Social Listening: Dutch bros

 

The company I chose is Dutch Bros. As a coffee lover I have always liked Dutch Bros and I think their marketing is really fun so I thought it would be a good company to look at. I grew up with Dutch Bros around and I feel like in the last 10 years they have really taken off with opening more and more coffee carts and expanding into new places. I know so many people who love dutch bros and swear by it being the best. 

Dutch bros Value proposition is building relationships. They are known for having insanely friendly employees, some even feel too friendly.There are many jokes floating around social media about them asking for your life story while practically sticking their whole body through the car window while you order. All jokes aside though you can't deny their customer service is part of the company culture. Their website says "We may sell coffee, but we're in the relationship business. Whether we're slinging up drinks or serving up smiles, Dutch Bros is all about you."

So what are people saying about this company? Lots actually. They have a very active social media and Their posts on instagram have a ton of comments to sift through. There seems to be a lot referring back to special drinks they had in the past and commenting about wanting more sugar free options, but what really surprised me was the massive amount of comments about just talking about their love for this company. I found a recent post on Dutch Bro's instagram with employees on a video asking "who wants to go to Dutch Bros?" @brianalux commented " I practically live at my local Dutch" and @Caitosaur commented " I'm pretty sure I'm putting my local bros through college at this point but they're worth every iced coffee." The people have spoken and they love Dutch Bros coffee.

s, Dutch Bros is all about you! 

Another thing Dutch Bros seems to be doing really well is their fundraising efforts. Recently one of their instagram posts was promoting a day they were going to be raising awareness and funds to help end ALS through a fundraiser called Drink One for Dave. Incase you weren't aware, ALS is a nervous system disease that weakens muscle and impairs your physical function. On this post they were promoting that each drink would put a donation towards the cause and they would also be selling a sticker to show support and also help with donations. Ill go into it more when I talk about their marketing strategies but many people collect Dutch Bros stickers so this is a great way to support a cause. The comments on the post were super supportive with several people saying they had stickers from last year and relating their own life experiences with the disease. @timvandals commented " I will be grabbing mine not only for Dane, but for my own daughter who has a form of muscular dystrophy." another user @eliza3thperez commented "coming tomorrow in honor of my best friend who passed from ALS" @Dutchbros replied "So sorry for your loss! Our hearts go out to you!"

The remarkable thing that Dutch Bros is trying to do is sell a brand focused on caring about their customers. They have done an amazing job of this and its the focus of everything they do. So many people I know are excited every year on their birthdays because Dutch Bros gives you a free birthday drink. They make their customers know they care about their individual day and help them celebrate. They do a ton of fundraising to engage with customers. They sell a lot of merchandise including shirts, sweatshirts, car stickers, water bottles, coffee mugs and stickers. The stickers practically have a cult following with many people collecting them. Their Social media reflects this though I believe they could be engaging more through social media. Most of their posts focus around new coffee flavor launches and promotional items when they are forgetting about maybe their biggest asset, their employees. Dutch Bros employees are known for creating a fun environment. They are always blasting music, dancing and engaging with customers as much as possible. While sifting through their social media I was surprised I didn't see more engaging content with their employees. Their employees are mostly young people who live on social media anyway and I think they could engage a bigger audience by posting fun videos from their coffee stands.While they might not engage in that way it does seem like they have a pretty active social media manager who is constantly replying to questions about new drinks and when/ where things are available.  I even saw some engaging messages like what I said above replying to people who had expressed hardship. 

Honestly I could probably say a lot about this company as there are so many fun aspects to look at from a marketing stand point. I think overall the main take away from this is that they are doing a great job at marketing and keeping with creating a brand centered around having fun and caring about their consumers. I think Dutch Bros is a great company to look at while learning about marketing because their marketing is really fun and young feeling and they have a huge following for it. I know they recently created and app to track more of their customer related information. I think that launched within the last 5 years. They have even created digital stickers for those who love to collect them that can be collected inside their app which I think is a great and fun new way to keep interest for the sticker collectors. I think Dutch Bros has a very bright future ahead of itself and its showing in how many new coffee stands have opened up across the U.S. as they are no longer just an Oregon company.