pinkberry: cateogry,competitive,consumer insights
DESCRIPTION
My final project for Skillshare's Digital Strategy on a Shoestring course.TRANSCRIPT
Pinkberry is a frozen dessert restaurant originally from Los Angeles, California.
Most Pinkberry locations are located in California and New York, but the company has expanded into locations throughout the US such as Illinois, Colorado and Connecticut.
Pinkberry not only offers frozen yogurt, they also offer smoothies, greek yogurt, shaved ice, yogurt parfaits and hot chocolate year round.
Customers can choose toppings for their treats such as strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, , Fruity Pebbles, granola, mochi, lychee, to name a few.
Pinkberry believes they provide sensible snacks and treats for their visitors. Many of their items are low calorie, use premium ingredients without trans fats, high fructose corn syrup,
hydrogenated oils and yogurt made with hormone-free milk.
Pinkberry’s nickname?
Crackberry
Pinkberry’s Background
Pinkberry’s Demographics
quantcast.com
Pinkberry’s Audience Interests
quantcast.com
Indicates the customer base is overwhelmingly female, interested in personal appearance and cosmetics and
has higher disposable income for luxury goods.
The Pinkberry Customer
Most Popular Cities: New York,CaliforniaBostonTexasIllinois
Majority of visitors to Pinkberry.com are female as they over-index by 1.25x
25-34 year olds are the majority by 25% with 35-44 year olds following by 19%
61% have no children within their household
Most customers have graduate and post-graduate degrees, 36% at least have a college degree
Interests of Pinkberry customers include: Fashion and cosmetics, luxury goods and jewelry, fragrances and cosmetics.
These customers like to look and feel good.
Pinkberry.com Visitor Stats
Pinkberry.com Stats Mobile visits surpass online unique
visits.
Online has more page views overall.
Last Month Uniques People Visits Page
Views
Web
Mobile Web
Online
132,456 114,879 203,679 468,171
69,116 105,043 204,305
63,340 98,636 263,866
September 2013-October 2013
quantcast.com
Overall Pinkberry Insights
These are affluent, educated individuals with great spending power. Minorities, especially Asians, over-index as Pinkberry visitors.These are image-conscience individuals who care about health, luxury items and how they look. These are also mobile-savvy users who access the site via cellphones as much as web. These visitors are likely looking for their local Pinkberry store hours, flavors and calorie information and accessing the app. Women visit Pinkberry more than men. While 61% do not have children, 39% do have children. Many users could visit Pinkberry via their mobile device to search for dessert options/treats while out and about with families/children.
We Want To...
Raise awareness of Pinkberry as they continue to expand throughout the US and present Pinkerry as a healthy dessert option or treat.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27917561@N00/2837040778/
Google Trends: Pinkberry Search
Google Trends
Most Pinkberry search terms correlate to areas where stores have just opened (Rhode Island, Lousiana).
There is almost no interest ]the midwest and southern states.
Pinkberry’s search terms consists of users searching for locations and hours of operation.
Google.com/trends
Google Trends: Pinkberry Interest
Pinkberry interest was unusually high in April 2013, likely due to the company announcing their Greek yogurt smoothie.
Other than that, Pinkberry displayed higher interest during summer months with interest lowering as fall approached.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Manufacturers/Pinkberry-bids-for-slice-of-the-action-in-fresh-Greek-yogurt-with-roll-out-of-Pinkberrygreek
Pew Internet: Cell Internet Use in 2013
Nearly two thirds of cell phone owners use their phone to go online, and one in five cell owners do most of their online browsing on their phone
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Cell-Internet/Main-Findings/Cell-Internet.aspx
Cell Internet Use 2013: Demographics
Demographics of cell internet phone users:
18-49 year oldsMinorities (Black, Hispanic)
College-Educated High incomes
Urban/Suburban Dwellers
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Cell-Internet/Main-Findings/Cell-Internet.aspx
Google Think/Insight:The Mobile Path to Purchase
A majority of mobile searches are conducted using a search engine of some kind.
http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key-findings.html
Google Think/Insight:The Mobile Path to Purchase
Customers using mobile to search are ready to make their purchasing decision within the day.
http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key-findings.html
Google Think/Insight:The Mobile Path to Purchase:
Mobile experiences heavily influence people’s purchasing decisions with over half moving forward with making a purchase
in the restaurant category.http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key-findings.html
Category Research Insights
- The majority of Pinkberry search interest is within areas where Pinkberry stores have just opened, mainly on the east coast. There is hardly any interest within the Midwest or Southwestern US.
- Interest in Pinkberry and other frozen yogurt stores is high during the summer months (June-August) and begins to taper off as fall approaches (September-October).
