Week 2 Reading Response: The Power of The Groundswell

October 20th, 2013, Starbucks China involved in a media storm in China for its higher prices compared to other markets in the world. CCTV (China Central Television), the most powerful China's state mass media, was the one who set off storm inside network. 

BBC News - Starbucks' China pricing: Storm in a coffee cup

Price Comparison

The original idea that CCTV trigger storm was to win people's support by accusing Starbucks China of unfair price strategy that overcharging local customers for coffee. Unexpectedly, the storm went opposite of what CCTV wanted. People got angry about CCTV, which acted as the speaker of China's government, that the governors did not care about the incredible high prices of houses, medical care, and other costs that related to people's daily life, but paid attention to the price of A CUP OF COFFEE!

Two days after the news aired, millions of Chinese people connected each other, voluntarily blogged, posted on Weibo ("Chinese Twitter") and other social media, to fight back CCTV's report and to support Starbucks. Without making too much effort, Starbucks China won in this storm. According to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, the authors of Groundswell, winning in a world transformed by social technologies, this storm could be seen as a "mini groundswell," which is: 

"A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations."

The world has changed a lot since social media appeared. The groundswell is a movement that "can't be tamed." CCTV wasn't aware of what was happening in this movement, that the power controller has been shifted from traditional media to people that always connected. The reason that CCTV trapped itself in the storm was that CCTV failed to clearly understand its relationship with people. However, relationship is "the principle for mastering the groundswell." As Li and Bernoff says, 

"In the groundswell, relationships are everything. The way people connect with each other -- the community that is created -- determines how the power shifts." 

However, CCTV didn't take "relationships" seriously. Although tens of thousands of people left comments on its official Weibo, CCTV gave NO FEEDBACK AT ALL. In this storm, CCTV disconnected itself from its audiences, ignored people's opinions, and refused to talk to the groundswell. Hence, the failure in the storm was not surprisingly. 

Li and Bernoff strongly believes the importance of listening and talking to the groundswell. The authors mention the powerful force of word of mouth in Chapter Five, saying that "your brand is what your customers say it is." Let's take a look at the storm I discuss above, why do Chinese people help Starbucks China, a foreign brand, fought against CCTV? The answer is: the reputation of Starbucks China is good among its customers. 

Starbucks China has strong social media marketing strategy in China: it creates its own community, it has its official site, it puts touching ads online, and what's more, it communicate with people via social media. The photo below is the official Weibo of Starbucks China. Being the most powerful social media in China, Weibo offers an important platform for people to communicate. Starbucks China does well in Weibo. It has almost a million followers, and it "listens and talks to" people here. 

Starbucks China's Official Weibo

In a conversation, there must be one side that is talking, and the other side that is listening; both of them are equally important to an organization. Starbucks China makes good use of Li and Bernoff's theory and it successfully engages with the groundswell. If CCTV understands the power of groundswell and respects groundswell's principles, I think it will not lose in the storm in the future.