Horizontal Differentiation in the UK Coffee Shop Market
“In the presence of horizontal product differentiation, there is a tension between the desire to weaken price competition and the desire for increased market share.” Explain this statement. Critically evaluate its implications for corporate decision-making regarding the specification of products by analysing, in the context of real-world industry of your choice, the product specification chosen to serve the same market by each of two or more industry rivals.
Coffeehouses first came popular in the UK in the mid-17th century with the first ones being established in Oxford in 1650. In the mid-1990s Seattle-based coffee shop conglomerate Starbucks successfully entered the UK market,
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This market dominance shows just how important the larger chains are in the coffee shop market.” (Keynote, 2012).
For the purposes of this essay, due to the dominance of Costa and Starbucks and their ever-increasing share of the market, in terms of both value and volume, the coffee-shop market in the UK is assumed to be a duopoly. There is, however, a fairly significant number of smaller chains and independent operators within the market, (Keynote, 2012). However, a Hotelling model or a product differentiation model where the competition within groups (independents) is more important than the competition between the groups, can justify this simplification. (Zaouras, 2012).
Starbucks and Costa have competed over the past decade in terms of the number of the outlets that they have; however, in 2009, Costa opened its 1,000th store in Cardiff, making it the biggest coffee chain in terms of volume in the country (Keynote, 2012).
Starbucks and Costa mainly offer the same menu; however, it can be implied that it is the way they position their brand and specify their products that drives these differences in consumer preferences.
In 2011 Costa Coffee has decided to acquire Coffee Nation, the operator of nearly 1000 self-service coffee machines for £60 million. According to (Blatchford, 2011), by this company positioned its products for convenience – these machines have been installed at railway stations and
The specialty coffee industry had seen steady growth for years and the trend was expected to continue until at least 2015. Of the various segments within the specialty coffee industry, most of the growth was attributable to beverage retailers “Coffee and kiosks”. In 1979 there were approximately 250 specialty coffee retailers. The number quadrupled by 1989 to approx 1000 outlets, and it exploded to roughly 15000 by 2002. Nationally, specialty coffee sales totaled over $ 10 billion in 2005.
Within the coffee industry Starbucks Corporations has grown from a small shop to a leading coffee distributor, proving to have financial strength and determination to continue growth. With the weakening economy the continued success of Starbucks
Starbucks is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain which founded in Seattle and Washington from 1971, Starbucks already operated more than 20000 locations worldwide. (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2016) As one of the bestselling coffeehouse chain, Starbucks need to find a long term corporation supplier to provide coffee beans. Costa Rican coffee beans are considered among the best in the world. (Kummer, 2003)
The “Coffee Wars – The Big Three: Starbucks, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts” article focuses on the company analysis of the Starbucks brand and how its main competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts, has affected their brand and driven competition higher. Even though there are many companies trying to enter the specialty coffee market, these three companies own the majority of the market share. With Starbucks’ top quality and above average prices they hold a different market than the fast coffee/food market of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks; yet the competitive moves Dunkin’ Donuts has made over the years in order to compete with Starbucks and surpass McDonald’s has driven competition up between all three companies. The competition has stiffened ever more in the past ten years due to the changing economy. This led to “the big three” to come up with different techniques to gain competitive advantage over the other. Although the competition between these companies is to gain most of the market share, consumers are still loyal to a certain brand; this makes it difficult to gain each other’s clientele. McDonald’s continues to appeal to customers who want value and speed, Dunkin’ Donuts focuses on the middle-class, while Starbucks a customer who desires a higher quality product along with being recognized for using the brand.
Founded in 1985, Starbucks is one of the largest coffeehouse companies in the world with over 16,000 stores in 50 countries. This report evaluates major internal and external factors affecting Starbucks using various analytical techniques. Based on the Starbucks brand in UK, it identifies suitable marketing strategies for Starbucks to expand its business in the UK market within the next two years. In line with the chosen marketing strategies, recommendations for the marketing mix are discussed.
Because of their substantial growth over two decades, they have spent a considerable amount of time defending their image. Their “clustering” strategy put many small coffee shops out of business and many consumers began to wonder if there really was a need
officially the world’s largest coffee chain, with a total of 21878 stores operating globally as
Starbucks has created a competitive advantage with their product quality by setting themselves apart from their competitors. “The Company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which is the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts” (Mourdoukoutas, Panos). Consumers believe they are receiving a better product and experience when they purchase from a Starbucks as opposed to another large food service company that may sell coffee.
The competition is encroaching on the coffee shop but the competition is a chain. Tim has the ability to make his coffee shop an individual coffee shop
The industry’s saturation is moderately high with a monopolistic competition structure. For new entrants, the initial investment is not significant as they can lease stores, equipment etc. at a moderate level of investment. At a localized level, small coffee shops can compete with the likes of Starbucks and Dunkin Brands because there are no switching costs for the consumers. Even though it’s a competitive industry, the possibility of new entrants to be successful in the industry is moderate. But this relatively easy entry into the market is usually countered by large incumbent brands identities like Starbucks who have achieved economies of scale by lowering cost, improved efficiency with a huge market share. There is a moderately high barrier for the new entrants as they differentiate themselves from Starbuck’s product quality, its prime real estate locations, and its store ecosystem ‘experience’. The incumbent firms like Starbucks have a larger scale and scope, yielding them a learning curve advantage and favourable access to raw material with the relationship they build with their suppliers. The expected retaliation from well-established companies for brand equity, resources, prime real estate locations and price competition are moderately high, which creates a moderate barrier to
Although Starbucks follows many of the five generic competitive strategies the strategy they follow most closely is the broad differentiation approach. Starbucks has put an emphasis on product differentiation in order to keep up with their ever-expanding company base. They have been extremely successful in their differentiation compared to their competitors. Starbucks offers such a multitude of products, which allows them to appeal to a variety of consumers. There are seven differentiating features of the generic competitive strategies. The following are ways in which the
Coffee, a cup of Joe, Java or brew, it goes by many names. It can be your morning jump-start or even used as an afternoon pick me up, to be enjoyed alone or with the company of others. It is a drinkable source of energy that is enjoyed in the United States and in many other places around the globe as well. It’s no wonder that coffee is such a popular commodity. Companies such as Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee have revolutionized the coffee shop industry in the United States by making it easy and convenient for consumers to purchase single-serving cups of coffee on a regular basis. Not only is the service quick and convenient, but it also allows consumers the ability to personalize their drinks to make it to their desired preference, making it a more enjoyable experience rather than just having a cup of instant coffee at home. In this paper, I will be exploring the coffee shop industry, which will be defined as firms who sell single-serving cups of coffee to their consumers.
This study gives a brief review of the U.S. and international coffee shop industry. The coffee industry includes 20,000 stores with combined revenue of $11 billion. Approximately 20
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.
World 's greatest café organization with more than 21,000 stores around the world. The Starbucks is the second Most Profitable Brand in Fast Food Industry Brand Estimation of $ 25.8 Billion. Starbucks entered Australia in 2000 yet has attempted to contend with set up chains, for example, McCafé, Gloria jeans, and autonomous cafés reported the Sydney Morning Messenger. While McDonald 's has been attempting to extend its espresso business in the U.S., it has as of now turned into Australia’s greatest chain. Among Starbucks ' extra issues in Australia: opening in zones with minimal passer-by activity, high menu costs, and too small advertising. The exploration issue is the disappointment of Starbucks in