Starbucks Marketing Strategy Unconventionally Effective

The Starbucks former strategy was centered in offering a high quality product to a narrow consumer segment (coffee lovers), therefore, a

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.

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 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.

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

Value propositioning consisting of three major principles to their branding strategy accounted for Starbucks success. The first principle was to offer the highest quality premium coffee in the world. The second principle was to create an inviting, relaxing, and uplifting atmosphere. The third principle was to the very best service to its customers. Their customers were often affluent, well educated, serious coffee lovers willing to pay for premium priced coffee for the coffee lifestyle. By aligning with their target market, Starbucks was able to positively secure brand views that ultimately secured the company’s overall strategic positioning.

Starbucks smartly realizes that innovation will allow them to maintain the upper hand in the

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

As a well-established coffee retailer and over 35 years of success, Starbucks is at the maturity stage in the product life cycle. It is in this stage that Starbucks needs to shift gears and focus on marketing program modifications by increasing the number of customers and customer visits (Kotler, 2009, pg. 185). While improving service will attract first-time customers and retain current ones, further marketing modifications will need to be made if it wants to continue to grow. More advertising, distribution, sales promotions, and personal selling are a few of the ways to modify the marketing program.

Having been through the great expansion and the economic depression, Starbucks has become one of the most valuable brands in the world by its ability to immediately distinguish consumers’ needs and fulfill those needs with extraordinary services. In other words, Howard Schultz has made Starbucks the solution to consumers’ unsatisfied need, which gives the brand a strong positioning that not only benefits the company, but also creates customer value. However, as the rapid expansion goes on and growth opportunities emerge, Starbucks also runs the risk of attenuating its brand equity as a result.

business model may seem, there is plenty of hard work invested and financial risks taken to grow

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

Starbucks does not use direct advertising such as commercials, ads or other promotion. They do however; have one of the largest social media networks with one of the highest customer contact percentages on a daily basis. This is one way they continue to promote their brand with customers who have been with the company for a long time. At the same time Starbucks has made quality choices in generating “alliances” with companies who have a similar market segment or customer base. Some of these alliances have been with “Barnes and Noble, I-tunes, Green Mountain, Tata Coffee”. These have allowed Starbucks to differentiate their product in India, Canada, USA and China. They can provide their quality product in hotels, bookstores and specific markets that relate to their direct customer base.

Starbucks have shown in the past that they are very good at taking advantage of opportunities. In an strategy alliance with Hewlett Packard, customers could create their own music CD within a Starbucks coffee shop. Thus the company could look for these kind of opportunities to seize. In addition, new markets for coffee are emerging such as India and the Pacific Rim nations, also Europe which is getting more and more accustomed with the brand name “Starbucks”. Co-branding with other manufacturers of food and drink, and brand franchising to manufacturers of other goods and services both have potential.

Corporate Strategy fundamentally is concerned with the selection of businesses in which the company should compete and with the development and coordination of that portfolio of business.[1] In the case of Starbucks the corporate strategy they have implemented is unique to their industry which has allowed them to differentiate from their competitors and is summarized best by Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks, “We’re in the people business serving coffee,[2]” high quality specialty coffee and related products in a European café environment. It is clear Starbucks is in a growth strategy utilizing three key techniques that support its Mission, “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and