Consumer Behavior of Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation, generally known, as Starbucks Coffee is the leading retailer and a brand of world’s forte coffee in the world, with more than 15,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim, wherever in this world where premium quality coffee is in demand. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world ahead of UK rival Costa Coffee, with 20737 stores in 63 countries and territories, including 11910 in the United States, 1496 in China, 1442 in Canada, 1052 in Japan and 772 in the United Kingdom. The first Starbucks was open in 1970. The name was inspired from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a definitive American novel regarding the 19th century whaling industry. The nautical name matches seamlessly for a store that imports the world’s finest coffees to the cold thirsty people of Seattle. In May 1998, Starbucks have finally successfully entered the European market through its acquirement of 65 Coffee Company stores initially originated from Seattle in the UK. Both companies shared a common culture, focusing on a great commitment to customized coffee, similar company values and a mutual respect.

Starbucks first began in 1971 its main goal was to offer a coffee experience that no other coffee shop has done before. As stated in the case study, Starbucks emphasis on customer service included eye contact and greeting each customer within 5 seconds, cleaning tables promptly and remembering the names of regular customers. Starbucks was to reinvent the sense of romance atmosphere sophistication and

Starbucks, named after the first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, was founded in 1971 at Seattle's Pike Place Market by 3 atypical businessmen, Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin & Zev Siegl.

The original idea for the Starbucks format came from the 1980´s when the company´s director if marketing, Howard Schultz, came back from a trip to Italy enchanted with the Italian coffeehouse experience, the idea was to sell the company´s own premium roasted coffee and freshly brewed espresso-style coffee beverages, along with a variety of pastries, coffee accessories, teas, and other products in a tastefully designed coffeehouse setting. The focus was to sell a “third place experience”.

The extraordinary success Starbucks experienced during the early 1990s resulted from Howard Schultz’s passion and vision to create a coffee culture in the United States similar to the coffee culture he experienced while traveling to Italy. Schultz’s vision of the Starbucks brand evolved around providing a quality product while delivering exceptional customer service in an inviting atmosphere. Starbucks’ success can be attributable to the following factors:

Starbucks customers are diverse, well educated, young business people looking for a quick and easy way to grab coffee on their way to work. Starbucks values a strong relationship with their customers so they are

Starbucks is acclaimed for its superior value proposition in the early 1990’s by creating an experience around the consumption of coffee, a ‘third place’. The brand is positioned to offer the highest quality coffee, close customer intimacy, and warm atmosphere or ambience.

When Schultz returned to the States he presented his new-found discoveries, of what he believes a coffee shop should be like. However, his bosses didn’t share the same belief, that creating a coffee shop with “artistic and joyful experiences” was less as important as making coffee that sells well. So, Schultz quit and he went on to raise money to fund his own coffee shop establishment , “Il Giornale.” The store started very small, with only two, or three employees, to keep labor costs down. Only sixteen months into his new founded company, Schultz found himself in the position to buy his former employers’ small scale coffee shop. To Schultz it was a no brainer to buy the company which first sparked his love for coffee, so he did. And at only thirty-four years old Schultz had one-hundred employees, several locations throughout the city of Seattle, and a dream to create a nationally recognized brand of “Starbucks Coffee.”

In general the coffeehouse industry in the United States was experiencing an increase in coffee consumption per capita due to the “Starbucks effect”. At this time Starbucks was operating approximately 20,000 stores in the United States and was living a fast expansion strategy worldwide.

When Starbucks started their target market were people who enjoyed coffee not just for an energy boost from the caffeine, but people who enjoyed sitting down and drinking a well-prepared cup. Upon visiting Italy and falling in love with the coffee bars and the experience that they offered, Schultz envisioned a place between your home and work where you could sit and enjoy your coffee. Starbucks wanted to control their coffee from “raw green beans to the steaming cup” this meant that they had to talk with their farmers to make sure the quality was up to their standards. They were getting coffee from different places around the world that had different characteristics that would attract the type of coffee drinkers they wanted and tasted good. When preparing the coffee they first would ground the roasted beans, this was one of the ways that they attracted people to drink their coffee because it was freshly grounded before brewing. They used manual coffee pots to brew their coffee, which is more time-consuming but showed how dedicated they were with the quality of their product unlike other big companies. Starbucks was priced as a premium cup of coffee compared to other coffee shops, because of the steps they took to make a high-quality cup of Joe from start to finish. They put a lot of time and effort making sure that the atmosphere of

Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle’s Pike Place Market with the name being coined from that of Moby Dick’s first mate (Schultz & Yang 1999). It has spread its shops across North America, all over Europe, the Middle East, Latin America as well as the Pacific Rim with an estimated 35 million customer weekly (Michelli, 2008). With tremendous growth from a small time coffee shop, the company has matured to an international icon that today it is one of the world’s leading retailer, roaster and brand specialty coffee (Story, 1971). The company offers whole bean coffees, espresso beverages, and confectionery and bakery items.

Young customers are between 16 up to 23 years old. They usually prefer cold coffee drinks or blend coffee drinks, such as iced coffee latte, caramel frappuccino, blended milk green tea, etc.

can order and pay for their drinks in a flash while stacking up rewards for each purchase made. This Strategy has significantly drawn people to Starbucks due to its highly anticipated services, products, and marketing strategies that differ from most fast food restaurants. The next service is the Starbucks webpage where the customers can go onto the site and view product and also make purchases. This service is quite excellent for those that want to checkout items online through the site, because it incorporates a similar process as the application on your smartphone. Starbucks also incorporates equipment and drinkware to their massive line of products. First their Drinkware consists of cups and mugs that are affordable to the customers. These cups come in many colors and aesthetic values, which make people interested in purchasing. Starbucks had the right idea when they decided to manufacture these cups out to their customers because not only were they a huge success for the business, but it also made Starbucks distribute more merchandise. Cold cups, which were from stainless steel containers. These containers made a rise once the popularity rose for other merchandise. These containers were sold very often to customers and once again made a surprise since it was from the same line of cups and mugs category. As more popularity grew in their products so did the equipment used to make customers coffee. First Starbucks decided to manufacture coffee makers, presses, and expresso

In 1971, a coffee bean retailing store named Starbucks was opened by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker in order to sell specialty whole-bean coffee in Seattle. And the name "Starbucks" was from mate Starbuck in the novel Moby Dick. In the decade, Starbucks had five stores and a small roasting facility in Seattle till

In 1981, Howard Schultz, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, walked into a Starbucks store for the first time. Highly impressed of the great coffee and the company’s concept, he joined Starbucks a year later. In 1983 he traveled to Italy, where he became fascinated with the coffee culture in