Strategy Analysis : Starbucks Corporation

Seattle based, Starbucks Corporation is the leading coffeehouse chain in the world. The company has its operations in more than 44 countries. The main products offered by Starbucks various kinds of drinks, snacks, coffee beans. The company also operates in the field of marketing of music, books (The Company, 2008).

Founded in 1985, Starbucks is one of the largest coffeehouse companies in the world, with over 16,000 stores in 50 countries (Starbucks Annual Report, 2009, p. 1). Starbucks sells high-quality

The Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee company that was founded in Seattle, Washington (Starbucks.com). With 19,435 stores in 58 countries, it is the largest coffeehouse chain company in the world; Starbucks sells a variety of hot and cold drinks. These include espresso

Starbucks Corporation, generally known, as Starbucks Coffee is the leading retailer and a brand of world’s forte coffee in the world, with more than 15,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim, wherever in this world where premium quality coffee is in demand. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world ahead of UK rival Costa Coffee, with 20737 stores in 63 countries and territories, including 11910 in the United States, 1496 in China, 1442 in Canada, 1052 in Japan and 772 in the United Kingdom. The first Starbucks was open in 1970. The name was inspired from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a definitive American novel regarding the 19th century whaling industry. The nautical name matches seamlessly for a store that imports the world’s finest coffees to the cold thirsty people of Seattle. In May 1998, Starbucks have finally successfully entered the European market through its acquirement of 65 Coffee Company stores initially originated from Seattle in the UK. Both companies shared a common culture, focusing on a great commitment to customized coffee, similar company values and a mutual respect.

officially the world’s largest coffee chain, with a total of 21878 stores operating globally as

Starbucks Corporation is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20,366 stores in 61 countries, including 13,123 in the United States, 1,299 in Canada, 977 in Japan, 793 in the United Kingdom, 732 in China, 473 in South Korea, 363 in Mexico, 282 in Taiwan, 204 in the Philippines, 164 in Thailand and 3 in India.

Starbucks Corporation is the global leader in coffee and has a strong entrepreneurial history of product development and branding. Ranked as both a Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 Best Company to Work For Starbucks employs 116,357 team members in the United States (Fortune, 2010).

Starbucks Corporation is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20,366 stores in 61 countries, including 13,123 in the United States, 1,299 in Canada, 977 in Japan, 793 in the United Kingdom, 732 in China, 473 in South Korea, 363 in Mexico, 282 in Taiwan, 204 in the Philippines, and 164 in Thailand.

The company that I am writing about is Starbucks, the international coffee shop chain. The company's financial statements for this analysis are from the FY2011 Annual Report and 10-K. The company has 10787 stores in the United States, of which 38% are franchised and the remainder are company-owned. The franchise model is more common when the company operates internationally. There are 6216 Starbucks stores internationally and of these 63% are franchises, with just 37% company-owned. The franchise model for international expansion has been utilized to help Starbucks expand quickly in foreign countries and to mitigate foreign political risk and to ensure that the product/service offering is tailored to local tastes (Thompson, 2012). The company is now in the process of buying back some overseas franchise stores in order to retain more profits for itself (Franchise Press, 2011). This paper will take a look at the company's most recent annual report to analyze the financial statements.

1.Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.

One company that has been particularly successful in creating an overall company image in my option has been Starbucks. They have been able to maintain a dominant position in today’s market. Where in the morning most of our society needs a good cup of coffee in order to start their day. At one point, we looked at Starbucks as a high-end marketer. A sort of club to belong to. However, things managed to change in the recent years where a 4.00 cup of coffee was becoming a luxury items. This became known as the Coffee Wars. Starbuck had to now face competition from the fast food world. Which was McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. They started to look at this market as an opening to gain more customers. They started to offer their

Under today’s ever-changing market, strategic marketing planning has become more and more significant whether of the functional or the fundamental. Especially, although financial crisis leaded economy growth slowdown, it did not cause a serious influence for chain coffee shop. As Howard Schultz said, CEO of Starbucks, “I don't think we had a business plan for the severity of what has taken place. History demonstrated to us that a downturn in the economy would not affect us, and in fact, we would be recession-proof.” (Katie Couric, 2008) Based on Financial Times, Starbucks revealed that strong earnings of $242m of 2008, a jump from the $64m it recorded during the comparable period last year and total revenues for the quarter

Successful companies are companies that have a plan for where they are going, and where they want to be in the future. To successfully create this plan, companies need to examine themselves, along with their competitors, to see what areas need to be strengthened and what can be utilized to do so. Some of the main components of this analyzation are identifying what the major issues in the companies that are threats or are causing that weakness. They then need to create long term objectives, and quantify how to accomplish them-- whether they be financial or strategic. Starbucks as a company has three key issues: increased competition from new and/or expanding restaurants and coffee shops, they are less popular overseas, and there are many consumers who boycott Starbucks because it is such a mainstream prevalent brand.

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.

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