Market Entry Strategy
Purpose: To evaluate the various market entry options adopted by Starbucks to enter China and their initial marketing strategy to promote Starbuck’s in China. These will provide insights into how critical market entry can be to the future success of the company in a new market.
Analysis: Starbucks’s international expansion strategy is to use, licensing or joint-venture partnerships to enter new markets. Starbuck uses the local partners to negotiate local regulations and other country specific issues, which has made this company successful in expanding into foreign market.
In entering China, Starbuck looked for local partners and considering the complexity of Chinese market, they partnered with three regional partners. In the north, Starbucks entered a joint-venture with Beijing Mei Da coffee company. In the east, Starbucks partnered with the Taiwan-based Uni-President. In the south, Starbucks worked with Hong Kong-based Maxim’s Caterers. (Wang, 2012) For its first store in Beijing it worked with its partner Beijing Mei Da coffee company, which was previously the distribution agent for Starbuck’s wholesale operations. (AdvertisingAge, 1998) Working with local partnerships, provided Starbucks with access to local knowledge, and people. Which it used to structure Starbucks to appeal more to the Chinese customer.
The next step after establishing a partner was selecting a location. It is a critical step for Starbucks particularly because of its marketing
Starbuck 's has become a staple of American culture and for the most part, if you are in your 20 's, you have grown up with it and this has become what you expect coffee to be. Who can blame you, it is everywhere, so "wake up and smell the coffee"! I plan to tell you about the strategies that this giant uses, that have taken it from humble beginnings to a worldwide phenomenon. I also intend to explain how Starbucks is taking China by storm, mainly because marketer / entrepreneur Howard Schultz 's vision and mission statement is shared by everyone in the company!An excerpt from the London Financial Times published in February 2006 states the following in regards to Starbucks entering the Chinese market; "Mr Schultz said the company was
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.
2) Garthwiate, Craig; Busse, Meghan; Brown, Jennifer; Merkley, Greg “Starbucks: A Story of Growth” Harvard Business Publishing, July 2012.
Since that point in time, the company extended its presence in the Chinese market in 2000 with a different licensee partner in Shanghai. In 2002, a third partner was added to help Starbucks expand into Shenzhen, two years after entering the Hong Kong market. Using these three major markets as a base, the company expanded from Shenzhen to Guangzhou and from Shanghai to Ningbo, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou. By 2005, the company was ready to open its first company-owned store, in Qingdao, an area of the country not overlapping with the existing licensee agreements. Over time, the company has increased its equity positions in some of the joint ventures, and it has also opened more company-owned stores, and even bought back some stores.
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
from a small local store to its current global enterprise. Starbucks has strategic partners all over
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.
Nothing like the fresh scent of brewed coffee in the morning – “Starbucks” a well-known coffee house that is still growing and expanding their operations today is considered the number one specialty coffee retailer around the world and abroad. Therefore, the supply and demand for coffee is on the incline and is regarded as one of the most rapid growing organizations in the world. According to the National Coffee Association, adults between the ages of 18 and 39 are more likely to purchase coffee out-of-home, then older consumers (2016). Even coffee statistics conducted in 2016 indicates “50% of the population, equivalent to 150 million Americans, drink espresso, cappuccino, latte, iced/cold coffee” (E-Imports, 2016). Other statistics numbers show that an estimated of total Americans consuming coffee would be up by 1.5% and specialty coffee up from 20% in this year alone. Even the global consumption will increase by 12% over the next years. Therefore, a key question is how will the “law of demand” predict how the consumers will behave (Lorenzetti, 2016)? Namely, will the higher demand for coffee beans impact what the consumer at Starbucks will pay for a cup of coffee? Therefore, companies such as Starbucks should analyze and understand the microeconomic model to get a clear picture of the price elasticity, cost to produce, and the overall market to make the most effective business decisions and recommendations that will have an
Starbuck’s strategy focused on three components; high-quality coffee, intimate service, and ambient atmosphere. Starbucks worked closely with growers in Africa, South and Central America, and Asia-Pacific regions to insure the quality of its product. Starbucks called all employees' "partners" and worked hard to train them with the skills necessary to best serve the customer. The atmosphere at Starbucks was crafted after the European-style espresso bar. The company goal was to create ambience through the Starbucks "experience" and by making the area comfortable, yet upscale.
Starbucks used many tactics to reduce its distance from foreign markets. Firstly, Starbucks conducted extensive research in each country. They used focus groups, and quantitative analysis, to evaluate local cultural sensitivities and preferences. But it also used specific local adaptations. For
Starbuck has entered into these other categories through partnerships and joint ventures. These relationships make sense, because every partnership is with a company in an industry related to Starbuck’s industry (e.g. Pepsi, Kraft, Unilever, Green Mountain etc.). Starbucks does not enter into partnerships with only one company; but collaborates with many companies, that are the respective leaders in their industry. The coffee company uses many of their partners as guides to learn from, and build relationships in a particular industry. Strategically this makes sense because Starbucks is gaining knowledge and not spending a major amount of money. Therefore, when the
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.
This case assignment discusses the history of Starbuck’s accomplishments as they entered the American coffee culture heritage. In 1983, The chairman and CEO Howard Schultz traveled to Italy and had a dream to carry the Italy coffeehouse ritual back to the United States. Schultz was focused on creating an environment meeting company that makes good coffee but also be a social experiment. Starbucks today opened more than 19,000 stores functioning in 62 countries. Starbucks has numerous rewards that globalization has offered and they have significantly benefited from it, while in the coffee industry. Starbucks has a wide-range in marketing strategies to benefit the customers. During the different obstacles that Starbucks has encountered, they must stay reliable in quality and uphold to adjust to different customer values.
Starbuck’s global-level strategy, according to the case, is referred to as the Starbucks way. In the case it is stated that “the company finds local business partners in most foreign markets… It tests each country with a handful of stores in trendy districts, using experienced Starbucks managers.” The case further states that Starbucks “then sends local baristas to Seattle for 13 weeks of training. Then it starts opening stores by the dozen.”
Starbucks wanted to expand its company into India but it also needed to find a mode of entry. Functioning as a corporation with great control, available cash and a aggressive U.S. retail strategy, wasn’t going to help Starbucks in India. When exploring their options for the best mode of entry, a partnership or joint venture with a local Indian company seemed like the best fit. The joint venture would provide lots of advantages for Starbucks and the other company; both firms would share cost and risk as well as the benefits. Having a local partner would provide Starbucks with first hand knowledge of culture, political and economic issues