Starbucks - Marketing Plan Essay

First, Starbucks products are clearly designed for those with a disposable income. Realistically, who would spend almost three dollars for a small cup of coffee when you can get a jumbo coffee for .99 cents at a gas station? One reason could be quality. Starbucks claims to use high-quality whole bean coffee and sells them in a traditionally European style. But the products are not limited to coffee. Starbucks also offered a full array of organic drinks, socially conscious products, outrageously priced coffee mugs—some of which are plastic versions that prominently display their logo, and music downloads. There were two available downloads that I observed. One was a new release by a famous artist. The other was a new release by an “undiscovered” new group. Similar to the music, my observations revealed that the Starbucks patrons primarily fit into two categories. The first were businessmen and women, who entered

The “Coffee Wars – The Big Three: Starbucks, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts” article focuses on the company analysis of the Starbucks brand and how its main competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts, has affected their brand and driven competition higher. Even though there are many companies trying to enter the specialty coffee market, these three companies own the majority of the market share. With Starbucks’ top quality and above average prices they hold a different market than the fast coffee/food market of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks; yet the competitive moves Dunkin’ Donuts has made over the years in order to compete with Starbucks and surpass McDonald’s has driven competition up between all three companies. The competition has stiffened ever more in the past ten years due to the changing economy. This led to “the big three” to come up with different techniques to gain competitive advantage over the other. Although the competition between these companies is to gain most of the market share, consumers are still loyal to a certain brand; this makes it difficult to gain each other’s clientele. McDonald’s continues to appeal to customers who want value and speed, Dunkin’ Donuts focuses on the middle-class, while Starbucks a customer who desires a higher quality product along with being recognized for using the brand.

* Starbucks are very good at taking advantage of opportunities. In 2004, the company created a CD-burning service in their Santa Monica (California USA) cafe with Hewlett Packard, where customers create their own music CD.

Since Starbucks entered the coffee retail business, the company has made many trade-off business decisions. The first major trade-off was made when Howard Schultz wanted to acquire present day Starbucks from three entrepreneurs Baldwin, Siegel and Bowker. Therefore, Schultz prior to the acquisition made the trade-off to open his own coffee bar in 1986 instead of staying at Starbucks as the manager of retail sales and marketing. A bold feat, Schultz was able to replicate success and was offered to buy Starbucks for $4 million. At the time of the acquisition, many investors, including the former Starbucks owners, would not expect that the American consumer would pay a premium for coffee products. Schultz, after calculating the opportunity cost, was convinced that Starbucks would become a large coffee chain not only in the United States but internationally too. Reflecting this approach, Schultz’s trade-off worked. Starbucks, according to our book has revenue exceeding $13 billion and nearly 200,000 employees. The company has also expanded to 40 countries with 17,000 stores (Hill et al., 2015).

Starbucks has created a competitive advantage with their product quality by setting themselves apart from their competitors. “The Company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which is the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts” (Mourdoukoutas, Panos). Consumers believe they are receiving a better product and experience when they purchase from a Starbucks as opposed to another large food service company that may sell coffee.

starbucks Corp., an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, has expanded rapidly since its opening in 1971. These outrageous success was due to its well-developed strategy vision which lay out the company's strategic course in developing and strengthening its business. Starbucks is a global corporation that sells authentic coffee in 30 countries, reporting revenues of nearly $5.1 billion in 2006. The main goal of Starbucks is to embrace diversity by applying the highest standards of excellence. Starbucks strives to perfect the relationship with the working class by making the service as fast as possible because they believe that every customer has their own personal rate. One

These products, as well as the company’s Ready-to-Drink product line (bottled coffee and tea available in sizes and locations similar to what one would find Gatorade or Naked Juice), has allowed it to move beyond the simplistic produce-and-sell business model found at its stores and into the retail market. Having focused on the retail market for the better part of the last decade while still maintaining its store operations (now with more than 20,000 stores worldwide), Starbucks has seen its market share increase exponentially while its competitors, such as Dunkin Donuts, have seen far less success. (As an example, Starbucks has a market cap of $84 billion while Dunkin Donuts has a market cap of less than $5

Former Starbucks Executive Scott Bedbury once said “Brands need to communicate that they are along for the ride. They are made of flesh and emotion. That they are made possible by people” (10 Quotes from Starbucks Executives, 2010, para. 6). Starbucks’ beliefs in customer service, community solitude, and a strong business core stretch far behind just a belief in a quality caffeinated product. “We make sure everything we do honors that connection – from our commitment to the highest quality coffee in the world, to the way we engage with our customers and communities to do business responsibly” (About Us, 2011, para. 4). Thus, this commitment is the motivation behind Marketing Team A’s proposed

Depending upon the location of the Starbuck the music is tailored to the target market. For example the music played in a college town in Ohio may be different than the professional inner city of New York. The selective music choice would ensure that customer come into the store and enjoy the music played. This would subconsciously increase the chances of customers staying at Starbucks longer.

Starbucks is acclaimed for its superior value proposition in the early 1990’s by creating an experience around the consumption of coffee, a ‘third place’. The brand is positioned to offer the highest quality coffee, close customer intimacy, and warm atmosphere or ambience.

As Mr. Todd Coffee requested, I will state the history of Starbucks logo, the potential risk of logo redesign, and other branding successes and failures in detail through this summary report. To be more acceptable and popular, Starbucks has redesigned its logo five times since original image. To be more beneficial, the branding team of Starbucks plans to explore another logo update soon. Hence, I offer this report to help them to know the detailed information about logo redesign and to make the final decision on whether or not Starbucks should update its logo again.

Starbuck is a USA based multinational company specialized in coffee products. Basically, the company is involved in the business of buying raw coffee beans, roasting them and then packaging them for sell or making of coffee drinks, which they sell to their highly valued clientele. It is an organization that firmly believes in the ideology of its founders and seeks to perpetuate that ideology using any method deemed possible. The founders of Starbuck, namely Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and finally Zev Siegel, envisioned an organization that would offer the finest coffee products to its clients. Since the inception of Starbuck in 1971, this goal continues

Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle’s Pike Place Market with the name being coined from that of Moby Dick’s first mate (Schultz & Yang 1999). It has spread its shops across North America, all over Europe, the Middle East, Latin America as well as the Pacific Rim with an estimated 35 million customer weekly (Michelli, 2008). With tremendous growth from a small time coffee shop, the company has matured to an international icon that today it is one of the world’s leading retailer, roaster and brand specialty coffee (Story, 1971). The company offers whole bean coffees, espresso beverages, and confectionery and bakery items.

Starbucks is and will continue to be one of the largest distributers of a cup of coffee today and into the future.  The Starbucks mission to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” directly correlates with the experience a customer has in each store. They have many ways to differentiate in comparison to competitors because they provide an experience while shopping for a coffee allowing them to charge a premium price.

Starbucks is one of the largest coffee retailing companies in the world. It is spread across 42 countries and has 15,000 stores. In North America alone the company has thousands of outlets. Apart from being in the coffee business the company is also sells bottled coffee drinks and a line of super premium ice creams. The company also has a brand portfolio that sells a variety of items. There is a line of premium teas called Tazo Tea. The company also sells compact discs under the name of ‘Hear Music’. The company’s logo is one of the most recognized in America. The company also operates in such a way that the community surrounding it benefits from its operation socially,