Thursday, November 6, 2014

Be A Chef: Blue Apron Social Media Monitoring Part 2

In my previous post, I introduced you to the Blue Apron company and the platforms they use for their social media markerting. We looked at how they use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as looked at basic analytics of their social media presence over the course of four weeks.

This week, I will present to you the next and final installment of my Social Media Monitoring project. Here, we will discuss Blue Apron's most recent social media campaign, the demographics of Blue Apron members, how their competition stacks up and finally my recommendations for    how Blue Apron can improve their social media presence.



So, let's get cooking!


Be A Top Chef

When I began this social media monitoring project, Blue Apron was one of the first companies I thought of to use as a focus of my project. I struggled with the direction I would take but then, thankfully, Blue Apron launched their Be a Top Chef campaign.  I guess you could call it a gift from the cooking gods and this sealed the deal.  It only seems logical to begin part two of my project by examining this campaign.

This co-marketing campaign began with a Facebook announcement on October 10th on Blue Apron's Facebook page.  The partnership between Blue Apron and Bravo TV's show Top Chef was simple, the winning chef on the season premier of Top Chef would have their winning recipe featured two weeks later in Blue Apron's delivery.

Blue Apron constantly posted about the BA Top Chef campaign on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter beginning  with the announcement on October 10th through November 2nd with their #BATopChef photo contest. As we can see from the website social bakers , Blue Apron's twitter followers steadily increased during the this campaign, a definite win for Blue Apron.




Overall, people were really excited about this campaign and they shared their excitement on social media:


But once the recipe came in the mail and people began cooking, the tone changed a bit.



The partnership with Top Chef was a fabulous idea, it got the word out about Blue Apron to people new to the brand by offering the recipe for free. It also got current member's excited which created extra buzz in the groundswell. Unfortunately from the feedback on the recipe Blue Apron fell flat.


Demographics

The concept of food delivery subscription is a somewhat new idea, so knowing who to market this type of service to and how to reach your key demographic is very important. Blue Apron seemed to come to a logical conclusion that people who watch TV shows about cooking food would probably be interested in learning how to cook the dishes themselves.  There was almost definitely going to be an overlap between Blue Apron members and Top Chef fans, but demographics need to go further than that.

Using Alexa, a free online analytics tool that gathers global online traffic data, I looked at the current audience visiting the Blue Apron website. The graphs below show that in terms of the traffic to Blue Apron's site compared to the general internet population:


1. Females over represented, Males under represented


2. There are a lot of college educated below viewing the website


3. Slightly more people view the website from work than from home

While analyzing this data set is important, I feel that the bigger question is for what purpose are these people viewing the Blue Apron site? Are they members accessing their accounts or are they potential customers looking for information about the company? For Blue Apron to continue being successful I feel that they need to tap into those demographics a little further.

From my own observations on Twitter and Facebook, I noticed that females do overwhelming provide feedback and reply to over their male counterparts. For example, on a Facebook post from November 3rd 13 members commented  on that post. Of those 13 comments only one was from a male.

Blue Apron vs. Plated

As a Blue Apron member, I'm a huge fan but it wouldn't be fair to Blue Apron if I didn't look at their competition. Blue Apron and Plated are most commonly compared to one another, as you can see here, here and here.

A quick summary of Plated: similar to Blue Apron, Plated offers all the ingredients you need to cook meals at home delivered directly to your doorstep. Unlike Blue Apron, Plated is marketed as gourmet meals. The cost per meal is more expensive and you also have to pay for shipping and handling. However, Plated does offer more flexibility with the number of meals and the choices per week as well as more variety for dietary restrictions.

Plated has social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube, however head to head, Blue Apron wins more total followers on each platform. But, Plated has a secret weapon when it comes to user engagement. A food truck! Granted, currently the food truck is only in NYC but it's cheap marketing that can easily spread word of mouth.
Head to head, Blue Apron and Plated are moving in a similar direction, as the Google Trends graph shows us below.





Blue Apron does seem that they have a leg up on their competition, but if I was Blue Apron I wouldn't rest easy. I think in order remain on top, Blue Apron needs to continue to not only monitor their own social media but also Plated's presence as well.

Recommendations

1. Increase word of mouth with a member referral program and brand ambassadors

If there was one thing I learned from this project it was that Blue Apron members are passionate about the brand and the love sharing their experiences. Several members have suggested Blue Apron start a referral program. 

Currently, Blue Apron gives members free meals to share with their friends, however they don't have a referral program set up. I think that is really something Blue Apron needs to look into to continue to growing their brand.

Another trend I noticed on their Facebook page was the many there is a core group of member who post feedback every week and even respond other member's comments and questions. To continue growing there word of mouth business Blue Apron should invest in those enthusiast as they have the potental to generate a lot of buzz in the groundswell.

2. Implement member suggestions (listening to the groundswell)

As I said above in my first recommendation Blue Apron fans are passionate. And with that passion comes ideas on how to improve the brand, lots and lots of ideas.



Blue Apron does do a great job at thanking their members for the suggestions, but I would like to see them start implentmenting them. As you can see from the suggestions above, packaging and the ability to reuse and recycle packaging is a hot topic. I hope Blue Apron realizes that environmental responsibility is important to their members and that they continue to evaluate their carbon footprint.

3. Charity and Non-brand Partnerships

Every few weeks my husband and I sit down and look at the Blue Apron menu to decide if we'll get a box that week or not. Like many people we'll be traveling for Thanksgiving, so we decided to skip it. I almost missed the little box letting me know I could donate my box that week to family in need.


I was estacic to see this option and rushed to Twitter and Facebook to see what buzz this great idea was creating. Imagine my surprise to find nothing. Zero. Zilch. You can only imagine how quickly this was written down, highlighted and underlined on my list of Blue Apron recommendations. This is a great cause for Blue Apron to highlight and humanize their brand! My only hope is that as we get closer to the holiday Blue Apron will begin to promote it more.

Overall, I view the partnership between Blue Apron and Top Chef as semi-succesful.  I would like to see Blue Apron continue these types of partnerships, because I think it creates tremendous amount of word of mouth exposure and will continue to drive their brand awareness and ultimately lead to new business.

Blue Apron got its name from the french tradition of blue aprons being worn by chefs in training.  Upon completion of their culinary training, a chef will graduate to a white apron.  I think that if Blue Apron continues to engage with their followers,  take suggestions from their loyal customers, and grow their overall social media presence - they too will graduate to a white apron.

Bon Appétit!
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