Business is boring for many of us yet everyone one of us is influenced in major ways by corporate activities.
Two companies that have impacted, and continue to impact, human being’s health, habits, incomes and much more, are McDonalds and Starbucks.
And although my nephews have changed their eating habits and no longer eat McDonalds, since they watched “Super Size Me”, or so they say, the hamburger giant’s worldwide sales and survival are not imminently threatened.
Despite a growth that is largely dependent on non-US sales their brand reputation is hurting. Shockingly, or perhaps not so, McDonald’s customer satisfaction rating ranks lower than all major airlines and the IRS.
Perhaps it’s time for McDonalds to buy some social media intervention and hire a social media “talking head” to convince them that the use of Twitter, a Facebook fan page and a page on FriedEggs.com, and other ala carte social media tricks, will change the opinion of consumer’s concerned about calories, fat and heart attacks.
Starbucks, a company that I frequent far too often, appears to be growing quite rapidly, once again, with approximately 16,000+ global stores, today. Did you know that a single cup of coffee impacts the lives of people in as many as 19 different countries? With this type of impact it is fair to hallucinate that Starbucks too has its own set of brand management issues to ponder. If you guessed they do have brand challenges, you’d be right. In fact, Starbucks is said to have moved out of China because of a lone blogger.
This blogger controversy has not been their only challenge. Controversy abounds around the Starbuck’s business. The coffee giant has been under frequent attack by protesters on issues such as fair-trade policies, labor relations, environmental impact, political views, and perceived anti-competitive practices.
Aside from hiring lawyers and lobbyists, Starbuck’s marketing attempts, to relieve consumer concerns, have been, among other things, to include pictures of “happy” coffee plantation workers on the walls of their stores. Sleeves on cups have banners that include the language “this sleeve is made from 60% post-consumer fiber.” Do you know what that means?
Does that mean that I only have a 60% ownership interest in the Starbuck’s paper cup sitting in front of me, sleeve intact? The sleeve ignores this concern and continues with, ”learn more about other ways you’re helping make a difference at starbucks.com/sharedplanet.”
I have never been to that page of the Starbuck’s site, so am confused about how I can be making a difference there. Furthermore, I did not know that Starbuck’s knows that much about the difference I make or whether it is even a negative or a positive one. I was concerned about how much Google knows about me. Does this mean I now have to be concerned about what Starbucks knows about my habits too?
Perhaps Starbucks simply means how much of a financial impact I am making to my bank account when I continue to purchase daily Americanos from them? Well, either way, I am confused by their messaging. Just in case it isn’t just me though, maybe they too should hire some social media intervention. What do you think? This way they can be certain to attract more Twitter followers and Facebook fans and brand nirvana is certain to follow.
Though, to be serious for a moment, Starbucks and McDonalds are catering to our needs. You are welcome to disagree though the proof of this is in our purchases. If we assume for a second that it is our needs that they are meeting then might it not be somewhat important for us to question what needs of ours they are meeting?
I ask this since I have learned that most of our major failures are caused by paying too little attention to the things that are really important in our lives. Things, such as eating too many hamburgers, drinking too much coffee everyday and ignoring the health implications of cancer, heart attacks and stroke.
When I add this to the fact that our stresses are typically caused by paying too much attention to things that aren’t that important, such as how someone looked at us this morning or how our hair looks, I start to ponder what this all means. Did that person who gave me a dirty look this morning even know what look was on her face? Did she even realize that I don’t have hair to worry about? Maybe she was worried about her own hair or the look that I had on my face?
Come to think of it, perhaps I shouldn’t be writing a post about McDonalds and Starbucks or getting off on a tangent about stress and failure and instead go hire a social media interventionist to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.
Source: TonyB
