Executive Summary………………..2

Case Study…………………………3

Research……………………………7

SWOT...............................................13

Goal………………………………...14

Objectives…………………………..15

Audiences…………………………..16

Influentials………………………….17

Messages……………………………18

Strategies/Tactics…………………...19

Evaluation Criteria………………….20

Calendar…………………………….23

Budget……………………………....24

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Executive Summary

Overall our public relations campaign is to direct our efforts to increasing public

awareness for our company, Tully’s Coffee. In the following report we will show an

extensive public opinion analysis, in which we found that consumers did not frequently

visit or consume Tully’s coffee products. In our campaign we set out to increase social

media presence through Facebook, and Twitter, and also gain positive expose through

traditional media outlets such as newspapers and television news sources. Tully’s has a

unique opportunity to grab consumers in the coffee industry because of their local brand

identity, and their recent purchase from T.V. show star, Patrick Dempsey.

Our strategies include placing Tully’s in various events around the Seattle area,

which will gain expose and brand awareness within the community. The goal of our

campaign is to get people to talk about Tully’s coffee; we need to make our coffee

relevant to people. In our report we have created a SWOT analysis for you, the reader to

understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the

company. We have identified the audiences we are attempting to reach through our

campaign and have laid out extensive objectives strategies and tactics for reaching those

audiences.

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Case Study

Tully’s Coffee is a specialty coffee retailer and wholesaler that was based and founded in

Seattle, Washington in 1992. Tully’s main product is coffee, but also sells baked goods

and coffee related supplies. The location of Seattle is important because a large emphasis

is placed on drinking coffee, and coffee has become a large part of Pacific Northwest

culture. In fact, there is one coffee shop for every 4,000 people in Puget Sound. Tom

Tully O’Keefe founded the company with the intention to rival the already expanding

Starbucks coffee. Starbucks was the first and most prominent competition to Tully’s

coffee and that carries through to today.

Currently, Tully’s has roughly 180 stores located in the Greater Puget sound area

of Washington and in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Idaho, Arizona, and has 6

international stores. There are 100-plus committed stores in Singapore and South Korea

and 385 stores currently open in Japan. They currently have revenue of around $50.8

million and having 889 employees.

Tully’s Coffee Company is one of many successful coffee companies in the

United States. The company is within the top ten most prosperous coffee and espresso

companies to date. Tully’s has recently gained notoriety from the purchase of the

company by famous actor Patrick Dempsey who stars in the hit TV show Grey’s

Anatomy. The same can be seen as an important attribute because not only did the sale

put Tully’s in the news, but their new owners include a very popular actor whos

television show is also based out of Seattle.

Tully’s Coffee is involved and active with social media websites such as

Facebook and Twitter. The company created a Facebook page in 2009 and has been very

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active since. They have over 252,000 current likes. They post about new drinks they are

testing out and ask people their opinions, as well as posting about new locations being

opened and new promotions being offered. Every couple of days they try to involve their

fans by posting polls about favorite drinks and pictures of their drinks to entice their

audience. Tully’s also has a Twitter account where people can follow them to get news

about events, promotions, drink specials and provide feedback to the company. Tully’s

has over 10,000 current followers; it is a great way for the company to connect personally

with customers and show them their opinions are valued. Tully’s tweets about current

events happening in Seattle, as well as asking customers what drink t hey ordered and

how they liked it. With currently over 4,000 tweets they keep information up to date as

well as communicate with followers multiple times a day. The fact that Tully’s updates

their Facebook and Twitter statuses frequently is important, because people appreciate

interactive advertising; such as the deals featured on social media accounts.

Drinking coffee has become a multi-million dollar business, and caffeine has

slowly become the number one drug choice in the world according to bodybuilding.com.

