Starbucks Brand Identity

With time the small industry of coffee has modernized into a multibillion dollar industry that surrounds the world. With the growth of the industry there has been many world wide changes. Over the past 30 years coffee shops have jumped to the front of the public culture. New coffee shops have changes the face of American cities along with British, German, Colombian, Kenyan and Indonesia towns to name few. (Coffee a comprehensive guide to the bean, the beverage, and the industry) Around the world coffee has become part of the daily culture and coffee shops have grown to accommodate the massive demand that people ask for. Without the growth of the industry there would be a shortage of the product and many would have to go without their beloved beverage. In the United States alone there has been a massive increase in the number of coffee shops. In 1980 the number of coffee shops was a year 2,000 and by 2008 there was an astonishing 27,715. (Coffee a comprehensive guide to the bean, the beverage, and the industry) This was an increase of over ten times in the short time. 11,000 of those stores, almost half, were Starbucks one of the biggest coffee brands in the worlds. The growth of Starbucks is due to the work of Howard Schultz a worker for the company before they became as massive as they are today. Starbucks started very small in Seattle, Washington in the mid 1970’s. Howard bought out the owners and then went on to turn the small company into a massive corporation. (Coffee a

Have you ever been so tired during the day you need a wake up call? I have and Starbucks gives me an extra boost of energy to complete my day. Many consumers buy the product thinking it will help you get energy, find their true love, that it will help your day get better or that it’s all natural. It does this by using pathos, logos and perceived value.

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.

Nowadays everybody knows the emblematic green twin-tailed siren design that is the Starbucks' logo, however back in 1971, Starbucks was a single and relatively unknown store, specialised in the roasting and selling of whole bean and ground coffee, tea and spices, in Seattle's Pike Place Market.

It is evident that there are many things being fetishized in present day. Specialty coffee has been become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. As of 2001 27 million Americans consumed specialty coffee daily (Ponte 2002:1111). It can be said that Starbucks helped create the explosion and set the environment that it drew with

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 revolves around ignorance, a lot of Starbucks customers do not know what the logo is depicting, let alone what the mythical background it has. The use of the mythological Siren was intended to lure and attract customers into Starbucks. Having more knowledge about the Siren makes the logo have the opposite attraction than intended. If the Siren lures men to their death, what would the coffee shop utilizing the siren do?

I chose to complete the social brand inventory on Starbucks Corporation. Starbucks’s logo and only symbol is an image of a siren, a two-tailed mermaid. Starbucks does not have one positioning statement, but varying slogans by product or marketing campaign. Six popular slogans include “It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks”, “Life happens over coffee”; “Coffee is Culinary”, “Let’s Merry”, “Starbucks DoubleShot. Bring on the day”, and “Starbucks Frappuccino. Work can wait.”

The world-renowned coffee company, Starbucks, has been around since 1971, and many believe the green lady in their logo is a mermaid, however, that is incorrect. The original location of the popular coffee shop is at Pike Place Market in Seattle and because of Seattle’s environment as a town next to the sea, the company wanted to have a logo that represented that statement. This is where the siren comes in, but wait, what is a siren? In Greek Mythology, a siren was a combination of the head of a woman and body of a bird, however, as time went on, a siren also became known as a mermaid with two-twin tails. For Starbucks, coffee came from the sea, and with the connection of the siren also originating from the sea, the icon was

“We are not in the coffee business, serving people. We are in the people business, serving coffee”, Howard Schultz’s philosophy has shaped and continues shape Starbucks, the world’s number one specialty coffee retailer with over 21,000 outlets in more than 65 countries nowadays (Starbucks, 2011). Starbucks was founded in 1971 and Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982. In 1987, Howard acquired Starbucks and changed the name to Starbucks Corporation.

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 has a corporate identity that is based around how they sell more than just coffee. They sell a lifestyle. Starbucks uses text and images to convey their lifestyle to their target audiences. They don’t use big advertisements such as television or print which makes their brand seem more personal to each customer. In our society today we use brands such as this to form our own identity and to advertise ourselves in the world.

Howard Schultz didn’t just build a company, he built an empire. Starbucks’ Coffee is a benchmark in the coffee trade, for coffee drinkers and, even non-coffee drinkers. He nursed a small company in the big city of Seattle, to a global

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.

This essay discuss about how Starbucks utilizes its marketing mix in order to gain market share. Starbucks, which has been in the coffeehouse industry for 41 years, face higher competition than before. Even so, Starbucks is able to not only survive through this, but they are able to be “one of the most valuable global brands” (Theodore 2002). In its maturity stage, they are capable of expanding their consumer base despite the fact of increasing competition.