In 2006, when I got the chance to work in the United Kingdom, my main concern was my love for sweets. During the three years I spent there, I became addicted to the doughnuts from Krispy Kreme and completely forgot about Indian sweets. So, when I heard that my favorite doughnut brand is coming to India, I was eager to learn more. My excitement grew even more when I found out that Krispy Kreme had generated a lot of buzz about their store opening on social media.
The social media buzz of the launch
Krispy Kreme began its journey on Facebook, where people in India spend a lot of their time. The brand established its presence on Facebook in December 2012, starting with sneak peeks of its upcoming launch in Bengaluru. Later, they informed fans that the store would be located on Church Street in Bengaluru, serving delicious doughnuts. As the launch day approached, the page administrators began sharing a countdown using images. The screen grab below shows one example of that countdown.
In addition to this, the brand started inviting fans to the opening ceremony of the store on 19th January, 2013. To motivate fans, it started tying up with lucrative offers. One such offer was the “Golden Ticket – 1 year free supply.” So whoever was the first one to join the grand opening would stand a chance to win a years supply of free doughnuts. It was not the only offer but the brand also had a “Silver Ticket” and a “Bronze Ticket” with 6 and 3 months’ of free supply respectively.
Twitter was also explored before the launch of the store. The 140 character network was used not only to make people aware about the launch but also to organize small contests. #GetGlazed hashtag was launched for the contests with winners getting free boxes of Krispy Kreme.
Was it a cool launch on social media?
Krispy Kreme used the power of social media rationally for the launch. The networks were used effectively and were well integrated too. The brand did a smart move by starting the Facebook presence just a month before and today it has a fan following of more than 21K. The content that was shared was aligned to the grand launch of the brand and the teasers – which got a fairly good response from the fans – were interesting.
Introducing smart offers to be availed on the launch day and launching Twitter before the offline store launch were smart moves by the brand. The offers that were introduced provided a smart way to drive fans to the store. With all these promotions and contests, regular interaction and resolving queries is quite essential during a product launch as fans will have a lot of queries. Answering them could bring positive word of mouth just as Krispy Kreme did. The page owners have taken the effort to answer the queries along with serving the invite to join for the grand launch.
Ending thoughts
Product or service launch via social media is no more a unique move. In 2012 we had seen brands such as Tata Safari, Royal Enfield investing heavily on social media for their product launches. Tata Safari used social media extensively during the Storme launch and similarly Royal Enfield made effective use of networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. during the new Thunderbird 500 cc launch. In the same breath, Krispy Kreme has done justice for its offline store launch with enough buzz and fan bonding over social media.