It is the world’s most popular psychoactive substance. Caffeine has unprecedented

popularity as a stimulating beverage in the form of coffee, tea and in a wide range of

energy drinks. In the USA alone, the equivalent of 168m of coffee per person, or a cup

and a half for each of its 275 million inhabitants is consumed every day. Of course, many

drink significantly more than this. With so many people drinking coffee today the coffee

industry is still on a rise. Foreign countries such as China are really starting to take on the

American ways of coffee drinking by allowing Starbucks onto its every street corner.

With an increasing rise in the coffee industry and such a high demand for it, Tully’s

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hoped to grab a share of the market. Unfortunately, for 20 years Tully’s has struggled in

the shadow of Starbucks, earning a profit in only one year out of 10. Coffee businesses

are supposed to be recession proof, no matter how bad the economy, people will always

find a way to get their caffeine fix in before the morning starts.

In October 2012 Tully’s officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closing only

stores that were “unprofitable”. One of their glaring deficiencies was paying off

investors, which included a $378,000 bill to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of

Vermont, who in 2009 bought Tully’s wholesale business for $40.3 million. In

bankruptcy auction Tully’s was purchased for $9.15 million by an investment group

headed by popular TV actor as stated earlier, Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey’s group has

promised to retain all of Tully’s 480 employees and to also uphold the million-dollar

commitment they had to customers who had purchased prepaid coffee cards. With the

Dempsey deal, creditors are repaid with interest and employees and store leases are kept.

As media coverage is concerned, in the recent years Tully’s has received mainly

negative press. With news spreading about filing for bankruptcy and their unprofitable

locations it has given them an image of instability. However, with the recent purchase by

Dempsey Tully’s has the opportunity to be seen in a new light, and because Dempsey is a

likeable figure by the general public that works in their favor as well.

As for competition, while small local based coffee stands are considered

competitors, their closest competition is Seattle based Starbucks coffee, as well as

Caribou Coffee, Tim Horton’s, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Coffee beanery, Seattle’s Best

and Peet’s coffee. Tully’s offers most all-comparable espresso items as their competitors,

but also sells a couple items that set them apart. Tully’s offers milkshakes and soft serve

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ice cream, which is unique because other competitors their size such as Starbucks does

not offer it. In addition, Tully’s also offers local based foods from local vendors and

businesses, which shows them as being supportive of their local communities.

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Research

Methodology: We surveyed a total of 116 people. 48 were male and 68 were female. 44.1% of the participants were between the ages of 18 and 24, 37.3% between the ages of 25-31, 5.9% were between the ages of 32 and 38 and 12.7% were above the age of 39. The survey was conducted over the period of Monday, January 28th through Tuesday, February 5, 2013. We conducted the survey in an online format, asking friends to fill out the survey through social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. We chose to ask questions that helped us to understand how well known Tully’s is, how many of the participants drink Tully’s coffee, who they thought Tully’s biggest competition was and if they would be willing to follow Tully’s via social networks.

Analysis: According to the results, 41.4% of the participants in our survey were male and 58.6% of the participants were female. The first question asked was how often do you drink coffee? 39.3% responded that they are daily coffee drinkers and only 17.9% responded by saying they never drink coffee. This question was designed to get a grasp for how many of the participants consumed what our client’s product is, coffee. The next question was: Have you ever heard of Tully’s Coffee Company? This question was important to establish how many of the participants had even heard of our client.

The majority of people (79.5%) had heard of Tully’s. 20.5% of participants had not. This was surprising, because as our members of our group are all from the Pacific Northwest,

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we assumed everybody has heard of Tully’s.

The next question we asked was: How often do you visit Tully’s? We asked this question because while the participants may know the company, they aren’t necessarily customers.

Only 28 participants responded to this question, and an alarming majority of 82.1% of people said they do not drink at Tully’s coffee and only one person responded to being a loyal Tully’s customer and drinking Tully’s three or more times a week. Considering 82% is a large number of participants who do not ever drink Tully’s, we wanted to know if the reason people did not go to Tully’s is because they were in an area where there wasn’t a convenient location. We asked if a Tully’s was located closer to them if they would go more often.

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While 32.1% responded that even if a Tully’s was located closer to them they would probably not go, and 10.7% said they would definitely not go, 42.9% said they would probably go and 10.7% responded that they would definitely go. This means that 53.6% of people would convert over to Tully’s if there were a more convenient location. We must take into consideration that many of the survey takers could be living in Ellensburg while attending CWU, where there is not a Tully’s. This question let us know that it isn’t necessarily that people don’t like Tully’s coffee, but it’s lack of availability that makes them go elsewhere for coffee. We also asked what their most important reason for choosing where to buy coffee was, and most people (41.9%) said it was about store convenience.

Another surprising answer in this survey was from the question: When was the last time you purchased a Tully’s coffee or product? Considering the majority of people never went to Tully’s we assumed this question would have the same type of results. However, 34.7% of people said that they had purchased a Tully’s product that day.

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This answer may seem conflicting, but it shows that while they may not physically visit a Tully’s, they can buy their products in grocery stores.

We also asked the survey participants what they considered Tully’s biggest competition was. The majority of people (70%) agreed that Starbucks is Tully’s biggest competition.

This was especially interesting, because in the focus group we conducted everyone agreed that small coffee stands were Tully’s biggest competitors. In the online survey,

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only 10.8% of people thought that small coffee stands were in competition with Tully’s. Another 13.5% of people thought local coffee shops were Tully’s biggest competition.

Another question that had to be asked was whether or not people knew about Tully’s recent business changes. In October of 2012 Tully’s filed bankruptcy and early this year celebrity Patrick Dempsey bought the company. 41.9% of people said they were aware of business changes while 58.1% were not.

We gave the participants an option to fill in what they had heard about Tully’s recent changes. We had 10 responses that said they heard Patrick Dempsey recently bought the company and only 4 responses saying they knew Tully’s had filed for bankruptcy.

The last question we asked was whether or not they were willing to be connected to Tully’s via social networks if they offered specials through those sites? Usually when people are offered deals they are more willing to be connected through sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but 63% of people said they were not willing to be connected.

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The large majority of people know what Tully’s is.

Most people that participated in the survey never visit a Tully’s

The majority of people are unwilling to connect to Tully’s via social media

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SWOT

Strengths Local company News exposure Quality Product Unique specialty products Have a fan base to work with

Weakness Bankrupt Has to compete with Starbucks New leadership Negative publicity

Opportunities New ownership-New direction Can expand products New promotions

Threats Price of coffee beans increase Brand loyalty decreases New ownership changes direction

of company Change taste of coffee

Goal

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In light of Tully’s recent business changes, we would like to raise awareness of Tully’s

new brand identity and increase the amount of current and potential consumers.

Objectives

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Raise awareness of Tully’s brand identity through social media. (Increase Facebook likes 50% from 251,000 to 375,000 within the next year)

Increase brand recognition 15% in six months through various promotions, and product placement

With new ownership in place we want to see a 10% increase in investment capital and repeat business.

Audiences

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Company Shareholders Stakeholders are a public for Tully’s Coffee since it is a public company and

stakeholders have large amounts of money invested into the company. Stakeholder’s opinions were taken into account in the company because their investments were what were at stake. Shareholders influence Tully’s because they are the ones investing, helping to put money into the company so it can expand and have resources to reach consumers.

The Government The government is a public of Tully’s Coffee because they dealt with the

bankruptcy process. They keep close tabs on how the company is being run, and potential moves they make.