- About 55% of adults receive information on local restaurants/bars/clubs. Those 55% are made up of: women, urban/suburban, aged 18-39, minorities (Black, Hispanic), highly educated and upwardly mobile.
- 38% of adults use search engines to find information about local restaurants. Social factors very little within the search process.
- Over 74% of mobile searches are conducted using a search engine.- 55% are looking to make a purchase within the hour; 83% want to purchase within a day.- Within the restaurant category, 54% of those who used mobile to search went on to make a
purchase.
Competitor: TCBY
TCBY is the largest U.S. retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt.
The first TCBY opened in 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
TCBY stands for "The Country's Best Yogurt".
Healthy offerings from TCBY include, Super Fro-Yo (a reformulated version of its yogurt with a more nutrient-rich profile) and Greek Yogurt.
Google Trends: TCBY Search
TCBY search is mostpopular in Southwesternstates such as Arkansas,Louisiana, Nebraska,Colorado.
Google.com/trends
Google Trends: TCBY Interest
Also shows that TCBY definitely misses out on opportunities to other frozen yogurt brands. In June 2013, frozen yogurt indexed at 100 vs. TCBY at a mere 13.
Google.com/trends
TCBY.Com Visits
TCBY has less visits than Pinkberry.com and less rank in Food and Drinks/Restaurants category.
SimilarWeb.com
Taco Bell and Subway are considered competitors.
This may indicate that TCBY is considered a lower end fast food place than a frozen
yogurt shop.
TCBY’s Competition
Compete.com
TCBY’s Facebook Status
Only 88K likes and 585 people "talking about" the TCBY Facebook page.
Also, most of their Facebook traffic is from Costa Rica, which seems irregular.
Indicates that the social media efforts within the United States are not as strong as other frozen yogurt chains.
Facebook.com/tcby
TCBY on Twitter
Significantly lower number of followers than competitors.Many CTAs reaching for more followers on social media.
http://twtrland.com/profile/TCBY
TCBY on the Blogs
Much discussion about TCBY’s new Silk Chocolate Almond product launch--an innovative product within the fro-yo community.
TCBY: Public Perception
Public perception of TCBY via social channels has not been very positive.
TCBY by the numbers
Between 2002 and 2012, the number of TCBY stores declined by 1,188.Total number of restaurants: 500
2012 sales: $98 millionTotal decline in sales: 61.2%
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/america-disappearing-restaurant-chains-211245093.html
Competitor: Red Mango
First Red Mango opened in South Korea in 2003; first US location opened in Los Angeles in 2007.
Key difference from Pinkberry is Red Mango prefers to operate near college campuses rather than metropolitan areas.
In 2011, Red Mango was named the No. 1 Zagat-Rated chain in American for smoothies and frozen yogurt.
Pinkberry’s Biggest Competition?
They're McDonald's, while we're a homemade burger"-- Pinkberry co-founder Young Lee on Red Mango
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033688/index.htm
Red Mango’s Facebook Stats
Red Mango’s most popular city is New
York, while Pinkberry’s is currently Los
Angeles.
Red Mango also has more total “likes”.
https://www.facebook.com/redmango
Red Mango’s Twitter Stats
Large number of Red Mango’s tweets are @ replies, which indicates
more interaction with customers.
Red Mango has significantly more
followers than Pinkberry
http://twtrland.com/profile/RedMango
Social Thoughts on Red Mango
Red Mango sentiment is generally positive across
Twitter and the blogosphere; whereas Pinkberry is still
dealing with fallout of their co-founder’s conviction of beating
a homeless man.
Red Mango Named Top Mobile Brand
Red Mango was named the top mobile brand for Q1 whereas
Pinkberry was #26
http://rsmindex.com/2013-top-mobile-brands-q1/
The Search Performance Leader
Overall, Pinkberry leads in search performance, with the exception of total internal links, page trust and internal followed links going to Red Mango.opensiteexplorer.com
Red Mango’s Thought Leader
Daniel Kim, Red Mango’s founder is considered a thought leader, not
only among the frozen yogurt crowd, but also within the business and
digital space.
Kim is active on Twitter, cultivates an Instagram feed and has a Facebook fan page with over 200K of his own
fans.
Competitive Insights RecapTCBY seems to be having an issue with being considered as hip or fresh as Pinkberry and other newer frozen yogurt chains.
Pinkberry's strategy has traditionally focused on opening in metropolitan areas whereas Red Mango has focused college towns .
Red Mango appears to be more socially engaged with more Twitter followers and Facebook fans and "likes". Also, Red Mango seems to have more curated content and Tweets/updates.
