Are Companies Listening to Their Customers?

Starbuck is launching My Starbucks Idea (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com), a social network site where consumers can post ideas on how Starbuck could improve its products and service. Consumers could also share the ideas and vote for their favorite ideas.

I suppose Starbucks' intention is to engage consumers and to prove they encourage two-way dialogs. It is pretty much like Dell's IdeaStorm (http://www.ideastorm.com) which successfully has gained many consumer hearts, and even some critics'.

Nevertheless, media coverage shows that many people do not appreciate the effort. Jim Romenesko, keeper of the Starbucks Gossip blog (http://starbucksgossip.com) told Ad Age that he believes Starbucks is just tired of all the negative comments on his site and tried to gain more control. Many echo and suspect Starbucks would not welcome all ideas openly, but filter some comments. Others simply do not think the Dell magic applies here. After all, one can talk a lot about what they want from technology but there are not much average folks can say about coffee.

Guys, let's be open mind. See how Starbuck really treat the ideas and comments first. Social site like this could strengthen or hurt a brand -- all depends on how the companies manage the dialogs. How much control Starbucks can let go? From what I see, it would be a case study of brand hijack or brand disaster a year from now.