Over the last 3 to 4 I have been very interested in watching how Starbucks have been integrating the digital consumer into their business, through the use of social and digital channels and how this has evolved over the this time.

Around 2008, Starbucks started to experiement with online social channels as a way to listen to, engage with and feedback to their customers and in so doing, have developed a high level of online trust, which has enabled them to build and grow their model in partnership and with the permission of their customers. I first started to become interested in Starbucks in 2009 and have been watching their strategy evolve and have researched and run workshops on these observations:

2012 Update on the value of the Social Customer to Starbucks: