Understand Sentiment Before Asking for Opinions

A few months ago I wrote about the perils of crowd-sourcing and using open ended platforms to engage consumers.

Starbucks UK did not read the post.

They recently launched a campaign using the hashtag #spreadthecheer to promote itself over the holiday season.  What the marketing department may have forgotten is that the Brits are very upset with the company after it was recently revealed that they lied to investors and dodged paying corporate taxes.

The Twitterverse reacted accordingly and used the opportunity to bash the company and promote other coffee shops .  They also broadcast the tweets real-time to a giant screen at a museum.  This was probably not the type of engagement the company had in mind.

They (and you if you are a brand thinking about doing something like this) should keep on top of sentiment and understand what the pulse is.  Conducting active social listening is a must have for any brand to understand the feelings of consumers in the marketplace.

There are a variety of tools and measurement techniques that must be used whether you're going to be engaging consumers online or not.

Admittedly this could be a symptom of internal controls at Starbucks (Marketing vs Analytics), but it still doesn't make it ok.