Krispy Kreme – A Social Media Treat

In recent weeks I have become a bit obsessed with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. This is partly because they are only available in selected locations none of which are anywhere near me which makes getting them a treat and an adventure in itself. Mostly though, I like them because they are incredibly tasty. I would like to point out I am not sponsored by Krispy Kreme or being bribed by them to write an article, this is a review of their social media, but I just wanted to give some background about how and why I first encountered them. However if Krispy Kreme happen to read this article and want to send me some then I will not complain.

Who are Krispy Kreme?

For those of you have not heard of them this is something you need to know, not just for the purpose of the article but so you can sample one of their products. “Who are Krispy Kreme”  was a question I first asked myself when I encountered a Krispy Kreme stand in Paddington station after attending a conference in London a year and a half ago. I had not heard of them before but I was curious so I ventured over to the counter. The doughnuts are not particularly cheap, for quite a small snack that you don’t sit down and have it served to you, so I was justifying to myself why I should buy one. My quick summary was they smelt great and compared to other outlets in the station, pricing was about the same so I bought one and sat down and ate it. Never again have I questioned the price, and now buy a dozen at a time whenever I see a stall.

After getting on the train I did some investigating into the company. They are American and founded in 1937 but they have only been in the UK for 5 or so years in which time the company has rapidly expanded but still remains only a large presence in London. New outlets, kiosks and stores are opening rapidly and they will undoubtedly be a large presence in the whole UK market over the coming years.

Their current success is based on their business model based on franchising but its more than that, they have stuck to core values that have kept them through a UK focus on healthy eating which is seeing fast food restaurants take a hit. The principle is that Krispy Kreme doughnuts are a snack, not a meal, and they never claim otherwise. A quote used in the peach report by Krispy Kreme MD Don Henshall about their strategy confirms this:

“We had a treat, not a meal. No-one comes into Krispy Kreme for a meal, they come in to treat themselves. We had to stick to our message – it’s easy to forget that.”

Krispy Kreme’s Facebook Efforts!

So why have I written this post you may be asking, as most of you will not care about my particular choice of doughnut brand. Well, recently I encountered an aspect of their social media work and I was suitably impressed. This article is going to focus on their work on Facebook only.  What is most impressive about their Facebook work is both the quality time and effort put in to interaction with users although there is more to it than this.

Store Locations

Whilst the current amount of fans is quite low at around 2,150 people, this has risen quickly and is likely to continue to do this with the current promotions they have running. The page is the main hub for news and updates as the website currently does not deal with this. The website is fun but maintains essentially company information and more corporate features and there is no blog or news section. This does mean fans of the products are almost encouraged to visit the Facebook page just to get information they might have expected on the website.

This only plays into the strategy Krispy Kreme employ though and one of the most constantly talked about topics on the page is the location of new stores. This is something that the staff bring up but mostly requests for new store locations are from the customers, in fact to the point that whatever conversation is started, it normally ends up back to store locations. This is what people want to hear about and the staff only encourage this for example with comments based around the following:

“Patricia we are looking to open many new stores over the next four years, so let’s hope we get close to you soon! We will reveal more info here on FB as and when we can!”

This is great for the following reasons:

1) It gives people a reason to keep visiting the page as they are excited about when a new store might open near to them.

2) It provides useful conversation to fill the space in between campaigns and promotions, ensuring the page appears popular and always conversations going on.

3) Most importantly it keeps the user engaged with the brand, making people feel they are helping the company grow and influencing new store openings with their requests.

Ok so you can argue that as new stores begin to open will the popularity die out. Well the answer is no, I don’t think so. For a start this is a long time away unless they change the business model and stores start appearing left right and centre, which won’t happen. More importantly as people request stores and they start to appear they are likely to feel ever more engaged with the brand and almost have a vested interest in promoting the store to ensure it stays open so they can get their doughnuts.

In fact this activity is likely to help build the fan base ready to start a new phase of social media work where promotions will be then thrown at the customers as well as using the channel to manage the brand profile and handle customer complaints that may start to arise with the expansion of the business.

Whilst this situation could arguably as much determined by the current position of Krispy Kremes business and the fact their product is highly desirable, they have ensured it works well. Over the week I have been monitoring the Facebook page I have not seen many comments go unanswered by the page administrators. It is always done in a friendly and positive way as well which is reflected by a lot of users even leaving thank you messages under the answer.

Free Dozen!

Store location is not by any means the only part of the Facebook page that is popular. There are the usual photos, videos and page information. This is a good start but it something that they really need to build on. Having lots of store photos, and photos of doughnuts will help but engaging people to get theirs on too would help. The discussions tab is also a good idea although is currently not been used so they need to get on this as well, providing some topics for discussion like what is peoples favourite as well as how they eat particularly sticky doughnuts etc. The tab that is really working for them is the free dozen page.

This was run through June and was a great way to turn customer store visits into Facebook followers, and in fact it was how they got me following them. Each customer that bought some doughnuts from one of the stores in June was given a coupon which a unique code on it where it claimed you could win a free dozen of doughnuts simply by going online and entering a code. The URL given was not a Facebook page and instead redirected back which was cool as it shows how much they value Facebook as part of their online experience. Why build the competition on the site, when Facebook is there and can be utilised just as easily.

Rather than simply entering the code and being entered to win a prize, you are asked a question which you must answer correctly to win, the main catch being it was more of a bet on an outcome than a question. This means you had a good chance of winning and had a vested interest in the page, but the contest would not cost the company lots in prize money. The real aim was to get you to become a fan and help build their fan list. It worked for me.