My Letter At The Lind Hall Starbucks Essay

I saw a girl walking alone to the building, she was Caucasian, and around the same height as mine. I cautiously walked up to her trying not to bump anyone in those overflowing crowd of students, and with a strong Asian accent I asked “Hey, are the schedules for our classes there?”

For my ethnography project, I decided to observe the Starbucks on Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio. My plan was to observe the subculture of Starbucks’ customers. A subculture is defined as a “structured social inequality or, more specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships.” My question was twofold. Does Starbucks appeal to certain social statuses? And if so, does Starbucks serve as another example of social inequality?

I met with Christine, an acquaintance I know through members of a twelve step program. We met for about 20 minutes over coffee. As we spoke, I asked the questions that I prepared,

* Establish a positive image with the local university to create additional long term clientele.

Starbucks was bought out by current CEO Howard Schultz in 1987. Since then, Andrew Harrer (2012) reports the company has grown to operate over “17,244 stores worldwide” (para. 1). Fortune (n.d.) reports in its yearly 100 Best Companies to Work for that Starbucks employs “some 95,000 employees”. From only a handful of stores in 1987 to a billion dollar franchise today, the success of Starbucks is due in great deal to their corporate culture, specifically how employees, or as Starbucks calls them, partners are treated. Joseph Michelli (2007) echoes this sentiment, “A great cup of coffee is only part of the Starbucks success equation” (p. 767).

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.

Q 1) What is the current positioning strategy? Is it working? Why or why not?

Starbucks Corps had its gross account receivables for the year 2015 increase by 14.44% which led to its net receivables increase by $88,000,000 which translates to an increase of 13.95% of the net account receivables. This was followed by an increase in doubtful debts through the previous year by 6.12% to %6,700,000 from the ear 2014. This is due to the increase in the number also sales which led to the increase in account receivables and also doubtful debts in 2015. The risk that the company undertook also increases in line with the increase in account receivables.

1. Where did the original idea for the Starbucks format come from? What lesson for international business can be drawn from this?

1. What factors accounted for Starbucks’ extraordinary success in the early 1990’s? What was so compelling about the Starbucks’ value proposition? What brand image did Starbucks develop during this period? Is the value proposition still valid in 2002?

Imaging if there was no more coffee in this world, how would you feel? Nowadays, coffee becomes an important part of people’s life. People who often work overtime, they drink coffee because caffeine can make you awake; people who have to wake up early in the morning, they drink coffee because instead of making breakfast, coffee is more convenient; people drink coffee during the free time, because it also tastes good.

Starbucks is really well known and also believed to be the leading coffee company in the universe. Starbucks is the one of the successful examples to build a good reputation through social media. Starbucks heavily promotes ethical practices throughout the media to create a halo effect. So, Starbucks gains customer’s trust. Starbucks has put different types of Sales Promotion across the country and other nations with hopes of motivating more customer to purchase, especially in times of economic hardships where people are less likely to buy. The coffee company uses all forms of different sales promotion. For instance, Starbucks offered 50% off Frappuccino from 3pm until 5pm on 6 May 2015 in Malaysia. This promotion is

The Coffee Clubs first cafe opened in 1989, since then more and more stores have been opened worldwide. The Coffee Club has two different styles of stores those being either a small cafe or a restaurant. There are many stores scattered around New Zealand from Otago to Auckland with 55 outlets being in New Zealand and 350 plus worldwide.(Franchise New Zealand Limited, 2015) As an organisation their vision is to be a global leader in retail food, coffee and franchising. This means they want to lead by example to other companies in the same industry. Their mission is to provide good food, great service and excellent coffee and a welcoming meeting place with an inspiring contemporary lifestyle to its

Starbucks extends their coffee experience to everyone: kids, teenagers and adults. Part of their success comes from their ability to create new products that fit the culture of the country. In Japan, for instance, Starbucks launched green tea lattes, which later became popular in other countries (Allison). Starbucks is well established in countries like Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom. In the US alone, Starbucks sells 4 million cups of coffee per day (Horovitz). Their products and services have transformed the way customers view coffee. Changing the way customers order, Starbucks makes it very chic to purchase custom drinks. Starbucks is like no other coffee shop: the dimmed lights

Coffee shops are well known as a place where you can get any types of coffee and related coffee beverages any time you want and need. Many coffee houses nowadays are serving also some food, snacks and desserts. Some of coffee shops turned into huge business and large companies like Starbucks.