Caffeinated Storytelling, Good Marketing

There’s so many people looking for work out there, you might be surprised to find out that many companies continue to produce recruiting videos to attract top candidates. Take a closer look and you’ll realize some of these videos can provide lessons in PR and marketing.

Look no further than Starbucks. The company has a video front and center on the career page at its website.

The video’s a bit long… nearly 10-minutes! I’m a big believer in keeping internet videos less than 2-minutes, but here I’m okay with it. People are logging on to the career page to learn more about working at Starbucks, so you have an audience that’s motivated to watch. You can get away with a longer video in those cases.

Anyway, the video is skillfully done. Starbucks presents itself as a “people company that serves coffee,” and the video lives up to that by simply introducing us to some of its employees.

The video also demonstrates a great marketing technique. It provides just enough information to wet your appetite, but doesn’t weigh you down with facts and figures. For example, a couple of employees mention “bean stock,” but we never get details about the program.

As an audience, we quickly surmise it’s some sort of equity rewards program. No need to give the details during the video. That would just break up the flow. As soon as I was done watching, I explored the website to find out more about bean stock.

Way to go Starbucks! By focusing on the stories, you enticed me to find out more on my own… and I’m not even looking for a job.

Seems like a good marketing technique to me.

–Tony Gnau