view of the company,
marketing efforts, and company culture. With a
link on the Starbucks website, 1912 Pike gives
consumers the chance to view how the coffee
beans make it from the farm to the store and
meet the people who make all of this happen.
Also, the 1912 Pike provides recipes on how to
make delicious coffee drinks and stories about
their new “Upstanders” series (recognizing those
who bring positive change to their communities).
The Starbucks blog successfully markets its
coffee products and pastries while also making
sure they show the consumer that they taking
great pride in the product quality, customer
experience, and community impact.
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Blog ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ Caribou Coffee’s Roastmaster Blog does not
have the same content, marketing strategies,
or visual appeal as 1912 Pike. The
Roastmaster Blog, which is almost like a
diary, contains posts from three Caribou
Roastmasters about responsible sourcing,
new arrivals, traveler stories, and more. This
blog consists of a very basic layout with no
pictures or exciting features. The
Roastmaster Blog fails to engage the
consumers with recipes and up to date,
exciting stories the readers are actually
interested in. Some examples of blog posts
include Caribou Coffee staying open for Black
Friday and a trip to Costa Rica to meet their
supplier.
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Social Mention
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Breaking It Down
Starbucks
Strength – Starbucks has a very high percentage of
strength, 87%, meaning that they interact with the
consumers in the right platforms with the right content.
Sentiment – Starbucks has a ratio of 5:1. This means
that for every negative comment there are 5 positive
comments, so Starbucks is doing well here.
Passion – With a passion of 14%, this is the area where
Starbucks needs improvement. Customers are talking
about the brand, but they are not doing so repeatedly.
Reach – Starbucks has a reach of 74% showing that it
has a wide influence and a large fan base despite its lack
of passion.
Caribou Coffee
Strength – Caribou Coffee only has a strength of 50%.
Therefore, they need to improve in how they reach out to
the audience along with their social media content.
Sentiment – Caribou’s sentiment ratio is 18:0 meaning that
they have an overwhelming amount of positive comments
from consumers.
Passion – Caribou Coffee’s passion is a 38%. This is higher
than Starbucks, but they need to find ways to get
consumers to talk about the brand more often.
Reach – Caribou’s reach is lacking at a 37%, so they need
to find more ways to reach out to the audience. 13

Instagram ✺ Starbucks
◦ Starbucks currently has 11.6 million followers
and 1,217 Instagram posts. Starbucks keeps a
consistent feel throughout the page by posting
high quality, eye-catching pictures of their
coffee to showcase their artistic side.
Starbucks does an excellent job at knowing
how to take stunning pictures of an everyday
item by finding the perfect accompanying
details. This Instagram account feels more like
a typical, coffee loving photographer than a
marketing page, but occasionally Starbucks
will post a link for followers to purchase an
item. Just like their bio says, Starbucks
continues to give followers inspiration on what
to buy next, how to showcase their coffee, and
how to make a beautiful creation of their own. 14

Instagram ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ Caribou Coffee lags behind with 61.8 thousand
followers and 611 posts. Caribou’s Instagram page
lacks the artistic and eye catching feel that
Starbucks portrays. These pictures stay within the
realm of their industry, but they are more simplistic
and repetitive. While Starbucks stayed clear of
making their page feel like an advertising platform,
Caribou Coffee does the opposite. Throughout the
page, Caribou has multiple posts about BOGO or
Perk Rewards. While it’s nice to know when sales
are going on, Caribou’s followers don’t want to be
bombarded with advertisements and promotions
over and over; Caribou’s followers would much
rather feel inclined to purchase their coffee
organically through the inspiration of high quality
and engaging pictures. It is important that Caribou
Coffee changes their Instagram strategy to increase
their followers and create more engagement. 15

