Blogging from a PR standpoint is today’s way of allowing either an employee or a fan of a brand to share opinion and thought on a more intimate and personal level.
The Pinkberry brand publishes an internal blog on its website that focuses on what’s happening with the brand. (Though they do cite that postings are from a third party website at the bottom of each post). Posts are about sightings of celebrities enjoying a cup of Pinkberry frozen yogurt, or contest winners within brand promotions. They post sporadically (most recent being March 2011, then the next Nov 2011), with no clear voice other then a news point of view. They also ask for submissions on blog posts ideas, or links to your own blog if it refers to Pinkberry. This shows their willingness to connect with brand followers. If they were to add information about corporate and store level employees, the blog would also be good for internal publication amongst the company. I think that while the blog has worthy information, it doesn’t allow for a personal voice, which typical bloggers epitomize. They would do better connecting with their public if they focused on a blog written by a fan, or what they deem a groupie, who shared their love for the product throughout posts that introduced brand occurrences.
Pinkberry doesn’t have one celebrity spokesperson; they don’t really have a need for one. The blog and social media posts show pictures of celebs enjoying Pinkberry, as well as posts about when Pinkberry is mentioned in the media – like when the popular HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm devoted a whole episode around Pinkberry being the treat a character would give as a last meal to a beloved four legged friend. Below is a clip from the episode, take a look, Larry David is always good for a laugh:
If Pinkberry were to have a celebrity spokesperson, I think they’d do well to employ an Olympic athlete, perhaps Apolo Anton Ohno, or Michael Phelps. This would help them reach outside of the typical wide net demographic by focusing on the active sporty audience sector – people who typically aren’t associated with indulgent treats, but who indulge in Pinkberry because its on the healthier side of desserts.
In the chapter we read from Personality not included, Bhargava introduces the five types of deliberate spokespeople. He then goes on to spend quite a few pages informing the reader about the wild card to the five- the accidental spokesperson. He says, “Your ultimate goal should be never to have any accidental spokespeople, because as soon as you identify them, you need to be thinking about ways to embrace them.” (p.69) This directly links to Pinkberrys’ personification of their fans, who are outspoken about their loyalty to the brand.
When Pinkberry realized in 2006 that people were taking to social media streams to publicly speak of their love for the frozen yogurt treat, they knew they wanted to capitalize on this, while still embracing the fans. So they devoted a section of their website to these loyal fans, giving them a place within the brand to identify themselves and connect with others that have the same passion for the brand. This section is aptly coined, the Groupies page. If you’re a loyal follower of the brand, you can sign up to be a groupie. As such, you can publish a blurb about yourself on Pinkberrys website, complete with a picture of yourself. Signing up as a groupie entitles you to the latest information about upcoming flavors, invites to the launch of new locations, and special promotion news all delivered to your email. By enfolding fans under this groupie title, they accomplish two goals – building a strong emotional connection with customers while connecting them together socially with the commonality of a shared passion for the frozen yogurt.
It looks to me that Pinkberry wants to make sure they are tapping all the newer type media outlets, but have chosen to focus less on a written blog, and more on social media posts. They have such strong followings on Facebook and Twitter, that I don't think the blog is really needed. But it seems the Pinkberry approach is its better to at least have a blog, even if its not always kept current, in order to make sure your brand is referenced in all the relevant new media outlets.
A good job of describing what Pinkberry is doing with blogging and social media. The problem is that most of this is about what would be called marketing, i.e., blogging with fans and "groupies."
ReplyDeleteYour suggestions for a celebrity spokesperson are good, though I think Michael Phelps had some sort of bad press after the last Olympics.
Overall, though, pretty good.
I love Curb Your Enthusiasm! I didn't know about the episode I'll have to go watch it now :)
ReplyDeleteBut other than that, good idea about the spokes person, it could open up an entire new demographic to the chain.
I have to agree that Pinkberry doesn't need much blogging to stay connected to their fan base. But I wonder what each employee thinks about working there? Would be kinda neat to hear stories about working with customers and stuff like that.
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