W6 Asign BA541 Customer-Based Metrics - Essay Example

For example, at the peak of their popularity with people willing to buy coffee with a more expensive price tag, Starbucks spent a lot of money opening several stores, expanding rapidly locally and internationally. In 2008, however, it was forced to assess which stores were making profit and proceeded to close 600 stores in the Unites States. (The Associated Press, 2008) Not all customers have the same value to a company. A company should be able to know who among their customers they should create relationships with to earn revenue.

Some customers may buy big ticket items occasionally, but are less significant when compared to customers you regularly buy less expensive items. The customer equity test must be applied to know the degree of marketing efforts to be exhausted in acquiring and retaining customers. (Peppers, D. & Rogers, M., 2011) Seeing that Starbucks is able to maintain a loyal following, this metric appears to have been satisfied. The company offers a variety of products, dependent on the location of the store.

For instance, some of their products in the United States are not available in their branches overseas. With this scenario, it can be said that the company was able to understand what their loyal customers like about them and thus made sure those items were available. An issue with this is in order to be competitive and have an edge in the industry, the company needs to come up with other ideas. One of these is providing alcohol at a certain time of the day to reach a possible market and this is problematic because as a survey has shown, some of those who have quit drinking gather at Starbucks for their support group meetings and drink coffee.

(Williams, G., 2014) Knowing what the customers want is a very important strategy in a business. Customers need to feel important and needed. Thus, a company that wants to build lasting