Starbucks in China

With time the small industry of coffee has modernized into a multibillion dollar industry that surrounds the world. With the growth of the industry there has been many world wide changes. Over the past 30 years coffee shops have jumped to the front of the public culture. New coffee shops have changes the face of American cities along with British, German, Colombian, Kenyan and Indonesia towns to name few. (Coffee a comprehensive guide to the bean, the beverage, and the industry) Around the world coffee has become part of the daily culture and coffee shops have grown to accommodate the massive demand that people ask for. Without the growth of the industry there would be a shortage of the product and many would have to go without their beloved beverage. In the United States alone there has been a massive increase in the number of coffee shops. In 1980 the number of coffee shops was a year 2,000 and by 2008 there was an astonishing 27,715. (Coffee a comprehensive guide to the bean, the beverage, and the industry) This was an increase of over ten times in the short time. 11,000 of those stores, almost half, were Starbucks one of the biggest coffee brands in the worlds. The growth of Starbucks is due to the work of Howard Schultz a worker for the company before they became as massive as they are today. Starbucks started very small in Seattle, Washington in the mid 1970’s. Howard bought out the owners and then went on to turn the small company into a massive corporation. (Coffee a

It is no longer feasible that a corporation can successfully move through the global marketplace without learning to recognize the cultural norms of each country. It falls to the executives and managers to implement these changes and to ensure that their companies are working to move towards a more inclusive, and ultimately, more profitable way of doing business that appreciates and respects all cultures and work

The three most critical challenges Starbucks faced in China were political restrictions, socio- cultural, economic and financial challenges. China is highly bureaucratic country with difficult processes of getting permissions and sanctions to start and run business. The biggest challenges for Starbucks were the old tradition of tea drinking in China. At the beginning Starbucks managers didn’t how to accustom Chinese to drinking coffee; to acquaint employees and Chinese executives with coffee drinking experience Starbucks provided different training programs for them in which they learned more about coffee and Starbucks’ culture.

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.

However, Starbucks also need to learn about the culture among the country. Starbucks is International product and well known. Some of the country most prefers tea compare than coffee. That means , that is one of the challenges for Starbucks to come out with variety of product.

The final project is going to be about the market entry of Starbucks into China. This project will focus on gauging the success of the company's market entry strategy thus far. Starbucks has announced in a press release that it believes China will be its #2 market by 2014, and the company has been one of the most successful American companies in that market (Starbucks, 2012). The company entered the Chinese market in 1999 with a store in Beijing. This followed the acquisition of greater knowledge about Chinese business culture through outlets in Taiwan. The company initially used a licensing agreement to enter the Chinese market (Starbucks, 2010).

Choice of not seeing diversity of culture results in limiting the ability for its management. This involved minimizing the issues being caused while there is maximization of advantages and key benefits allowed (Latimer, 2012). When there is lack of consideration across diversity of culture, foreigners end up becoming mere projections related to organizations.

There are many cultural and ethical differences between countries and it is important for mutual trust and respect that no organization try to strong-arm another into their way of thinking or take a position that their culture is more valuable than the other. According to Pitta, Fung, and Isberg (1999), it is vital for success to have a basic understanding of the culture and the expectations within cultures as they affect all business transactions. Failing to understand and consider the cultural differences will likely result in failure.

China is a fast-changing market and it has paid off for Starbucks. The middle class citizens of mainland China consider Starbucks coffee a luxury. The customers are willing to pay the premium price just for the customer experience. The success of this strategy is due in part to the in-store training and people-development model used in China. This way, Starbucks ensures its brand positioning is consistent with customers’ expectancy of having the Starbucks experience that is provided in the United States.

Starbucks is undoubtedly an international brand. The history of coffee traces back to Ethiopia, Africa, India, Arabia, and Europe, and has been traded abroad since the 11th century. Understanding the demand and widespread market for coffee, Starbucks has triumphantly capitalized both the domestic market, and the varied international markets as well. Possessing about 6,500 retail sites worldwide, Starbucks’ net is spread across thirty countries and has been found as one of the most recognized brands all over the globe in equality to McDonalds and Toyota. This organization’s ability to build an international brand has been unprecedented- particularly since it represents a specialty

Culture can influence the business in different ways such as language problem, pricing difficulties and culture collisions, especially in the beginning so for these reasons the companies which are planning to go up to international level must be prepared to handle all these difficulties in a way that can be favorable for both the parties. Any mistake can destroy the entire operation and also might shows disrespect to foreign culture.

Firstly, this paper briefly introduce about the background of China economy to look for an opportunity of doing business in China. Moreover, it includes an overview of the competitive environment, the growing market demand for coffee shops and the situation of coffee shop franchise in China

Starbucks started to decide on expansion by about the mid 1990 's, when the market became saturated. Market saturation is when a company or firm has covered an area so thoroughly with its presence, that it can no longer experience growth. Because of the market saturation, there were declining sales throughout stores. The company 's original marketing strategy was to blanket a region with new stores. The idea behind this was to reduce a customer 's wait in lines, while also reducing the company 's distribution costs. Revenues from stores were actually beginning to decline because stores were in such close proximity to one another. Although Starbucks was still ahead of their competitors, they were

Starbucks has been a world leading company in premium quality coffeehouse since 1971. Starbucks makes a commitment to deliver fine coffee as well as better hospitality from friendly staffs. Starbucks has developed a good marketing strategy. The company attempt to upscale its product, which benefit from its competitive advantage. The company competitive advantages not only focus on brewing a cup of coffee but also provide fine hospitality experiences to its client in relaxed atmosphere with coffee aroma. Primary, the coffeehouse target group is young college

Starbucks is one of the largest coffee shop chains in the world. In 2005 it was the leading coffeehouse retailer in the world with operations in 34 countries outside the US, counting 10.241 coffeehouses. Starbucks began its international expansion with Japan in 1995. We think Starbucks is a global company. Throughout the answer we will use Starbucks’ value chain activities to explain why Starbucks can be considered a global company.