Powerful Offline Social Media Case Study!

Okay Chad, this isn't directed at you personally, but more at the Social Media Examiner.

Here's the bigger irony to the entire kit and kaboodle.

The Social Media Examiner calls online couponing a "success story" for social media and Stone Cold Creamery. That's because like typical social media folks, they evaluate everything in a vacuum against their own self-aggrandizing hype.

Cold Stone Creamery is well known for being a massive flop failure with a defective business model. It's cited in one business circle after another as a case study in buying into your own BS hype as one franchise after another succumbs to a flawed marketing and economic model.

Specifically, couponing has been cited a number of times as contributing to the flawed model.

In fact, most of the Cold Stone Creamery shops have boarded up around here.

So, in perfect social media (and usually the same in internet marketing) fashion, "success" is defined in this narrow vacuum, with no regard for the bigger picture. Social media "gurus" are failing to make the business case when it comes to the financial model. It's simply not working out like everyone has dreamed that it would. But rather than fess up to their foibles and realize that social media (and internet marketing in general) isn't the next big wave of business (much as ecommerce didn't bury every retail shop as predicted in 1996) - thse social media hypesters just narrow the discussion frame to try and support the weakening justification for a company to make the massive investment.

It's simply not a mandatory requirement. Social media isn't necessarily winning the ROI discussion in the accounting system.

Cold Stone franchisees feel chill - MSN Money

Internet marketing and social media marketing aren't exempt from business fundamentals.

Just like I keep saying over and over... all the offline marketing/internet marketing/social media/SEO in the world isn't going to do squat for a company whose business model is flawed to begin with.

Marketing success doesn't stop with getting people into the door. It extends all the way to the strategic level with getting profitable sales via a sustainable business model.

It's pretty easy to do $1,000,000 in sales if you're spending $1,500,000 to get it. People love it when you give money away.

Now don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of couponing. My business partner sends no less than a billion blue envelopes full of coupons every year.

But like any other marketing strategy, it has to be factored into the rest of the entire business model, financial model, customer profile, franchise model, etc...

Successful marketing doesn't happen in a nearsighted vacuum.

Michael, I appreciate the comments, but it seems to be more of an attack on Cold Stone and their model than anything. I have heard similar stories in the past about their franchise trouble, but I don't think that should take away from the fact of the Social Media stats relults that have been proven.

I understand they have had trouble with their pricing and coupons before, but that should even more so prove that the Social Media route with Facebook is an improvement when the cost was cut down from $3.60 to 39 cents per redeemed coupon. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if it costs $3.60 for a redeemed coupon that gives a 2 for $5 offer with high product cost it doesn't make sense.

You may not believe the ROI on Social Media, but you can't argue it's a cost effective way to get your brand and offers out there. It has been proven that Facebook fans spend more than an average customer and are a lot more loyal.

Even if the company in the case study isn't perfect in any shape or form, the results of the study should stand on their own for the most part.

Yes, giving money away via social media is a viable marketing strategy.

We certainly agree on the effectiveness of social media in getting a message out to people.

But if the message is flawed at the core, it doesn't help, and actually hurts.

That's my point. That's the point of my criticism of a lot of the "offline" marketing that goes on in these parts as well.

If your job is to help your clients, how can you sell them services that might actually be a waste of money? More traffic to a garbage website doesn't help them. Help them fix their site first.

That's why I am critical of the Social Media Examiner, and the very superficial "marketing experts" that promote social media as the saving grace tactic.

As a social media expert, if your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.

That's the real point. Make sure that if you're pushing a marketing solution to a business client, that it's really a solution.

Michael, I agree that Social Media isn't going to be the miracle answer for a lot of businesses. It will only be a good option if you have a plan in place to help monetize and bring a good ROI. It just seems you are anti Social Media in general, but it can be very effective if used right and for the right business.

Yes, it should be the goal of the Offline Consultant to only offer services that will benefit the client and help their bottom line, but if it's the right business, Social Media can be a very good option if set up the right way.

I think their new strategy needs to be how to beat Dairy Queen's Ice Cream Cakes. lol

Yeah Coldstone is very good and popular out here in CA, but I still miss my Dairy Queens from the midwest. sigh...

I 100% agree with you Michael, but I don't think most of us on here are getting paid the type of money that adequately compensates us for developing a complete offline/online marketing strategy. I'd say most of us here are service providers with a primary focus on online marketing strategies. I've tied in some offline stuff (contacting past customers, enticing them to come back "on" via direct mail,phonecalls), offline community contests promoted via facebook/twitter etc.

The problem I run into is that there are usually WAY too many "meetings" that go unnannounced (since we are not truly "inhouse" etc), and the communication and responsibility barriers between employees becomes a disaster, in my very limited experiences tying in more of the "overall strategy". If I felt that I was being compensated fairly for the actual time spent on this stuff, I would jump all over it in a heartbeat.

On a related social media note, I have found that women seem to respond better to the social media stuff in my experiences as well.

- Jim

JSherloc They have Dairy Queens in Arizona... It's not too far to drive for some sweet goodness....

Just a thought.


Interesting point about the Gender Specific response rate to Social Media. I wonder if there has ever been a study on that specific demographic?

The problem at the end of the day is that you can't polish a turd - if a company stinks, no amount of "social media" will be able to save them.

