Running head: STARBUCKS STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
1
3
STARBUCKS STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
Week 2: Course Project Draft 1
George Nieto-Reyes
Keller Graduate School of management
MGMT525 Strategic Marketing
Professor Raef Assaf
November 4, 2022
1. Marketing Environment
The dynamics of the marketing environment for Starbucks.
Starbucks Corporation is a major retail beverage organization registered in the United States and operating on a global scale. The company has a marketing mix that supports its position in the industry as one of the leading coffee houses in the globe. The marketing strategy is well suited to match the main components of the retail coffee industry marketing plan and is composed of four main components that include: product, place, promotion, and price. The company uses the above strategies to sell a brand image that ensures the profitability of the company (Haskova, 2015). Besides the 4p mixture, the company also diverges its attention to respond to occasional strategic challenges and other market forces like completion from other major brands.
The company’s marketing mix establishes a unified and systematic approach to producing and distributing Starbucks products. The coffeehouse organization uses various marketing strategies and tactics to promote their respective products at the right price, hence influencing the organization’s operational effectiveness and actualization of the company’s corporate mission and vision statements.
Based on the above elements, the focus on the company delivering to its customers becomes its employees who become essential in delivering the quality experience and products that the organization promises its customers. In this way, employees are vital for the organization as they replicate the company’s envisioned mission of the coffeehouse to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction in the process (Nair, Crasto, Kian, Kee, Abdullah & Ganatra, 2021). Through the focus on training and other related activities, the companies’ employees act as the company’s brand ambassadors, hence, representing the image of the company for the masses that the company serves to deliver the value that the customers pay for. For the above, Starbucks ensures that its employees are well-trained to deliver what the market expects them to.
The most influential force in the microenvironment for Starbucks’s products is the Prices and Pricing Strategy. The above is the main aspect that helps in product differentiation. To begin with, Starbucks uses a premium pricing strategy that involves the use of high price points and a range of products that represent the superior quality of the beverage. The above is vital as it defines the image of the organization and its position in the market and manages the company’s market base (Geereddy, 2013). This part of the organization is vital as it strengthens the company’s position in the market and protects it against other big beverage brands like Mcdonalds with premium roast coffee on their menu. In this way, the pricing makes sure Starbucks’s operations management optimizes quality and costs to support its subsequent pricing strategy.
2. Buyer Behaviour
Determine the purchase decision process for the buyer of Starbucks’s products.
The purchase model by the company is a business-to-customer model and involves an elaborate step that is followed to make the purchase decision. In this case, organizations need to understand the process through which customers pass before deciding to purchase a beverage drink (Nguyen, 2020). The above is essential as the levels of effort and time at each stage are dependent on what the client wants to purchase at any given time. In this aspect view, more effort and time will be invested in more expensive goods, however, in the case of Starbucks, the process is simpler and less complicated considering its nature.
Consumer Decision-Making Process
N/B: Of course, not everybody will have the same need or information. All these steps are depended on cultural, social, individual, and psychological factors.
The first stage of the customer purchase decision is the need for recognition for coffee. Since the organization is a notable brand, it will be one of the first to come into their minds automatically as the specific one that will satisfy their need.
The next stage is information searching in this aspect view since Starbucks beverages are characterized by low involvement product purchases, they may not be quite sure of what they want until they get to the store (Aminattaheri, Sorooshian & Aghabakhshi, 2013). In this stage, the coffee house provides the customers with information on products through advertisements of popular drinks or new drinks that they can purchase, at this stage, they may also notice promotions at the store.
After reaching the stores the customer will notice some of the unique and ambient beverages that the store has to offer. This is the alternative evaluation stage and Starbucks comes on top when it comes to this aspect of the purchasing stage. At this stage, Starbucks offers human contact through their staff to help their customers feel special and enjoy the experience of being at Starbucks.
The next stage is purchasing and as a beverage company, this stage happens more often when a customer walks in with the desire for coffee and walks out of their shop with a cup. It is also important to note that in most cases the customers walk into the shops with an idea of what they want to purchase.
The strongest buying influences on the purchasers of your company’s product are the brand image and the quality of service delivered by the staff to the customers. After the need recognition stage customers are so mindful of the experience in the coffeehouse. The management of the organization can use the above understanding to shape their operations to be more interactive and serve the inner desires of customers.
Where does your company’s product fall on the diffusion of the innovation curve, and what are the strategic implications of this on the marketing of your company’s product?
Because of Starbuck’s great amount of loyal customers, the Consumer Making process is irrelevant. It is reduced to two stages: need recognition and purchase. The above is a critical aspect of the process as it locks out other potential buyers of the company’s products and limits the scale of expansion of the company (Nguyen, 2020). Statistics show that most of the customers the company serves are returning customers conversant with the company, hence, strategically, the lack of innovation at this stage limits the expansion of the company into these territories.
References
Aminattaheri, H., Sorooshian, S., & Aghabakhshi, N. (2013, March). Marketing Plan: Starbucks Case Analysis. In EROS 2013: International Conference on Business Knowledge for African Development.
Geereddy, N. (2013). Strategic analysis of Starbucks corporation. Harward [Електронний ресурс].–Режим доступу: http://scholar. Harvard. edu/files/nithingeereddy/files/starbucks_ case_analysis. pdf.
Haskova, K. (2015). Starbucks marketing analysis. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Study, 1, 11-29.
Larson, R. C. (2008). Starbucks a Strategic Analysis. Past Decisions and Future Options.
Nair, R. K., Sinha, R., Crasto, S. G., Kian, K. W., Kee, D. M. H., Abdullah, S. A. B., … & Ganatra, V. (2021). The effect of Starbucks marketing campaigns on consumer buying behavior. Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education (APJME), 4(1), 72-81.
Nguyen, C. (2020). Sustainability marketing concept: Case Starbucks.