Week 2

TOPIC 1:

1) The brand that I selected was Dutch Brothers Coffee.
2) The value proposition of Dutch Brothers Coffee is quality service, optimism, adventure, consistently good coffee, and a free spirited lifestyle.
3)

• "Just so I guys know Dutch Bros is going to start selling cold brew next month and it's a wonderful time to be alive"-@katelynrockk
• I found this post very interesting because as I sifted through the mass amount of tweets posted in the last few days, I hadnt seen any of the Dutch Bros locations or HQ make a post regarding them acquiring cold brew coffee. After I contacted the local Dutch Brothers in Corvallis, I learned that not only were all locations going to be selling the Cold Brew but, some locations had already started.
• "anyone who knows me knows Dutch Bros is my hOme. Help your rEy of sunsHine out yO"-@Reyyyyy
• This girl (as well as MANY more) had considered Dutch Brothers to be a second home to them because of the amount of times they go weekly or even daily. This shows me that the customers they do have are hooked and loyal.
• "Tomorrow you can get 4 16oz drinks for $10 at Dutch bros pass it on"-@MarieJordannn
• Once again I haven't heard of this deal anywhere else except through twitter, so once again I fact checked it with my local Dutch Brothers and they are in fact doing a 4 drink for $10 deal. It truly amazes me how much Dutch Brothers relies on word of mouth and social media to carry out their marketing.

4) The marketing implications for Dutch Brothers Coffee is that they mainly rely on word of mouth and social media to carry out their marketing. Each Dutch Bros has their own social media account which I find interesting and brilliant. I believe that by putting the accounts in the hands of local employees helps them reach people in their community much more effectively because of local experience. The HQ does not respond to many tweets (maybe 1-2 a day) and when they do, it is usually 1 or 2 words. I think they listen to their customers well through social media while still being realistic about what they can do (not telling every person that asked them to open one in their area that they will).

5) If I were the brand manager, I would respond very similarly as they do now. I might keep a little less of a low profile than they do as far as talking about ongoing deals and events only because it seems to me like they solely rely on their locals to do the talking for them. That would be the only major change though. On Twitter I would say 1 out of every 4 tweets are asking them to open a location near them. Although this is a good thing that people want more Dutch, I think responding to tweets like these would be a mistake and assume the reason they don't is because they don't want to open that door.

TOPIC 2:

1) One of the older names in candy, Kit Kat, has been really hoping the marketing train the last couple years. A year ago they helped push a tweet about a car that was broken into and robbed of everything including the Kit Kat bar in his cup holder by sending the victim enough to fill his whole car up and tweeted at him saying that the joke is on the thief cause now he has all the candy bars. Now, this year they are riding the wave of popstar Chance the Rapper after his winning a couple grammies to help push Kit Kat to the younger generation. They claimed that when they looked at the demographic of who was eating their candy bar they were surprised to find that the younger generation was the ones buying their candy so they teamed up with possibly one of the most popular people among that generation currently and went viral.

2) The marketing struggle for Kit Kat was to identify their generation. Being an 81 year old company comes with its own stigma. That stigma being that they are an old candy that has never changed and only old people eat it? Not entirely sure on that but, the hard part for kit kat hasn't been trying to reach out to people or market their product, It has been identifying who they need to market it to. If they don't market it to the younger generation, everyone will be eating Sour Patch 20 years from now and so will their kids that have been taught the same thing.

3) The value proposition of Kit Kat is that they are perfect with anything you do, fresh, sporadic,consistent and willing to tweek their original wafer bar to any culture or lifestyle. (green tea KitKat in Japan etc..)

4) I have learned that no matter if a company is new or old, it is all about perception. Marketing to the younger generation is vital for future customers and future future customers. You still need to market to the older generation despite if they are your biggest target group or not because that is the current sales. I also learned that KitKat has a cookie dough version of their original wafer bar.