Twitter ✺ Starbucks
◦ Starbucks joined Twitter in November 2006
and currently has 79.8K tweets and 11.7M
followers, with very little growth since August.
Starbucks uses some of the same blog and
Instagram content for their Twitter while still
avoiding advertisements. Also, Starbucks
never deviates from their content strategy with
meaningless posts. With their eye-catching
pictures and inspirational “Upstanders”
stories, these posts receive a high number of
retweets and comments from their followers.
Starbucks always responds to their followers
comments, but not always in a timely manner.
Responses can range from 6 hours to 24
hours, which is an area that Starbucks can
improve in to show that the customers are
their top priority.
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Twitter ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ Caribou Coffee joined Twitter in December
2008. Currently, they have 9,420 tweets and
124K followers, which is up 12,000 since
August. Caribou posts the same content on
Twitter and Instagram, which makes their
Twitter page less unique and feel more like an
advertising platform. Caribou receives very few
retweets and comments on their posts with an
average of 20-50 retweets and 3 comments.
Also, Caribou does respond to their followers
tweets, but they usually only respond to a
complaint about 6 hours later. In the future,
Caribou should respond to both positive and
negative tweets in a more timely manner to
improve their Twitter strategy. Also, Caribou
should consider posting different and fresh
content that isn’t seen on other social media
platforms.
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Facebook ✺ Starbucks
◦ With over 36 million likes, Starbucks
continues to post beautiful pictures of
their coffee and upload videos of their
“Upstanders” series. In addition, they also
have some regular posts about current
issues such has the #lovewins picture
below, which shows that Starbucks cares
about global issues. Compared to the other
social platforms, this is the only one where
Starbucks advertises sweet deals and
rewards, but it’s so subtle and rare that
their followers don’t get annoyed.
Starbucks is very good at interacting with
their followers on Facebook by replying to
comments within minutes, which shows
that they pay more attention to Facebook
over Twitter. By responding so quickly,
Starbucks shows that they really care
when consumers are both happy and
upset. To be more successful, Starbucks
should pay equal attention to Twitter.
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Facebook ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ With a little over 500,000 likes, Caribou’s Facebook
page drastically lags behind. Again, their Facebook
page consists of almost all the same content seen
on their Twitter and Instagram account. This shows
that Caribou is not fully taking advantage of the
different uses these social media platforms have to
offer. On the other hand, Caribou has recently
started to post about their new community video
project to pay tribute to those in their cancer
journey. To be more successful, Caribou needs to
find unique ways to integrate this tribute
throughout their blog and other social platforms.
Additionally, Caribou rarely interacts with their
followers on Facebook and if they do, it is usually a
day or two later. The lack of originality and
responses hurt their Facebook practices, which has
a direct impact on the number of followers.
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Pinterest ✺ Starbucks
◦ Starbucks has a strong fan base on
Pinterest with 274.1 thousand followers,
3 thousand pins, and 23 boards. Over the
past month and a half, their presence has
grown by over 3,000 followers. The
Starbucks Pinterest account is much
more unique and creative than the other
social media platforms, but it stays true
to the overall feel. Starbucks offers
boards ranging from coffee/tea recipes,
hot cocoa creations, DIY coffee projects,
Starbucks cup art, Red Cup contest and
more. This is a smart move for Starbucks
because it encourages consumers to buy
their products in order to participate in
the fun Pinterest activities while staying
away from heavy advertisements. 20

Pinterest ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ Caribou Coffee is behind the competition with
6.9 thousand followers, 696 pins, 16 boards
and no growth in followers over the past five
weeks. Although Caribou has similar boards
to Starbucks (Coffee DIY and Quotes), some
of their boards have very little to do with the
company. A majority of Caribou Coffee’s
Pinterest looks like an average person who
really enjoys winter clothes, coffee mugs,
warm food and fall colors. Caribou seems to
be missing the point of Pinterest and how it’s
tailored around crafts, ideas, and projects.
Ultimately, they need to focus more on
engaging their followers and posting more
relevant content to maintain their current fan
base and attract new followers to this social
platform. With the addition of a recipe or
contest board, Caribou Coffee could see a
dramatic increase in followers. 21

