With HBO’s House of the Dragon flying full steam ahead in its second season, the show is unintentionally reinforcing a reality of this fragmented ecosystem consumers find themselves in here in the real world. The great Houses of Westeros can build massively formidable strongholds impenetrable to invading forces just as the most successful companies of today can insulate themselves from threats. Yet both can reach a point in which they are no longer able to see atop the perches of their own walled gardens. When that happens, you lose the ability to understand the trends, patterns and movements that extend beyond your line of sight. That’s dangerous for a fictional TV King let alone a global conglomerate that may falsely believe that it’s too big to fail.
For companies, that results in a failure to properly understand what else your customers are interested in and how they spend their money outside of your products. This prevents brands from constructing strategic bridges that are necessary for the expansion of the business as well as the ongoing maintenance of the core consumer. Knowing your customer’s habits within your own ecosystem is crucial to success; understanding their preferences outside of that environment is instrumental for healthy longevity.
To better understand how brands can best position themselves to accomplish this in today’s crowded and omnipresent media landscape, we’re going to look at the demographics driving Starbucks and Coca-Cola as well as their primary passions.
Starbucks
A brand affinity analysis can identify the opportunity to leverage brands, outlets, talents, etc. with the most affinity — or shared audience overlap — with a given entity. Parrot data creates 'par' (or a universal lens) across brands, content and talent and can track audience changes over time. For the purposes of this essay, we are looking at the shared audience overlap of those that engage with Starbucks (and later Coca-Cola) to provide a better understanding of who that consumer is and how can these companies leverage that insight.
The first step in this process is classifying the largest audience clusters that comprise the Starbucks foundation by their interests. We want to know what these consumers are passionate about.
Parrot Analytics found that the largest cohorts of audience clusters within Starbucks’ core audience included Mainstream Talent/Content & Beauty Lovers (26.5%), Knowledge Seekers & Motorsport Enthusiasts (19.1%), Fast Food & Snack Lovers (15.5%) and Seasoned Actors & American Football Fans (15.2%). These represent the primary external interests and passions of Starbucks customers outside of the coffee empire.
These audience clusters are defined by varying audience demographics that provide greater insight into which cohorts of Starbucks drinkers are which. Essentially, who enjoys Starbucks and how can we group them strategically?
The overall Starbucks audience has a balanced appeal across genders -- 51% male and 49% female. Across generations, it resonates the most among older age groups (representing 60% share among the Millennial and Gen X+ population), while still maintaining a presence among Gen Z (23% share).
This provides a baseline idea of where Starbucks can double down and which demographics the company still needs to expand into. Importantly, the brand affinity analysis offers specific options for doing so.
Tapping into the interests of audience cluster two (Mainstream Talent/Content & Beauty Lovers) can help reach a younger female audience. Specific brands that are ripe for strategic partnerships based on their significant audience overlap with Starbucks include Bath and Body Works, Maybelline and others in this realm. These can be used to activate targeted consumers.
Talents within this audience cluster with followings that also intersect with Starbucks’ include Bryce Dallas Howard and Jennifer Coolidge. Partnerships with notable names such as these provide compelling endorsement opportunities that boast high affinity and reach. Even as influencer marketing has risen to challenge traditional celebrity endorsements, these collaborations still hold significant sway in the marketplace.
Leveraging the interests of audience cluster four (Fast Food & Snack Lovers) can attract a younger male demographic. WaffleHouse and Mr. Beast Burger show high affinity with Starbucks among this demographic not to mention Cold Stone, Little Debbies and KitKat. A Starbucks promotional campaign with candy companies in the Halloween holiday window makes a lot of strategic sense.
Professional wrestlers Adam Pearce and Luis Martinez can be cost effective talent activations for this cluster given their reach and connectivity within this Starbucks audience subset. (Caffeine sure would help keep me energized in the ring).
Knowledge Seekers & Motorsport Enthusiasts (audience cluster one) and Season Actors & American Football Fans (audience cluster zero) share a demographic profile similar to that of the overall Starbucks audience. Leveraging the interests of these segments can help to retain the existing Starbucks fanbase. Ideally, a brand can better understand how to provide added value to consistent consumers this way, such as through exclusive discount offerings and complementary bundles. The Starbucks Coffee Traveler, which is a larger box order, and the new Pairings Menu are examples of uniquely tailored menu items and bundles that can be integrated into these efforts. (The recent partnership between Grubhub+ and Amazon Prime is another good example).
