Starbucks Marketing Principles

As the world’s number one specialty coffee retailer, Starbucks sells coffee drinks, food items, coffee beans, and coffee-related accessories and equipment. In addition, Starbucks sells whole-bean coffees through a specialty sales group and grocery stores. Starbucks has grown beyond coffee into related businesses such as coffee-flavoured ice cream and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Starbucks business strategy, customer value proposition, company’s operations and the risks to financial results and reporting in the short term.

Starbucks has developed a brand image that has revolutionized coffee drinking experience. It has created an ambiance that is designed to attract customers and keep them coming back to Starbucks stores. It offers wide varieties of services such as comfortable seating areas with unique music and free wireless Internet for their customers while sipping their favorite coffee. This distinctiveness sets Starbucks apart from most of its competitors and has allowed the company to successfully grow and profit while charging premium prices for their products.

Starbucks has created a competitive advantage with their product quality by setting themselves apart from their competitors. “The Company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which is the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts” (Mourdoukoutas, Panos). Consumers believe they are receiving a better product and experience when they purchase from a Starbucks as opposed to another large food service company that may sell coffee.

It’s a known fact that Starbucks is one of the leading brand in the market.When we analyse the market we find that Mcdonald 's and Dunkin are the competitors in the same product segment. So comparing Starbucks with these competitors will throw light on its grey areas, process and competitive edge in the market.

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’ 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?

In the north, Starbucks entered a joint-venture with Beijing Mei Da coffee company. In the east, Starbucks partnered with the Taiwan-based Uni-President. In the south, Starbucks worked with Hong Kong-based Maxim’s Caterers. Each partner brings different strengths and local expertise that helped Starbucks gain insights into the tastes and preferences of local Chinese consumers.

A. Many people would assume that Starbucks has reached, or is fairly close to its saturation point. In just about any city, suburb, train station, or college campus, there’s a Starbucks location to meet coffee drinkers needs. With Starbucks expanding, a likely investment would be to continue expansion worldwide. Not only should Starbucks concentrate on expanding its footprint, but also continue to alter its stores. Rather than opening more dine-in restaurants, Starbucks should concentrate on drive-thrus in urban and suburban areas.

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.

Market positioning and growth strategies play an instrumental role in sustaining the competitive advantage in the highly competitive global beverage industry (Frigenti, 2012). By analyzing the strategies adapted by the Starbucks, one of the leading global coffee retail chains in the world, this report will provide insights about the latest trends and the key factors that play an influential role in beverage industry (Dermot, 2013). This report will also discuss various opportunities that case study organisation can look into to improve its profitability and will also outline the key threats it needs to tackle in the future to remain competitive in the market.

most coffee drinkers because it is where most of the educated professionals are located as

can order and pay for their drinks in a flash while stacking up rewards for each purchase made. This Strategy has significantly drawn people to Starbucks due to its highly anticipated services, products, and marketing strategies that differ from most fast food restaurants. The next service is the Starbucks webpage where the customers can go onto the site and view product and also make purchases. This service is quite excellent for those that want to checkout items online through the site, because it incorporates a similar process as the application on your smartphone. Starbucks also incorporates equipment and drinkware to their massive line of products. First their Drinkware consists of cups and mugs that are affordable to the customers. These cups come in many colors and aesthetic values, which make people interested in purchasing. Starbucks had the right idea when they decided to manufacture these cups out to their customers because not only were they a huge success for the business, but it also made Starbucks distribute more merchandise. Cold cups, which were from stainless steel containers. These containers made a rise once the popularity rose for other merchandise. These containers were sold very often to customers and once again made a surprise since it was from the same line of cups and mugs category. As more popularity grew in their products so did the equipment used to make customers coffee. First Starbucks decided to manufacture coffee makers, presses, and expresso

Starbucks is one of the world’s leading coffee bars, which has been open since 1971. To survive in the vastly culturally differentiated environment, they had to introduce new products such as teas for the Chinese market. On the other hand, to be able to increase their seasonal sales and gain a competitive advantage in the coffee market, Starbucks have introduced Pumpkin Spiced Lattes which are only sold in the autumn/winter season. To increase their sales during these months even more, they can introduce a

“Starbucks is the leading specialty coffee retailer in the nation, with over 5,000 locations in 22 international markets. Starbucks positions their products on a relatively simple plane. They focus on quality and experience, rather than price. A comparison of specialty drinks with its competitors reveals very minor differences. Starbucks’ image is one of the key elements to their success. The company has realized that people don’t only come for the coffee; they come for the atmosphere. People socialize, read, study, or just enjoy the music while drinking their coffee.” (Kembell, Hawks, Kembell, Perry, & Olsen, 2002)

Starbucks is an international brand in the world, there are more than 21,000 stores in over 65 countries including the franchised outlets. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain worldwide. They are holding a top selling coffee market. There have been selling coffees, tea, any type of fresh food and other soft drink. Which is not just selling in Starbucks, they are also selling the product in other place such as franchised outlets even selling on the train. According to Tom and Asha (2015), Starbucks reported the record for net revenue was $16.4 billion in 2014. Which was increasing 11% from last year. It can see Starbucks market still getting developing.