YouTube ✺ Starbucks
◦ The Starbucks YouTube channel offers 466 videos and has 110,392 subscribers. Their
YouTube presence is very engaging and similar to the 1912 Pike blog with recipes,
how-to, Starbucks rewards, Starbucks jobs, and giving back videos. Their YouTube
channel also features their new Original Series “Upstanders”, which celebrates
ordinary people doing amazing things to create a positive change in their community.
This is an excellent move on Starbucks behalf because it shows that recognizing and
supporting the community is a top priority, which generates loyal customers and high
sales over time. Overall, the Starbucks YouTube channel gives the viewers carefully
crafted content that is not only entertaining, but ad free.
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YouTube ✺ Caribou Coffee
◦ With only 36 videos and 455 subscribers, Caribou Coffee needs a lot of improvement
with their YouTube presence and strategy. The majority of Caribou’s channel consists
of a series of videos called “Caribou Season of Surprise”. These videos ask the first 50
viewers to Tweet their Christmas wish with #seasonofsurprise to have their wish come
true. While these videos do in fact engage with the consumer, the channel as a whole
lacks exciting, creative, and recent content showing that YouTube is not a priority.
Caribou Coffee needs to focus on increasing their YouTube activity by providing videos
the audience would like to see because this is a great place to deliver content that is
not available on many other social media platforms.
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Snapchat ✺ Starbucks
Last but not least, Starbucks reaches its customers through the
newest social media platform: Snapchat. Starbucks continues to
post relevant and humorous content while also telling a story.
Multiple times a week, Starbucks will post various videos to their
Snapchat Story showing how to make a beautiful, Snapchat worthy
latte from home, Fred and Franz’s journey up the Sea Salt
Frappuccino and glimpses of the “Upstanders” coloring book. These
stories give a more personal side to the brand as they interact with
consumers in real time. While these Snapchats encourage viewers to
buy Starbucks coffee and coffee beans, they are very fun to watch.
With many more examples, Starbucks continues to tie in the content
from all of their social media platforms in a really cool way to
reinforce their dedication to their brand, the community, and a
perfect cup of coffee.
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Snapchat ✺ Caribou Coffee
Caribou Coffee is far less active on Snapchat
compared to Starbucks. Recently, Caribou
posted about multiple pop-up locations offering
free cups of coffee. Also, Caribou continued to
promote their support for cancer centers and
cancer survivors around the world with
donations from every cup of coffee purchased.
Caribou’s Snapchat Stories consist of more text
and advertisements when compared to
Starbucks, which result in viewers clicking
through to get rid of the notification. While it’s
easy to promote your products through
Snapchat, Caribou needs to find more subtle
and unique ways to do so to get their viewers
excited and engaged.
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Strategies and Suggestions
Starbucks
While Starbucks has done a great job at
generating useful content and using their social
media platforms, they also have some room for
improvement. Starbucks needs to develop their
passion by encouraging followers to participate
in the conversation. Examples of this could be
posting about their recent experience, new
favorite latte, or cute cup of coffee with a
beautiful background. By providing a hashtag,
Starbucks will see a rise in activity among its
followers.
Caribou Coffee
Caribou needs to spend more time researching the
type of content their customers want to be
exposed to on different social platforms. By
shifting their focus from advertising various
products to engaging their customers with fresh,
relevant content, Caribou will see a dramatic
change in their performance. Caribou’s strength
will rise through customer loyalty and social media
followers, while their passion and reach
simultaneously rise as consumers obtain a more
positive mindset about Caribou Coffee.
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Winner…
Whether its through
their blog, mobile
app, or social media
platforms,
Starbucks
consistently gives
their customers
engaging, beautiful,
inspirational, and
unique content that
they actually want to
see.
With their fully
developed social
strategy, Starbucks
will continue to retain
their loyal customers
while also attracting
new coffee lovers with
their passion for the
consumer, the
community, and
delicious coffee.
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