With Red Mango being named #1 Top Mobile Brand, indicates that Pinkberry should
work on having a stronger mobile strategy for a higher rate of mobile social interactions.
Red Mango's founder, Dan Kim, appears to be extremely involved with the Red Mango brand and even comes across as a thought leader in areas of social/mobile/branding. That sort of engagement is not present with Pinkberry.
Stars Love Pinkberry
Reality TV stars, such as the younger Jenner sisters and Jill Zarin, constantly profess their love of Pinkberry to their hundreds of thousands of followers.
Topsy.com
Pinkberry’s “not so shining” Moment
Pinkberry founder’s conviction garnered over 4K tweets--the most between October and November
And the comments were clearly not favorable.
What’s Your Favorite Flavor?
On Twitter, users like to identify their favorite frozen yogurt flavors as a badge.
People also like to share their trips to Pinkberry as they see it as a healthier, guilt-free treat.
Pinkberry User Interests
Red Mango is the only other frozen yogurt brand named.Other audience interests for healthy diet include calorie restriction, dieting and veganism.Other frozen treats such as gelato, sorbet, frozen custard and ice cream are top of mind as well.
Audience: 1,700,000Women: 1,360,000
Men: 340,000
The Frozen Yogurt Debate
People feel that the frozen yogurt market is over-saturated and there are too many frozen yogurt shops that look the same.Compared to other frozen yogurt shops--especially soft-serve shops--Pinkberry is expensive. People look for alternatives than the cost-heavy toppings of Pinkberry.
Taste the Difference
People wondering about the difference between Pinkberry and Red Mango: Pinkberry is more tart and icier; Red Mango is creamier.
People who like Pinkberry aren’t necessarily looking for sugary sweet taste; instead they are looking for a clean or light finish.
The Pinkberry In-Store Experience
Customers generally enjoy store visits as the customer service reviews are generally positive.Also, while there are concerns about the higher price, many note the higher quality of the frozen yogurt and fruit offerings makes it worth it.
Audience Persona: The Pinkberry Lady
Christine is a junior engineer. She is now living on her own for the first time in Boston, Mass. Christine works long, intense hours, but she works hard to maintain a solid work/life balance which includes staying fit and active, going out with friends and dating in her adopted city.
In her free time, her guilty pleasure is watching mindless television, including reality television shows (Real Housewives) or TV dramas (Revenge, Nashville).
Christine tends to eat a healthy diet for the most part, but she likes to indulge in a guilt-free treat after a good run or Saturday yoga class. For Christine, frozen yogurt or smoothies are much healthier options than sugary ice cream or candy.
She doesn’t indulge often as she’s likes to stay in order within her budget and she prefers not to eat fast food, but she looks forward to a Pinkberry treat 1-2 times a week.
Christine | 24 | Junior Engineer
Consumer Insights Recap People are discussing how frozen yogurt became a popular trend and its sustainability with all of the frozen yogurt shops popping up everywhere.
People wondering about the difference between Pinkberry and Red Mango (the competitor). The answer: Pinkberry is more tart and icier; Red Mango is creamier.
Although the price of Pinkberry frozen yogurt is higher than most soft-serve shops, consumers feel it is worth it for the higher quality toppings and pleasant in-store experience.
To many people, frozen yogurt--while seen as a healthier option--is not as preferred as ice cream or gelato. People tend to go to Pinkberry mostly for the health benefits.
The preference people have for Pinkberry over the competitors is due to the tartness and smoothness on the palate than their competitors. Pinkberry lovers aren't necessarily looking for the sweet finish that others may seek out.
Pinkberry’s Top 5 Insights
Pinkberry customers are young (18-39), upwardly mobile, city-living, and educated people. The average customer tends to skew towards female. Their most popular cities are LA and New York. Their customers tend to care about being healthy, looking good and taking care of themselves. Going to Pinkberry is a more guilt-free treat for them to indulge in.
While Red Mango is considered Pinkberry’s top competitor, their strategic location placement is different; while Pinkberry are located in metropolitan areas, Red Mango’s are largely located in near college campuses.
Pinkberry’s brand perception has suffered as a result of their co-founder being found guilty of assaulting a homeless man.
There are opportunities for Pinkberry to leverage in mobile and social media as they expand. Pinkberry has some catching up to do with their main competitor, Red Mango.
Pinkberry customers acknowledge the premium topping and frozen yogurt costs, but they enjoy the tart taste of Pinkberry. They also appreciate the high-quality toppings and attentive customer service. This leads to a loyal customer base while many frozen yogurt franchises are opening and people are beginning to express frozen yogurt fatigue.