Consumers Coffee drinkers are a general public because they are the consumers. From our

focus groups and surveys we found a lot of people don’t frequently go to a Tully’s store, but some buy their products from the grocery stores; such as their coffee beans or Keurig machine K-cups. Tully’s is a local brand, and therefore their standards of quality matter to the consumers. Tully’s needs to keep these customers, as well as expand to the others who drink coffee at other establishments. Consumers are influential because they are the ones that will help Tully’s grow and develop a more prestigious brand. Without Consumers the company would fall back into bankruptcy.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters The coffee bean company that supplies Tully’s would also be a public and were a

major factor when deciding the new ownership of the company. One reason Starbucks wasn’t able to obtain the ownership of failed Tully’s stores was because of the resistance of the coffee bean supplier who didn’t want to sell to the Starbucks Company. They influence Tully’s because their brand of coffee is connected to the quality of coffee beans they receive. Without unique coffee beans a cup of Tully’s coffee does not taste the same.

Employees Employees are a public of Tully’s because they are directly affected by what the

company does and how successful they are. When Tully’s was purchased in Bankruptcy auction one of the agreements made was that stores would not be shut down and employees would be keeping their jobs. Without dedicated employees Tully’s wouldn’t be able to run effectively.

InfluentialsMedia outlets

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Newspaper- The Seattle Times is influential because it is the predominant Newspaper in Seattle and articles written are viewed by a large audience in the area

King 5 News-Predominant news cast in Seattle Area, large audience tune in to listen to the news

Messages 1. Shareholders

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Primary message: Tully’s needs continued support for business advancementsSecondary message: Needs shareholders to continue to invest because new ownership led by Patrick Dempsey within the new ownership will begin to grow and prosper.

2. EmployeesPrimary message: Tully’s needs continued support from their employees, as the business will continue to grow and prosper from new ownership and business changesSecondary message: Needs to continue to have employees who believe in Tully’s coffee, who will continue to work hard and provide a positive atmosphere for customers to want to visit and return.

3. ConsumersPrimary Message: Tully’s needs continued loyalty from customers and repeat business from consumers who will bring in business from others through past positive experiences and satisfaction.Secondary message: When you are a loyal consumer you save money by receiving discounts from contests and punch cards.Secondary Message: When you drink Tully’s you are supporting a local (if in the North West region) coffee establishment

Strategy and TacticsObjective 1: Consumers  

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Strategy 1: Game and promotions in social media platforms.Tactic 1: Present a photo contest on Facebook; The person who takes

the most unique picture with either a cut out of new owner Patrick Dempsey, or a Tully’s brand coffee cup will win a coffee date with Patrick Dempsey. The contest will be judged by how many “likes” a photo receives. The winner will provide their contact information and the gift card will be sent to them.

Tactic 2: Keep Tully’s Facebook updated with current information about products, promotions and relevant coffee industry material. Post at least two times a day to show customers Tully’s dedication to social media

Tactic 3: Have a month promotion where Tully’s manager at a particular store takes a picture of a Tully’s coffee cup next to their shop. The first 15 people to come in and say they saw the photo on social media will get 50% off their purchase.

Strategy 2: Use Twitter as a means to keep audience connected with Tully’s and paying attention to social media on a daily basis.

Tactic 1: Put on Twitter page telling public that first 10 people to retweet a specific post wins a $20 gift card to Tully’s coffee.

Strategy 3: Relations and presence in big Seattle events.Tactic 1: Host a Breast Cancer awareness marathon: Place Tully’s

booth along the course with water and small cups of coffee for participants. Events such as these have big turn outs and it is for a great cause. People see our logo and our connection to the city of Seattle and start to build a relationship.

Tactic 2: Booth at Bite of Seattle: allows for consumers to enjoy Tully’s coffee while being part of the community, while also getting the brand seen and remembered.

Tactic 3: Hosts Trivia night. Offer coffee at discounted price. People come in and enjoy a trivia night while drinking Tully’s coffee at one our locations.

Objective 2: Employee Strategy 1: Employee recognition Tactic 1: Managers or other employees put name of exceptional worker into a

drawing: Once a month a winner is drawn and given a $25 gift card to spend how they please.

