Starbucks Coffee Case History
Tyler Hass
Principles of Marketing
Professor Bausano
10/3/2012
What Explains the Starbucks Success Story? Howard Schultz had the perfect plan to create a successful coffee company. He got people to pay more for a premium coffee then to just go to a local coffee shop and pay a lot less for a cheaper coffee. He did this by creating an experience around purchasing your coffee. Starbucks focused on creating relationships with its customers while providing one of the best premium coffees out there. Also being able to customize your own drink was a big success in getting people to purchase the product. A high quality coffee was one key component to Starbucks value proposition. Another was service and
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Starbucks had achieved its extraordinary growth by taking over the market by building a lot of sights which had a drawback of businesses cannibalizing each other. They also didn 't spend much money on advertising or marketing which had the drawback of no product differentiation. Finally, they created a good experience for customers with complex customized drinks which had the drawback of slower service time. I believe that it is possible for a mega-brand to deliver customer intimacy.
What does Starbucks ' Customer Base look like Today? The customer base is different than when Starbucks started up. The newer customers are younger, less well-educated lower income people. Also the target market has got more ethnic with more types of females. The customer service should still be the same because the newer customers behaved in the same way. They acquire customers by expanding their product market and creating new products. Customer satisfaction usually is the deterministic factor if someone is to come back to the store or not. Also the quality of the product usually determines that also. The profitability of a customer is based on the amount of times they return to the store in a month. They should put a lot of emphasis on its regular customers for they provide 67% of the sales. However they need to make sure they make all of their customers happy because that is still 38% of the sales and can definitely help in the long run for profit
Starbucks was not the only company selling coffee, so Howard took the approach to be different by establishing a community and wanted to show the consumer they were not like the other company from the furniture, picture that was hung in their store, the selection of music. Schultz did not think that Starbucks would become so famous and to stores throughout the world (Millman,
The extraordinary success Starbucks experienced during the early 1990s resulted from Howard Schultz’s passion and vision to create a coffee culture in the United States similar to the coffee culture he experienced while traveling to Italy. Schultz’s vision of the Starbucks brand evolved around providing a quality product while delivering exceptional customer service in an inviting atmosphere. Starbucks’ success can be attributable to the following factors:
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
When Howard Schultz launched Starbucks, its main targets were the competitors and the customers. Schultz’s brand aimed at gaining dominance in the coffee industry in addition creating a Italian coffee shop feel in the United States (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). The strategy of Starbucks was based on new products, listening to customers wants and ensure future expansion (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). In creating convenience for customers, Starbucks created stores almost on top of eachother. They hinged on the idea that, they did not want to lose out on a sale if a line was too long. This action, of placing stores in heavy populated areas, basing need on projected growth of an area caused some decline in sales during economic trouble with the economy. The 2007 recession, failure of subprime mortgages, increased competition from McDonald 's McCafe brand, and Dunkin Doughnuts all led to a decline in sales for Starbucks in the fourth quarter of 2007 (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). To attempt to regain market share and recover after the
Regarding demographics, we can divide the business into age, family, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality and social class. For distinguishing customers ' group, demographics variables are the most popular one to use (Kotler, P. 2003). Starbucks ' essential target market are men and women matured 25 to 40. They represent just about a large portion of (49 percent) of its aggregate business. The young adults comprises up to 40 percent of Starbucks market. According to Price, Starbucks most of the target market is socio economic class C1 and B. Just because of higher price, people who are included in this class can easily afford Starbucks coffee.
Most know Starbucks, the ubiquitous retail chain that, in the 1990’s, turned coffee drinking into a national pastime. However few know Howard Schultz, the humble chairman, CEO and mastermind behind Starbucks’. Schultz is credited with bringing Italy’s “coffeehouse culture” to the United States and packaging it for mass consumption. This maverick marketer transformed a little-known four-chain store in the leading retailer of specialty coffee in North America.
Seeing a Starbucks sign reminds a person of the tantalizing flavors that are brewed from the store that sells millions of people their first cup of coffee every morning. Upon walking into the store, it is inviting and welcoming. The staff is friendly and helpful and the crowd is eager to enjoy that bittersweet java on the taste buds. When an order is made, the staff prepares each individual cup of coffee fresh, and exactly to the customer’s preference. Starbucks Corporation is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world. Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz has built a booming empire, with 13,500
Howard Schultz stated that he always wanted to do something to make a difference for the society therefore he started to do that. The values that I admire from Schultz was his belief in employee satisfaction driving them to create customer’s satisfied and pleasant about their coffee, having his employees satisfied by having communication and training in the workplace, making high quality beverages quickly and make it how the customer would like it to be e.g. with one sugar, skim milk or caramel sauce
Howard Schultz’s idea with Starbucks in the mid 1980’s was to create a chain of coffeehouses with a product differentiation of specialty “live coffee”, service or customer intimacy with an “experience”, and an atmosphere of a “third place” to add to their work and home alternatives. The original stores sold whole beans and premium-priced coffee beverages by the cup and catered primarily to affluent, well educated, white-collar patrons (skewed female) between the ages of 25 and 44. By 2002, there were over 5,000 stores around the globe. The company spent minimal dollars on advertising to promote a brand concept. Enforced exacting coffee standards by controlling the supply chain as much as possible,
Starbucks is globally known for their high-quality products and focuses on exceptional customer service while providing a unique, “Starbucks experience” where customers form a strong emotional attachment.
Starbucks is the leader of the coffee market. As an individual company, it controls several times more market share than any of its competitors. More than just a high-priced coffee shop, Starbucks offers a combination of quality, authority and relative value (Corporation,
In this Assignment it is going to be analyzed the marketing strategies adopted by Starbuck Coffee and Virgin Group of companies. They have used, different strategies to expand the business activities. In terms of Starbucks they have used market penetration strategy to grab the market and when increasing sales revenue. With reference to Virgin Group of companies, they follow differentiation strategy and therefore, they have entered in to variety of markets. Due to these differences they have adopted variety of pricing strategies to reach the customers.
Starbucks is diversifying into other related industries including bottled water, and even the music retailing industry. When a customer enters a Starbucks, they get a wide choice of many different types of products. They provide bagels, souvenirs, pastries, yogurt, wraps, fruit, Frappuccino, Espressos, Tazo teas, and many other items. Starbucks uses contemporary design of all promotional, web-related, and other material to keep it appealing to young generations. This contemporary look and feel is unified throughout all their material, so even the older target segments will feel younger when they drink your coffee.
The original Starbucks opened in Seattle, Washington, in 1971 by three partners: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker. The three were inspired by Alfred Peet, whom they knew personally, to open their first store in Pike Place Market to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment. The original Starbucks location was at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971-1976. That store then moved to 1912 Pike Place; it is still open. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet 's, and then began buying directly from growers.
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues and sources within a company into one seamless program. That program is designed to help maximize the communication with consumers, businesses and any other affiliates of an organization (Lascu & Clow, 2012). The Integrated Marketing Communication involves communication to four primary groups. Those groups include customers, channel members, employees and stakeholders (Lascu & Clow, 2012). With IMC, identifying, coordinating and managing all forms of communication is used to bring the company’s brands and divisions under central control (Lascu & Clow, 2012). When it comes to the logos, themes and colors of Starbucks, it’s the mermaid, with “Starbucks Coffee” printed and the colors of the green, black and white on all of their products.