Anyone can offer discounts, but if they don't actually add anything to the bottom line then the whole thing is a waste of time and effort.

I have to say so as well, as an observation that women do the coupon/sharing more then men.

I do have to say thanks for sharing the stats and while Cold Stone business model is up for discussion. The fact is whether it was cold stone or Mcdonald's the case study can just stand on its own feet with its results.

Another Example of restaurants with a great case of social media is
Case Study: How To Use Foursquare To Draw A Crowd Into Your Restaurant | Steffan Antonas
and then again
I’m On A Boat! – How To Use Foursquare To Get 231 People to Check In To Your Restaurant In 1 Day | Steffan Antonas

Read up on those 2 articles and those should be included in everyone's arsenal for why social media is important for brick and mortar business. - I do have to say though that it would not apply for all businesses.

Im actually in the middle of a social media campaign for a client on Facebook now. He owns a salon and hes giving away over $2K worth of services for the winner and a friend. All the person has to do is "LIKE" the page and it takes them to the contest details.

I created a unique FB page name so people text the name to 32665 to "LIKE" the page via sms. I told the business owner to make sure all the employees let their clients know to sign up and hit the share button once they did. Like a page and fill out your name and email? Sounds like it would be a piece of cake to get people to do this right?

Wrong. It has been like pulling teeth to get the business owner to do his part. So literally after 3 weeks of running the campaign there have been 40 sign ups. Thats really sad, since they are one of the biggest salons in town. Ive done my part but if the owner and the employees dont cooperate theres not much I can do. Also, this was something I was doing for referrals so I only made a very trivial amount of money. If I was getting paid what I would normally charge ($800 or more) I would have made custom signs for the salon and flyers to hand out to every customer. Since I cant afford to come out of my own pocket it didnt happen. He tells me he has a sign up and they are handing out flyers but the receptionist is very lazy so I doubt they are. Plus the sign ups speak for themselves. Social media is a great tool, if you have a cooperative smb and employees.

I agree. Don't kill the messenger, because of the message. The online use of Facebook is spot on. If their off-line business model is not quite up to par that is their problem. We are about marketing.

Here's the problem with thinking in silos.

A business is a holistic organism. You don't think of a human being in terms of segregated body systems. You see a whole person. A business is the same.

If a marketing promotion is successful in dumping a flood of coupons into the market that ultimately contribute to the financial failure of a company, we can't just sit back and say, "well that's their problem".

Guess what that leads to eventually?

One less client and a very negative failure story.

That's why marketing cannot be viewed in a vacuum as some ornament to hang on the tree. It's the trunk of the tree through which the lifegiving sap of cash flows.

If we're going to hold ourselves out to be in the advice giving business, then shouldn't we at least be sure that the advice we're giving is actually good?

Again, I am not decrying "social media", hell I use it every day and manage a whole lot of campaigns for others that use it as well.

I'm suggesting that we have a responsibility to our clients to genuinely help them. And if you're taking their money while knowingly not helping their business, you're immoral.

I get what Michael is saying to a certain extent.

If i know for a fact that something is going to be harmful to a client, I'm going to advise against it to be sure.

BUT, that said, if my thing is building websites and SEO and social media, am I really responsible for the company's phone answering training and print/radio/tv ad copy? Is it my responsibility to take their pricing apart and make sure they are using the right lightbulbs?

I mean at some point they have to run their business and hire the right people to do the right jobs, just as I have to do with my business.

If I know something is going on that would mean that a given campaign is going to cost money with no return, it would be evil for me to push it and irresponsible of me not to warn them of the probabilities I foresee, but how much responsibility do I bear to make sure their business is solid in the first place?

At some point I'm no longer their web consultant, I'm their nanny, which isn't a business I'm interested in.

Michael, I am not sure what you are against anymore. You keep saying you aren't anti social media, yet you keep going on and on about being anti BS and anti slingers of BS.

You are attacking anyone who would offer services that are not going to bring a good ROI to their client, which is fine. I don't think most people on here are suggesting that should be done. A service like a social media campaign should only be done if it's the right thing for that business, if it's not then don't offer it.

I don't know who you are attacking, but I haven't seen anyone in this thread say anything that lines up with the methods you are attacking. You will kind of agree at some points about social media being an ok thing, then just come right back with being "anti BS" and you need to be aware. Be aware of what? I think it has been estabished that Cold Stone has a bad business model, but that doesn't have anything to do with social media in general. The point of the link was to show the power of Social Media, not to analyze Cold Stone as a client. There was a whole lot more to that case study than just giving away coupons that weren't very profitable.

I am not trying to argue with you, I am just not sure what you are arguing or who you are arguing with anymore. You just keep warning against the BS and BS slingers, so that's either someone or some method.

Holy wow --- 3.60 per coupon redeemed offline !! jeez thats -- wow

Web costs are sooooo low its ridiculous.

So... if you replace Cold STone with... One Company

Would it make you all feel better?

Hey Amir, I'm headed home to tucson in June. Been way to long and I can't wait to get back to my favorite city on earth.

Cold Stone Creamery may be a failed franchise in many different areas of the United States, but how many franchises go out of their way to try and market and save their brand like Cold Stone?

I can't really think of that many. At least they are trying.