 Objective 3: Shareholders

Strategy 1: Keep Shareholders informedTactic 1: Hold an annual shareholders conference to talk about where

the direction of the company is heading, what was done in the previous year to increase sales and keep Tully’s relevant in the industry. Allows investors to know what is going on with the company and why there investment dollar is so important to the company.

Evaluation Criteria Objective 1: Consumers

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Strategy 1: Game and promotions in social media platforms. Tactic 1: Increasing awareness through Social Media through Facebook by

promoting a Patrick Dempsey photo contestMeasuring Success 1: By February 2014, tactic 1 success will be measured through the amount of likes and shares the post receives. The winner of the contest will be determined by the photo with the most “likes”.

Tactic 2: Keeping Tully’s updated with current information about products, promotions, and relevant material, posting twice a day to keep Tully’s a dedicated and relevant company in social media.Measuring Success 2: By February 2014 tactic 2 success will be measured through the amount of posts per day and the interaction the posts receive. Data will be collected through the Facebook page and numerical data of “Likes”, “Shares”, and friends will show the success of Tully’s Facebook interactions daily.

Tactic 3: Promotion that invites Tully’s manager to take a picture of a Tully’s coffee cup next to their store and post on Facebook, the first 15 people to come into a store and say the saw the photo will get 50% off their in store purchase.Measuring Success 3: By February 2014 tactic 3 success will be measured through the sales and popularity received that day/week through 50% off transactions. Stores will measure the amount of success by how many 50% off transactions were run through their tills.

Strategy 2: Use Twitter as a means to keep audience connected with Tully’s and paying attention to social media on a daily basis.

Tactic 1: Increasing awareness through Twitter by promoting “retweets” and rewarding the first ten people with a $20 gift card to Tully’s.

Measuring Success: By March 2014 tactic 1 success will be measured by the numerical data of the amount of “retweets” the post receives. Success will also be measured by how many followers the contest brings in. Tully’s can measure this through a starting number of followers and the increase in followers during and after the promotion.

Strategy 3: Relations and presence in big Seattle events. Tactic 1: Hosting a breast cancer awareness marathon by placing a Tully’s

Coffee Company booth along the course with water and cups of coffee for participants.

Measuring Success: By April 2014 tactic 1 success will be measured through the amount of participants the marathon receives. Numerical data of participant signups and donations will measure the overall success. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the success.

Tactic 2: Provide a booth at Bite of Seattle that will boost brand awareness and involve the company within the community.

Measuring Success: By April 2014 tactic 3 success will be measured through the amount of product gone through within the day. This will show how many people received Tully’s product and will determine a rough estimate of how many eyes saw Tully’s branding. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the success.

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Tactic 3: Hosts Trivia night. Offer coffee at discounted price. People come in and enjoy a trivia night while drinking Tully’s coffee at one our locations.Measuring Success: By March 2014 tactic 2 success will be measured through the amount of sales received that night. Numerical data will determine profit as well as customer feedback which will determine overall satisfaction of event. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the success.

Objective 2: EmployeeStrategy: Employee recognition

Tactic 1: Managers or other employees put name of exceptional worker into a drawing: Once a month a winner is drawn and given a $25 gift card to spend how they please.

Measuring Success: By May 2014 tactic 4 success will be measured through store and company feedback. The feedback will be through surveys and manager written weeks evaluation reports.

Objective 3: ShareholdersStrategy 1: Increase Sales by 10% over the next 15 months by providing incentives for repeat business.

Tactic 1: Tully’s will promote a punch card that encourages customer business through a buy ten get the 11th free purchaseMeasuring Success: By July 2014 tactic 2 successes will be measured through the amount of sales, and the amount free purchases received from the 11th punch. This will show how many people obtain the Tully’s punch card as well as how effective repeat sales are altogether. Sales can be measured through end of day sales reports and overall secondary data within the company.

