Marketing Analysis : The Specialty Coffee Industry

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.

Starbucks is a “premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee” (Marketline 2012). This company is globally recognized because of their vast amount of stores, consisting of more than 17,000 retail stores in over 55 countries. Most retail stores are in highly populated areas, like “downtown and suburban centers, office buildings, university campuses and in select rural and off-highway locations” (Marketline 2012).

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.

Starbucks is dominant coffee brand in North America, which also is well-known worldwide. Established in 1971 as coffee shop oriented to a niche of coffee purists, in late 1980’s it turned to be a constantly growing chain of stores that sold whole-beans and premium-priced coffee to mostly affluent, well-educated customers. In years 1992-2002 company was showing at least 5% annual growth. And by 2002 Starbucks was serving already 20M customers in 5886 stores (both operated and licensed) around the globe, had $3.3 billion net revenues and was opening 3 new stores a day in average.

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.

Cameron’s coffee has been able to grow tremendously since 1999. However, the times are changing and it is time for the company to branch out of their comfort zone and tap into new market places. To accomplish this task the company will need to utilize different application to expand the company’s vision, values, and goals to their consumers. Getting the company’s products, visions, and future goals out to the consumers is imperative to the success of the company. Being that the company was founded in 1978 and transitions during a time that the internet was just starting to develop its only natural to notice a need to upgrade the company’s software as well as increase their internet presences. Therefore, Cameron’s Coffee will need to boost their social media presence as well as utilize other marketing tools within the cloud computing, and the data collected via marketing surveys that is brought in through the applications to make changes to their products, shipping, and other issues that may hinder the sale of the coffee. Cameron’s coffee will need to branch out and create social media accounts to be able to reach the other areas of the market place and get a feel of what products would work best within those markets.

The specialty coffee market is intensely competitive, including with respect to product quality, innovation, service, convenience, and price, and we face significant and increasing competition in all these areas in each of our channels and markets.

By 2003, the number of retail specialty coffee shops, cafes, kiosks, coffee carts, and roasters in the United States reached over 17,000, equating to nearly $9 billion in sales. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, 16 percent of adults in the United States drink coffee from one of these specialty outlets daily. (“Organo Gold”, 2008).

Starbucks will be the first come in your mind when you want to have a cup of coffee. Don’t you feel curious about why is Starbucks so successful? This report explains how Starbucks take advantage in consumer purchase decision making process, how does Starbucks attract customer, how does Starbucks segment its market and new trends in society affect purchasing process.

Moreover, most of the people know the brand Starbucks as the leader of the coffee industry. It is enormously successful and it comes out with no surprise that this will be used as benchmarking against the study of Dunkin’ Donuts.

Having more than two hundred seventy three company owned stores, Caribou Coffee is the second largest company- operated premium coffeehouse and retailer in the United States. Although it’s one of the largest coffeehouses it still has to compete with not only national coffeehouses like Starbucks but local ones as well.

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.

Starbucks’ lead in the specialty coffee industry exemplifies the result of deftly executing a well-planned business strategy. Moreover, Starbucks is well positioned for what is expected to be a continuing rise in the popularity of specialty coffee products. The question before Starbucks’ leadership, however, is what avenues will lead to Starbucks’ goal of remaining true to its core, the highest quality coffee products while providing a “total coffee experience” for its customers?

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.

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.