Advertising Case Study
Community Coffee Company
Facebook Executive Summary Client:
Company Background Community Coffee Company is the largest familyowned retail coffee brand in the United States, with 30 coffeehouse locations in Louisiana. The Baton Rouge-based company has three other sales
Objective:
channels, including grocery sales, office sales and
To raise awareness of its brand and
its CommunityCoffee.com e-commerce division.
to deepen relationships with new and
Founded in 1919, Community Coffee Company is
existing customers
steeped in tradition as rich as its product, the company likes to say. It started 91 years ago as a
Solution:
small country store in Baton Rouge, where founder
Facebook Ads targeting people in the
Henry Norman “Cap” Saurage brewed his popular
United States over 25 who like coffee
coffee. Keeping up with the times, Community Coffee in 2008 created a Facebook Page, the free public profile that enables companies to share their business and products with customers on an ongoing basis.
Key Lessons: • A Facebook Page can become a top traffic drive to an e-commerce site when content is engaging and the Page is used to update customers on promotions and
Objective
special offers
The goal of Community Coffee Company’s
• Companies can leverage their
campaign that began in March 2010 was to
connections on Facebook as a
encourage more people to connect to its Facebook
research tool to gauge customers
Page, an action that enables customers to
on interests in products and
easily find out about the company’s products,
special offers
promotions and news. “Our goal was very simply
“It’s a relationship builder and more than just a sales builder, for which we use it as well. It’s incredibly user-friendly and it has helped us tremendously in a very cost-efficient and effective manner.” Blair Broussard Social Media Manager, Community Coffee Company
Advertising Case Study
to increase our following,” says Blair Broussard, the company’s social media manager. “We are always trying to get the word out on how great our coffee is and Facebook is a great way because of the sharing. And I think that the ad just helped to accelerate that sharing.”
Approach The company created an ad that featured its distinctive red logo. Its call to action consisted of encouraging people to connect to its Page to learn about “special promotions, fun facts and your chance to win coffee, trips and other
Results •
exciting gifts.” Blair took advantage of the
The ad has generated more than 12.3 million impressions
targeting available on Facebook to direct the ad to people who were most likely to become
•
connected to Community Coffee’s Facebook
potential customers. She targeted people who
Page had risen more than 400 percent to more
weren’t already connected to Community Coffee’s
than 68,000 people from 15,000 six months
Page and who were over 25. “I started out
earlier when the campaign started.
filtering for 18 years and older, but I realized that I would get more click-throughs when I changed
By August 2010, the number of people
•
The number of people connected to its Page
it to 25 and older,” she says. “For some reason,
has grown by about 2,000 per week. “These
that did the trick.”
people become our sales people in the sense that they know what the brand represents
Blair could have restricted targeting of the ads
and they know what we do in the their
to major cities where the company has a big
local communities,” says Scott Raposo, the
following, but she decided to make it visible to
company’s e-commerce sales division manager.
Facebook users throughout the United States
“They help us get the message across without
to maximize reach. She also specified that she
us having to constantly say it.”
wanted the ad to reach people who had listed “coffee” in the “Likes and Interests” section of their Facebook profiles. While Facebook’s targeting allows companies to reach their most
•
The company’s Facebook Page has become a key traffic driver to CommunityCoffee.com’s e-commerce site. “It’s become one of our top five new revenue generators,” adds Scott. He
likely customers based on information listed in
says that “it’s been so successful for us that
users’ profiles, it does not reveal the personal
we’ve actually created a new role,” referring to
data of the people who fit into the targeting
Blair’s position as the social media manager.
categories. Blair’s daily spend on the ad? $50.
Advertising Case Study
•
Community Coffee is using the Facebook
The Future
platform as a research tool, leveraging its
•
now more than 68,000 connections to find
Blair says Community Coffee Company plans to
out how to best serve its customers. “I’ll
increase its budget on Facebook and continue
poll Facebook users to see if they want
to use the platform to publicize its sweepstakes
to see a percentage off their shipping, for
and promotions. The company is also looking to
example,” says Blair. “Once the answers are
use Facebook to deepen its relationships with
in, I’ll turn around and do the promotion. It
its customers. “It’s a relationship builder and
does increase our sales, especially when we
more than just a sales builder, for which we
listen to our customers and give them what
use it as well,” Blair says. “It’s incredibly user-
they want.”
friendly and it has helped us tremendously in a
After putting a previously in-store only sweepstakes offer (for a free trip to New Orleans) on Facebook, the company has seen the number of people entering the contest nearly double. “That is one of the success stories,” says Blair.
very cost-efficient and effective manner.”