Strategic Fit Analysis of Starbucks Coffee Company

Thesis: While Starbucks has been an industry leader in the specialty coffee market, rapid overexpansion and current economic conditions have caused it to lose its market dominance. Is the company strong enough to recover?

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

Within the coffee industry Starbucks Corporations has grown from a small shop to a leading coffee distributor, proving to have financial strength and determination to continue growth. With the weakening economy the continued success of Starbucks

In this technique, internal strengths and weaknesses of a company and external opportunities and threats faced by it are closely examined to chart a marketing strategy for the future (Forsyth, 2010, pp. 102-106). Major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Starbucks are analyzed below.

Economic conditions in the US and certain international markets could adversely affect Starbucks’ business and

If the income of consumer decreases then the demand of coffee in Starbucks will decrease and will become an inferior good. Because consumer will start visiting McDonlad’s where the price of coffee is less than Starbucks.

This assignment is based on the Starbucks case study; Trouble Brews at Starbucks written by Lauranne Buchanan and Carolyn Simmons (2009). The aim of this paper will be to discuss the the changing consumer experience, competitive landscape and external circumstances affecting marketing opportunities for Starbucks, while determining how Howard Schultz can provide Starbuck’s customers a greater long-term value.

Locally, Starbucks operates in a monopolistic competition market. As stated in The Micro Economy Today this market structure is define as,” A market in which many firms produce similar goods or services but each maintains some independent control of its own price.” (page 238, Schiller). Indeed, coffee lovers have a variety of options as to where they get their caffeine fix. Due to a large amount of substitute for coffee and beverages Starbucks cannot price their goods higher than others. If they raise their prices too high, consumers will simply turn to other suppliers and Starbucks will suffer a loss in profits. In addition to having an abundance of substitutes another characteristic of having a monopolistic competition is low barriers to entry. The cost to enter the coffee market is relatively low and people who desire to enter the market cannot be kept out. New entrants threaten

Starbucks strategies have successfully made them one of the biggest names in the coffee market globally. Starbucks has been able to survive the high competitive market and to differentiate themselves from other coffee shops by producing high quality coffee. Also, Starbucks successfully create a huge numbers of loyal customers worldwide by providing great services and high quality products. Starbucks was able to survive 2008 financial crisis successfully. In 2008, Starbucks net income was -53% that means Starbucks was losing so much many yet, 2009 Starbucks was able to not only stop their losses but also to gain a profit of 24%. However, Starbucks should be worry from the possibility of another financial

In this paper, I will talk about Starbucks Company. I will define the influence of the vision, and mission of the company and primary stakeholders along with their overall success. An examination will be conducted to categorize five forces of struggle and their effect on the corporation. I will carry out a SWOT analysis to determine the opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses. Founded on the SWOT analysis, a technique of opportunities and advantages will be exploited while threats and weaknesses will be diminished. Several types and levels of techniques will be talked over to operate the profitability and competitiveness. I will outline a plan of communication to make approaches known to all investors. Two corporate authorities will be designated to assess the efficiency of the regulating managers. I will also assess the effectiveness of management within the Company and come up with sanctions for upgrading.

The price has been rising, not simply due to the price of coffee itself, but because of the supply chain and the current economic situation around the world. Last year Starbucks had to raise prices globally, but especially in the United States and China, due to rising prices for coffee and other ingredients, but this year they are taking the hit from the rising coffee prices for the consumers (Baertlein, 2011). Although the prices of coffee had to be raised globally due to the high demand of the product and the cost of producing it, there is still a strong outlook for the coffee industry because of the large consumer base of the industry. The coffee industry is expected to continue growing through at least the year 2015 and even longer in other emerging markets around the world (Lingle, 2007). Even if the market in the United States begins to decline, there are other emerging markets for the specialty coffee industry. Due to Brazil’s rising economy, it is set to be the biggest coffee drinking country in the world with recent coffee consumer growth of 39% from 2000 to 2009 (Murphy, 2011). With Brazil’s upper and middle classes expanding, it has more money to spend on specialty coffee and other superfluous items. Brazil could be

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.

Thus, it is evident that the Starbucks is well positioned around its strengths, which far outweighs its weaknesses. The company must maintain its supplier relationships, and continue to offer compelling and premium products to its customer base in order to stay relevant and compete against other coffee giants.

The most effective method is to use SWOT that helps in identification of all analysis be it internal. The internal sources will be through Starbucks website and the externals information will be through government website. Evaluation of market strategy, these will include research of what is are the strong point and weakness of Starbucks competitors, factors influencing high sales for a company and finally companies that the company need to compete with for the organization to be successful.

Factors in the global environment provide both opportunities and strengths for Starbucks. Opportunities such as increased revenues, further expansions, and achieving their goal of becoming the most respected brand worldwide. Starbucks also faced threats. These threats include dealing with growing antiglobalization overseas and their huge risk of less return on each overseas store, this deriving from overseas operations being run by local partners instead of Starbucks