Marketing Analysis and Strategy Recommendation for Starbucks Coffee Company

As the world’s number one specialty coffee retailer, Starbucks sells coffee drinks, food items, coffee beans, and coffee-related accessories and equipment. In addition, Starbucks sells whole-bean coffees through a specialty sales group and grocery stores. Starbucks has grown beyond coffee into related businesses such as coffee-flavoured ice cream and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Starbucks business strategy, customer value proposition, company’s operations and the risks to financial results and reporting in the short term.

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 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 Corp., an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, has expanded rapidly since its opening in 1971. These outrageous success was due to its well-developed strategy vision which lay out the company's strategic course in developing and strengthening its business. Starbucks is a global corporation that sells authentic coffee in 30 countries, reporting revenues of nearly $5.1 billion in 2006. The main goal of Starbucks is to embrace diversity by applying the highest standards of excellence. Starbucks strives to perfect the relationship with the working class by making the service as fast as possible because they believe that every customer has their own personal rate. One

This Module 1 SLP will be the first part of an in-depth market analysis. The company I have chosen is Starbucks Coffee Company. The first Starbucks opened in 1971 at Pike Place market in Seattle, WA. Eleven years later, Howard Schultz was hired by the company to be the director of retail operations and marketing. The first Starbucks with the current coffee house look and feel was opened in 1984 in downtown Seattle. The Starbucks headquarters is still located in Seattle, WA. Currently, Starbucks is relying on retail expansion, product innovation, and service innovation to achieve this long-term goal once set by current chairman Howard Schultz: “The idea was to create a chain of coffeehouses

By late 2002 Starbucks had dominated the specialty coffee industry in America. The company was experiencing its eleventh year of 5% or higher store sales growth, serving 20 million customers in over 5000 stores around the world. Even more remarkable is the success the company achieved without the use of mass marketing.

It is difficult trying to confine the type of industry Starbucks operates in. The company is a vertically integrated company which imports its own green coffee beans, roasts the beans to perfection, distributes it to its chain coffee houses, and then puts it into the hands of the

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971, opening its first location in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Starbucks, named after the first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, is the world's leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee with coffeehouses in North America, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Worldwide, approximately 33 million customers visit a Starbucks coffeehouse each week.

Starbucks is a strong competitor in the service sector and a leader in the gourmet coffee industry. With a continued growth rate in store openings and maintaining successful profitability of its operations, Starbucks has demonstrated its ability to sustain a reliable and steady growth. Starbucks’ ability to contend with the vulnerability to current financial threats such as economic recession, higher interest rates, and global competition, is constantly proven by its incomparable brand image, its continual product innovations, and its exceptional customer service. This

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?

Starbucks is the worlds largest coffee shop chain company and continues its aggressive growth through international expansion and new product development.

When taking a look at the Starbucks Coffee Corporation, it is essential to understand where the company is standing today:

Now Starbucks total coffee supplier, the retail market in the United States because it is user-friendly, because it organized a music and book events and Wi-Fi connection, all outlets like a home or office (Ferguson, 2002) popular . Unlike other popular food industry, such as McDonald's has been providing marketing authorization and super stores, generating large revenues through its presence in the store. Revenue generated by the company is basically through the entire bean coffee is 76 percent, followed by equipment that is 18%, through food and drink is quite insignificant 3%

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.

Successful companies are companies that have a plan for where they are going, and where they want to be in the future. To successfully create this plan, companies need to examine themselves, along with their competitors, to see what areas need to be strengthened and what can be utilized to do so. Some of the main components of this analyzation are identifying what the major issues in the companies that are threats or are causing that weakness. They then need to create long term objectives, and quantify how to accomplish them-- whether they be financial or strategic. Starbucks as a company has three key issues: increased competition from new and/or expanding restaurants and coffee shops, they are less popular overseas, and there are many consumers who boycott Starbucks because it is such a mainstream prevalent brand.