Starbucks Mission: Social Responsibility and Brand Strength Essay

* Starbucks was one of the Fortune Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2008. The company is a respected employer that values its workforce.

The industry’s saturation is moderately high with a monopolistic competition structure. For new entrants, the initial investment is not significant as they can lease stores, equipment etc. at a moderate level of investment. At a localized level, small coffee shops can compete with the likes of Starbucks and Dunkin Brands because there are no switching costs for the consumers. Even though it’s a competitive industry, the possibility of new entrants to be successful in the industry is moderate. But this relatively easy entry into the market is usually countered by large incumbent brands identities like Starbucks who have achieved economies of scale by lowering cost, improved efficiency with a huge market share. There is a moderately high barrier for the new entrants as they differentiate themselves from Starbuck’s product quality, its prime real estate locations, and its store ecosystem ‘experience’. The incumbent firms like Starbucks have a larger scale and scope, yielding them a learning curve advantage and favourable access to raw material with the relationship they build with their suppliers. The expected retaliation from well-established companies for brand equity, resources, prime real estate locations and price competition are moderately high, which creates a moderate barrier to

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?

Starbucks advertises two essential mission statements. First and foremost, it strives to “establish [ourselves] as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while [we] grow(s).” (Starbucks) Reflective of its mission, Starbucks bases its strategic campaign and communications on six indispensable philosophies; structuring a pleasant work environment in which employees are treated with “respect and dignity,” incorporating diversity in all business aspects, purchasing, roasting and delivering fresh coffee, retaining satisfied customers, giving back to the community and environment, and developing

2) Garthwiate, Craig; Busse, Meghan; Brown, Jennifer; Merkley, Greg “Starbucks: A Story of Growth” Harvard Business Publishing, July 2012.

Starbucks has certainly does a good job communicating their social responsibility to consumers. First and foremost, Starbucks establishes an annual public Global Responsibility Report on their website. This report is easily identifiable and available for everyone to view. Besides their website, Starbucks uses a variety of media to communicate their social responsibilities. The company is highly dependant on social media to communicate their messages. Their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all display tokens of giving. In most cases, Starbucks ads are call-to-action campaigns. This entices consumers to purchase the Starbucks products because it allows consumers to feel they are contributing to something good/meaningful. Besides, social media, Starbucks uses their cups and coffee sleeves to communicate their humanitarian and socially responsible activities. Recently, the company informed consumers about the number of Veterans and military spouses hired through coffee sleeves. In addition, these sleeves always state the percent of recycled materials used, which is another way of expressing Starbuck’s holistic marketing approach. Finally, Starbucks has released a podcast which communicates everyday stories of positive change. In general, marketing communication should take a mass marketing approach, several forms of media should be used, and the communication budget should be properly allocated. Starbucks accomplishes each of those tasks. Moreover, consumers certainly feel the

In general the coffeehouse industry in the United States was experiencing an increase in coffee consumption per capita due to the “Starbucks effect”. At this time Starbucks was operating approximately 20,000 stores in the United States and was living a fast expansion strategy worldwide.

Starbucks business level strategy has been to become and remain the world's premier coffee franchise that operates in a sustainable and principled manner. The company utilizes a comprehensive corporate social responsibility program that is integrated in every part of the company's operations from the way it treats its employees to the way it sources its coffee.

Socially responsible organizations are doing not only profit-making activities for their own organization but also activities that benefit the whole of society. Starbucks, which is an American coffee company, is an example of an organization that is doing socially responsible. They have been involved in socially responsible activities, which are categorized three parts; community involvement, ethic sourcing and the environment.　Firstly, in ethic sourcing, they have built lasting relationships with their coffee producers since they were founded. They are engaged in being responsible for their coffee, tea, cocoa, and manufactured goods, and producing and purchasing them ethically, which is related to providing customers with coffee beans of

Starbucks dates back from 1971 and is based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded by Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl and it

Starbucks is renowned for its morality due to their innovative sustainability and environmental policies and operations. They strive to go beyond mandated regulations by implementing ethics as part of their core practices. However, no matter how flawless their code of ethics is; they, too, face ethical issues and commit unethical acts. First, they are responsible for putting small, local coffee shops out of business which creates a uniform retail culture throughout cities. Second, they advertise to provide 100% fair trade coffee when it is not truly 100% fairly traded. Third, they use hormone added milk that is detrimental to the human body as well as the environment. Fourth, they set unrealistic, unattainable recycling goals, so they were unachievable; in turn, their trustworthiness is hindered and their reputation is tarnished. Lastly, it was revealed that Starbucks discovered ways to avoid paying taxes in the UK. To this day, Starbucks continues to be recognized as an ethical company. Although sometimes controversial, they are innovatively striving to positively change the ways of society and business operations.

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

With Starbucks being on basically every corner, it is hard for other coffee shops to come in and be competitive. Another ethical issue that Starbucks faces is their use of hormone-addled milk in their coffees (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2015). With all of Starbuck’s unethical aspects and criticisms of their company, they are well-known for their ethical values. One of their top ethical attributes is their employee relationships. Their employee relationships with the company are what Starbucks is known for if you work for them. Starbuck’s offers their employees top healthcare and benefits. Naturally, their employee turnover rate is not high, and as I stated before, they are one of the top companies to be employed

Starbucks is an American multinational corporation that is arguably considered as the best coffee house in the globe in terms of global performance. The company has for a long time considered CSR as an important part of its operations and currently, it adopts an Anglo-American model of corporate social responsibility. This is an approach to CSR that maintains close links between shareholder interests with the operations of the organization. The company ensures that its CSR initiatives are appropriately audited so that it is able to learn of its CSR performance and not as an effort of complying with legal regulations and this is what makes the strategies adopted by the company very relevant. The corporate social responsibility codes that are derived from Starbucks’ Anglo American model have contributed to great product development by the company, efficient production and quality customer service. All these have been made possible through the company’s Corporate Governance Codes . At starbucks, the codes have provisions for the code of conduct which acts as guidelines as to how the employees at the organization behave. The code of conduct guides the entire organization including the board of

Starbucks was bought out by current CEO Howard Schultz in 1987. Since then, Andrew Harrer (2012) reports the company has grown to operate over “17,244 stores worldwide” (para. 1). Fortune (n.d.) reports in its yearly 100 Best Companies to Work for that Starbucks employs “some 95,000 employees”. From only a handful of stores in 1987 to a billion dollar franchise today, the success of Starbucks is due in great deal to their corporate culture, specifically how employees, or as Starbucks calls them, partners are treated. Joseph Michelli (2007) echoes this sentiment, “A great cup of coffee is only part of the Starbucks success equation” (p. 767).