Tactic 2: Providing an incentive for repeat business within one day, by creating a receipt that allows customers to receive 50% of with proof of purchase in the morning.Measuring Success: Tactic 2 will be measured through the amount of sales received that day from the incentive. Till transactions will measure numerical data that will show the number of 2nd day purchases and how much more profit was gained through the incentive. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey or social media. Strategy 2: Brand recognition Tactic 1: Establish Product Placement within Patrick Dempsey’s TV show: Grey’s Anatomy.Measuring Success: Tactic 1 will be measured through the amount of brand recognition Tully’s receives after the show airing. Tully’s will establish Facebook posts and Tweets that encourage viewers to watch the show and recognize the label. Numerical data of responses will determine success as well as word of mouth stir.

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Tactic 2: Create reusable with Tully’s logo that will allow for product recognition and notoriety Measuring Success: Tactic 2 success will be measured through the amount of cup sales received. Sale reports will create a statistical profit and amount of cup sales. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth and they will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey and social media. Strategy 3: Patrick Dempsey meeting with the publicTactic 1: Have Patrick Dempsey show up at random locations posting on social media hours before, for customers to show up and meet Dempsey. Measuring Success: Tactic 1 success will be measured by the amount of participants that each “Dempsey Doppler” creates both in store and through social media. Store sales will measure profit gained and media will measure popularity. Customer feedback will be through word of mouth during and after event and participants will be encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions through an online survey. Numerical data and statistics will determine the success.

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February -Launch Facebook Patrick Dempsey Photo Contest.

- Best photo with a cut-out of Dempsey wins Tully’s gift card.

-Winner decided based upon the most “likes” on photo.

-Month promotion with manager’s photo of Tully’s coffee cup in front of store. First 15 people to come saying they saw the photo gets 15% off.

March -Twitter promotion

-First 10 people to repost certain tweets receives 20 dollar gift card to any Tully’s store.

-Tully’s Trivia Night

-Offer discounts during the trivia night.

-Raffles and Tully’s prizes for winners.

-Include questions about Tully’s to get people more aware of the brand.

April-Host a Breast Cancer Awareness Marathon.

-Set-up Tully’s booths throughout the course.

-Main Tully’s banner at staring line.

-Have Tully’s booths handing out cups of water and coffee in Tully’s brand cups and labeled water bottles.

May-Employee and Customer appreciation week.

-Employees can bring family and friends in for discounts.

-Customer appreciation: Buy two coffees get the third free sale.

-15% off all pastries for the week.

June-Product placement within Patrick Dempsey’s hit TV show, Grey’s Anatomy.

-Reusable Tully’s coffee cups. Get the brand out into the community to be seen more often.

-“Dempsey Doppler”

-Have Dempsey show up at random Tully’s locations to meet and greet staff and customers.

-Post on Facebook and Twitter 2 hours before he shows up to increase hype and awareness.

July-Bite of Seattle

-Have Tully’s be a part of the event. (Possibly a sponsor)

-Offer discounts for the community during the event

-Brand awareness opportunities.

-Tully’s punch card

-Offer customers the chance to redeem more coffee with their morning receipt.

Calendar

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Budget

Detail Per Item Cost Total Projected

Contests on Social Media Photo Contest on Facebook For Coffee Date With Dempsey

$0 $0

Post Twice a day on Facebook

$0 $0

Tully’s Cup Picture Contest

15@$3.50 $52.50

Retweet Contest $20 Gift 10 People@$20 $200Public Appearances Host Breast Cancer

MarathonRefreshment Booth

200 People@$1.50 $300

Bite of Seattle Coffee Booth

1000 People@$0.75 $750

Trivia Night 10% off a Coffee50 People@$0.35

$17.50

Employee and Customer Recognition

Free Coffee for Winning School Faculty

Staff of 50@$3.50 $175

Incentives for Repeat Business

Bring Receipt in 50% off next

50@$1.75 $87.50

Brand Recognition Product Placement in Grey’s Anatomy

1 Placement@$500 $500

Dempsey Doppler Post Pictures of Fans with Dempsey on Facebook

$0 $0

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