Starbucks ' Essential Target Market

I found that the majority of the clientele appeared to be middle or upper class individuals. It became apparent that Starbucks appealed to people of a certain socioeconomic status through their thoughtful use of products, language, décor, and location. Socioeconomic status (SES) is defined as “an individual’s position in a stratified social order,” meaning upper middle, or lower class. SES is primarily determined by income. The remainder of this paper will look at the different ways that Starbucks caters to the more privileged.

I observed seven customers from ten o’clock until eleven o’clock. The second hour of observation occurred at Mugsies Coffee Shop in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. I observed four customers between eleven o’clock until twelve o’clock. A few conclusions from my field notes were that of the seven customers I observed at Starbuck’s there were only three customers labeled as upper class and four customers labeled middle class. It was interesting to see that most people who visited Starbucks are middle class. Location, population, and cost may determine the type of people who visit a coffee shop. My analysis concluded that approximately 75% of Starbuck’s customers are middle class. At the second coffee shop, my field notes and results reflect that I observed four individuals, two customers were labeled as high class and two customers were middle class, therefore the ratio was a 50% high class and 50% middle class customers visit Mugsies Coffee Shop. My hypothesis that more middle class individuals would come into Mugsies rather than high class individuals was correct. Of the four customers there were two high class and two middle class individuals who visited Mugsies. Overall, during observations at both coffee shops I observed no customers with children and there were no lower class customers visiting either coffee shop. Therefore, one would conclude that both coffee shops have a customer base comprised of middle and upper class

The survey questions mostly consisted of multiple choice questions, two open-ended questions, allowing written responses, and one qualitative response question. These questions were chosen to establish consumers differences and comparative perspective of Starbuck’s competitors, their daily usage of the social media platforms, the coffee shops visited frequently, and their opinions on consumers who frequent Starbucks. The survey contains one matrix/rating scale question ( Appendix I, Question 5) based on how important qualities are when choosing a coffee shop. Lastly, there were two demographic questions. The demographic questions are for a general understanding on consumers behavior based on age group and gender. For an overview of the survey, see appendix I.

Founded in 1985, Starbucks is one of the largest coffeehouse companies in the world with over 16,000 stores in 50 countries. This report evaluates major internal and external factors affecting Starbucks using various analytical techniques. Based on the Starbucks brand in UK, it identifies suitable marketing strategies for Starbucks to expand its business in the UK market within the next two years. In line with the chosen marketing strategies, recommendations for the marketing mix are discussed.

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

Starbucks is no doubt a phenomenon in the United States, but the brand wants to expand globally. Opening chains in various global locations such as Japan, Vienna, England; Starbucks wants to reach out to the coffee loving fans everywhere. Nevertheless opening chains globally is not that simple. There are many uncontrollable factors Starbucks need to focus on to make sure they are making profit as well has abiding by the country’s laws and regulations. Going global takes a lot of market research to make sure that the brand will be successful even with uncontrollable factors. Controllable factors can be tailored to fit the needs of each country. Starbucks has to find the happy medium so they don’t lose their identity overseas.

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.

Starbucks positions itself as a place college students can hang out, study, write term papers and meet people. A Starbucks appeal to this consumer directly through introducing technology as soon as it comes available, focusing on social networking and actively cultivating a “cool” image. The young adult audience grows 4.6 percent each year (O’ Farrell).” However, the majority of the advertising is catered to Adults around the ages of 25 to 40. Adults seem to prefer a pick me up first thing in the morning on their way to work. Most Starbucks today have a drive thru to make it faster to grab and go.

Starbucks customers are diverse, well educated, young business people looking for a quick and easy way to grab coffee on their way to work. Starbucks values a strong relationship with their customers so they are

Several key success factors exist for Starbucks, a leader in the coffee industry. They include

If the service is excellent and the customer has a memorable experience, there will be an emotional aspect that connects the customer to Starbucks. Excelling in service also benefits existing customers and deepens customer loyalty.

Customers: The demographics of a usual Starbucks consumer have altered extremely in the new years. In the Starbucks case documents innovative consumers of Starbucks are younger, a smaller amount knowledgeable, low pay, less frequent visited to the coffeehouse and had very dissimilar insights. The general outlook of Starbucks is very short on 25% by novel consumers while the consistent consumers stood in 44%.Although numerous features subjective customer satisfaction, generally service and quickness of service were recognized as the greatest significant; a rapid glimpse at Starbucks 's fresh customer satisfaction reveals that consumers did in

Exhibit 8 shows customer retention information. We can find from this data, that established customers and new customers are quite different in respect of education, income and attitudes toward Starbucks. According to the exhibit, customers who first visited Starbucks five years ago have higher degree of education and higher income level. Beside that, new Starbucks customers do not see it as a brand of high value, while established customers believe Starbucks to be brand they trust (50%), offering high quality product (51%). Next exhibit suggests, who customers visiting Starbucks stores often, are more satisfied, than customers who buy coffee from the company average four visits per month.

A target market, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2004), consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. The decision for Starbucks to decide what their target is, depends on the market forces, competitive, political, environmental and social factors (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 1995). Starbucks is very careful of every step they make in their coffee production by analysing influences that could affect the process; for example the price of coffee beans (bargaining power) and barriers to entry in to the market. So far these processes haven’t affected Starbucks entirely because there are not any real

Question 1:When Howard Schultz launched Starbucks, who was the target market and how was Starbucks positioned to appeal to this target market?