notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

Starbucks and its idea pond

Starbucks has gone the Dell route - and is now soliciting ideas from the latte-drinking crowd.

Says Ben McConnell:

If Starbucks really follows through with its promise, this suggestion box-on-steroids idea is meritocracy via social network. The congregation is smarter than the preacher, so this could develop into a valuable, and tangible, asset for Starbucks

Cool. I was initially doubtful - Starbucks being stretched all over the place just like McDonalds and having as much uniqueness to it, how many enthusiasts it still has? - but the authenticity of posted ideas have converted me. Let’s wait for some action to follow, some ideas to materialize, before making any further judgements.

Question to ponder: is it time for McDonald’s to launch its own BurgerStorm?

PS And it runs on Force.com, which is a major win for Salesforce and its platform-as-a-service world domination plans: a global brand gone SaaS-y.

PS2 via Adriana -  Jeff Jarvis comments on some of the ideas in the pond and poses a provocative question: “Why does listening to your customers sound like a web 2.0 idea? It should be a business 1.0 necessity.”

Maybe. But it would be fair to say it takes a giant leap of faith to move from the producer-knows-best mentality to that of “come on board and tell us what we can do better”. And yes, everybody should be doing that by now. In an ideal world.

March 20, 2008 | Filed Under CRM 

comments

Comments are closed.

Additional comments powered by BackType