In April 2023, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasihmhan called for a “more global presence for Starbucks business and brand” as part of an expanded partnership with restaurant company Alsea. Efforts such as that are aided by deeper insights into key consumer groups, especially given the rise of branded content studios over the last two decades. Crossing over into the mainstream and elevating brands no longer requires the nebulous expense it once did at major monolithic brand agencies.
The same goes for Coca-Cola…
Coca-Cola
Tracking consumer spend and interest can help keep a target demographic engaged within a product suite for longer. The longer a consumer engages with your product and within your landscape, the lower the cost of customer acquisition becomes.
Coca-Cola is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The company routinely spends seven figures on Super Bowl advertising space. While the Super Bowl remains the most watched annual telecast in America capable of delivering unrivaled reach, it’s fair to wonder how efficient that spend is. (Although we absolutely love the Coca-Cola polar bear around here).
For Coke, the four biggest audience clusters are Fast Food/Snack Lovers & Superhero Buffs (18.3%), American Pop Culture Icons, Nostalgic Talent & Retail Fans (16%), Mainstream Talent, Content, Pop Culture & Beauty Fans (14.2%) and Sports, Comedy & Rap fans (13%). This illuminates the web of interests and focus areas among Coca-Cola’s primary audience base. From here, we can better understand the audience demographics paired with these passion areas.
The overall Coca-Cola audience skews male (69%) and older (68% Millennials and Gen X+). As a legacy product with a storied history that stretches back to the 19th century, this isn’t entirely surprising. It actually affords the brand a clearer path to expansion. Coke could benefit from getting younger and more female while still maintaining its core base.
Tapping into the interests of audience cluster four (Fast Food/Snack Lovers & Superhero Buffs) can help reach a younger male audience. Five Guys and Chic-Fil-A are popular younger-skewing brands that fall within this lane of interest as are talents Jack Quaid, Antony Starr and Karl Urban, who all star in Amazon Prime Video’s superhero hit The Boys. (Marvel Kingpin actor Vincent D’Onofrio also enjoys a strong shared audience overlap).
In the video game The Last Of Us Part II, a soda can provides a code to a combination lock in one level. Perhaps this lays the groundwork to organic product placement in the second season of the popular HBO adaptation. Marvel and DC are natural fits here as well.
Additionally, this cohort also shows an interest in YouTube streamers such as Logan Paul, Mr. Beast, and other popular digital media creators. Sponsorship opportunities are plentiful in this arena.
Leveraging the interests of audience cluster three (Mainstream Talent, Content, Pop Culture & Beauty Fans) can attract a younger female demographic. Revlon, L’Oréal, Hot Topic, Estée Lauder, Cover Girl and other brands all fall into the audience overlap here and provide natural extensions to new consumers. Coca-Cola executives have made a concentrated effort to associate the soda with joy and happiness, which dovetails seamlessly with the cosmetics industry. Stranger Things star Natalie Dyer, actresses Salma Hayek and Hailee Steinfeld, and musical acts such as the Backstreet Boys can be brought into the fold for celebrity activations as well given the high affinity between audiences.
Coca-Cola already holds the annual Sips and Sounds Summer Festival in Austin, which features 15 musical artists, in an attempt to reach this key demo. Recently, chief executive James Quincey noted that purchasing behavior is shifting “slightly more” towards at-home consumption, which is less expensive, compared to away from home offerings. This arguably creates even more incentive for the company to emphasize branded content and strategic content, talent and pop culture partnerships/activations in order to capture a greater share of interest from those consuming entertainment in their homes.
Audience clusters zero (American Pop Culture Icons, Nostalgic Talent & Retail Fans) and two (Sports, Comedy & Rap Fans) largely fall into the core existing audience base of Coke. Understanding the passions and demos within these groups can help maintain the soft drink’s dominant market share. This includes professional wrestling, comedy stars such as Steve Harvey, Adam Sandler and Martin Lawrence, and hip hop music. The Coca-Cola 600 is an annual 600-mile NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway that helps to double down on this primary consumer segment.
Conclusion
These insights change over time and are not a one-and-done quick study. Not only is this is snapshot of 'now' - but Brand Affinity solutions allows for the ability to constantly monitor these clusters, cohorts and symbiotic opportunities, making necessary tweaks in real time. This is particularly integral to tracking in-motion promotional campaigns. As such, brands can stay on top of the rapidly changing tastes of their consumers and better understand the ancillary avenues worth exploring to maintain and grow the business.
It isn’t just about creating more effective branded content, but tailoring your product to the passions of the people you’re trying to reach. Again, it’s imperative to see beyond the perches of your own walled gardens.
