Starbucks Cultural Dimensions

International marketing or business is uniquely different from the local market because the product price, place and promotion is vastly different from what is been offered to local customers (Johansson, 2000) With the emergence of the information technology, cross border marketing has never been a distant dream. However, it has never been easier even for giant multinational companies to face challenges that come in international business. The biggest challenge comes from the culture which varies from country to country.

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 chose to do the Starbucks Ethnography over all of the other options because Starbucks currently plays a large role in the social behaviors of today’s society. It has grown significantly from when it was first founded and is currently dominating the coffee market worldwide. Starbucks has become a social and cultural phenomenon because, “...it is at once a globalized consumer institution and a local place in which the mundane daily activities of sipping coffee, writing in journals, and conversing with friends are practiced” (Dickinson 7). Since I am in the age group that Starbucks is particularly trendy with (young adults), I already have some expectations for what the results of the ethnography will be. I have also lived in Orange County for my entire life, so I had some context as to which race would be more prevalent to the Starbucks I had gone to. I wish to explore the symbolic anthropology, which, “...focuses on understanding cultures by discovering and analyzing the symbols that are most important to their members” (Nanda 35). Understanding the symbolism behind coffee and Starbucks is important since it has multiple meanings and has become deeply ingrained within our culture.

The impact of national cultures on marketing practices has been such that it brought about the creation of an academic field, with as a lead-researcher, Geert. Hofstede, on whose writings I have based my analysis.

For my ethnography report, I chose to study Starbucks located inside the NJIT campus center in Newark, New Jersey. The purpose of this study was to identify the behaviors and possible needs of the people in the area that enter this establishment, and possibly all coffee shops located inside a school campus. I started my ethnography research at 1:45 Pm and ended at 3:45, it was slightly snowing which is a variable that I took into consideration. During the two hours that I spend at the coffee shop only 4 people walked in which I found unusual because people tent to grab a cup of coffee whenever the weather is unpleasant.

I chose the Starbucks Ethnography due to Starbucks’ ubiquity and personal relevance. Every age group knows about Starbucks, from young students in elementary school to retired seniors that are spending their days relaxing. At the place I work, a fourth grader brought a drink in. That someone so young is already drinking a Frappuccino speaks to how far Starbucks’ influence has pervaded society and strongly influenced my decision to write it. Symbolic anthropology, defined as, understanding “a culture by discovering and analyzing the symbols…” (Nanda, 35), is best applied to this ethnography especially due to the green logo that is present on everything that is Starbucks.

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 employs the product, promotion, place and price method of marketing. They place great emphasis on their products and have established themselves

First, Starbucks has effectively applied the product differentiation strategy. To achieve it, the company has specialized in different product mixes, aligned its business locations to a specific ambiance that suits the context, and varied the customer experience, thus resulting in a higher customer service satisfaction. Further, Coskun, Basligil, and Baracli (2008) note that Starbucks prides in having their customers enjoy a premium service. Therefore, the company’s signature strategy has worked well thus far, as competitors find it difficult to imitate. Second, the enterprise has coordinated its acquisition and portfolio strategy, thus consolidating the market. As discussed in the background chapter, Starbucks has a portfolio network of eight brands under its stable. Third, Starbucks’ international expansion strategy has worked well, with a presence in 70 countries (Starbucks, 2017). These factors, coupled with its financial capability, offer Starbucks an edge over its

Four million people worldwide make their daily stop at Starbucks in the desperate need for a coffee fix, just don’t forget to ask them to hold the side of exploitation, modern slavery and deforestation.

When a business decides to venture internationally into different countries with its products, services, and operations, it is very important that the company gains an understanding of how the culture of the different societies affects the values found in those societies. Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most famous and most used studies on how culture relates to values. Hofstede study enabled him to compare dimensions of culture across 40 countries. He originally isolated four dimensions of what he claimed summarized different cultures — power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity (Hill, 2013, p.110). To cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm Hofstede has since added two more dimensions — Confucianism or long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint (Hofstede, n.d.). Because of the way Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are given an index score from 0-100, it is easy for a company to get a general comparison between the cultures they are expanding into and the culture they are already in.

When people think of the most popular coffee house in the country and world, they immediately think of Starbucks. That's because it's true, but what most people don't know is that Starbucks is also ranked #1 on the Most Admired Food Services Companies to work for (America's most admired companies 2007, 2007), and # 16 Best Companies to work for (Best companies to work for 2007, 2007). It also ranked # 2 Most Admired Companies to work for over all, # 6 for Best People management, # 7 for Best Social responsibility, and # 10 for Best Innovation (America's most admired companies 2007, 2007). These are incredible numbers, which is why I choose Starbuck's as the most culturally appealing company that I would

Commercial products of multinational companies are being marketed to people from different cultures owing to an increased growth in the world economy (Lin, 2012). Samli (1995) states that in most cases, consumer attitudes are largely driven by the framework of their culture. Mooji points out that global marketing strategies are not culture-free and should not be because its influence on consumer behavior is profound (1998, 2005) .In his article “The Globalization of Markets”, Levitt (1983) argued that customers can be persuaded by the same advertising appeals and values, irrespective of the culture they belong to.

Starbucks used many tactics to reduce its distance from foreign markets. Firstly, Starbucks conducted extensive research in each country. They used focus groups, and quantitative analysis, to evaluate local cultural sensitivities and preferences. But it also used specific local adaptations. For

1. What factors in the global environment provide opportunities or threats for Starbucks? How do Starbuck’s strengths and weaknesses match up to its opportunities and threats?