Starbucks Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

Starbucks Marketing Strategy Starbucks is known for purchasing and roasting high-quality coffee. It was inspired by Alfred Peet. This is the essence of what the company has been doing since it began, though it is difficult to narrate the whole story about the company. There is a great possibility that Starbucks is one of the largest coffee company in the world. Each day, Starbucks company has two things that the company has been looking forward to accomplishing; sharing great coffee with friends as well as ensuring that the world becomes a better place to live each day. It is believed that this company was established in 1971. When the company was established, it began as a lone store in the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle. During those days, the company offered some finest fresh-roasted bean coffees worldwide. Consequently, the Starbucks was considered to be the best coffee company since it did not only brought the feeling of connection but also celebrated coffee. Leadership of Starbucks Starbucks company has a team of leadership that ensures that all goes well in the company. The company has a chairman, Howard Schultz. He is also the chief executive officer of the company. Adam Brotman is the chief digital officer while Michael Conways serves as the president of the Starbucks Global Channel Development. Also, the company has an executive vice president of Starbucks Global Chanel Development. Other key leaders in the company include Jeff Hansberry, president of Evolution Fresh, Lucy Lee, the executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, executive vice president and chief partner (human) resources officer, Scott Pitasky and Sharon. There are many more people holding different leadership positions in the company to ensure that the company runs smoothly without anything that would encourage its downfall. Most of the leaders are trained and equipped for their positions. New Events Impacting Company One of the greatest challenges of the company is climate change. It is important to know that almost a half of the coffee in the whole world is produced in accordance to the sustainability standard though on only 12 percent of the world coffee is sold in the market as a sustainable. Therefore, there is a need that the coffee company should have its definition of sustainability. However, for this to be established, there is a need that the company should be committed to facilitating the increasing demand for sustainability. Moreover, the company will be required to come up with improved measures on how it can attain sustainability as well as the far that it would want to go with it. When the company does not come up with a given sustainability framework, it will confine itself together with conversation partners. This challenge may arise when all the major coffee producing regions in the whole world is facing the impacts that come as a result of climate change. During this moment, the demand for coffee will increase while coffee production is being affected by the warming temperatures together with changing weather patterns. Business Portfolio Starbucks company is known for supplying delicious coffee and tea products. In addition to this, they also sell different applications from different manufacturers, for instance, Bunn and Krupp. Moreover, the company has Drinkware for their consumers as well as several gifts being sold. Apart from just selling coffee, tea and different types of equipment for home consumption, the company also sells their products to the office as well. Furthermore, it is important to know that the Starbucks Company has physical stores where you can buy their products. Brand Audit It is believed that the reputation of the brand of the product has been recovering though it has a long way to go. The tagline of the brand is “Monday can be great.” According to BrandIndex, the Buzz score of Starbucks has equal negative and positive things that people have heard about the brand. However, there is a great chance that the brand is still suffering from negative reputation since its Buzz score has been decreasing day by day. One of the ways the Starbucks Company communicates to its consumer is through the media. Moreover, the company does several advertisement campaigns to market their products. Some of the social media networks that the company uses include Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Linkedin among many other social network platforms. Competition The major competitors for Starbucks are Dunkin' Donuts together with McDonald. These three companies have been fighting for the top position in the coffee industry. Starbucks is one of the best and recognized coffee company in the whole world. Some of the things that have made it possible for Starbuck to prevail in the industry, despite the fact that it is surrounded by many competitors is the fact that it is in a favorable physical location and has expanded menu that makes it possible for it to reach and at the same time offer the best services to their clients. Moreover, this also plays a great role of drawing consumers from their competitors, hence, making it possible for the company to thrive even when other companies cannot grow. Sourcing It is believed that the main source of coffee for this company comes from Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa though Asia-Pacific region is where the signature coffee blend is found. Moreover, the company has many suppliers. When it comes to payment terms, they are net 45 days from the day that the company received goods from the suppliers. The suppliers get their payment after 45 days. Operation The company buys coffee from the suppliers after which they manufacture to come up with different coffee brands. Moreover, the company has some guidelines that are very important for everyone who supplies them with the coffee. The guidelines help in ensuring that the coffee is planted in a way that it will be in a position of producing a quality coffee product is of the high standard. The coffee production of this company is based on standardization to ensure that the products are of great high quality. Furthermore, the coffee chain has always been striving to ensure that their operation is standardized. Because of this, the company has made it possible to evolve the operational procedures in the last three years. It has come up with a “lean team” that is responsible for standardizing their products and services. Going to Market The marketing strategy for this company is unique. One of the ways the company reaches its consumers is through billboards, posters, newspapers and ad space. Moreover, the company has partnered with different retailers and wholesalers to ensure that their clients get their products. Through this, the company has managed to reach their target customers without difficulties. One of the intermediary partners of Starbucks is Kraft Foods, Inc. the two other companies that have partnered with the Starbucks are Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. and Pepsi-Cola Company. The partners play a great role in ensuring that the products of Starbucks reach the consumers without any problem. This company has also been known for one thing when it comes to partnership; the company knows how to come up with the strategic partnership. This kind of partnership plays a great role as far as growing the business is concerned (Vote for Us, n.d). Distribution One of the ways the company manages to distribute its products through office coffee distributors. The company also considers to expand the retail business by raising its market share; this is in its current markets together with starting stores in fresh markets where they can get the opportunity. This is one of the ways that they will find it easier to reach their target consumers. The following image shows the channel of distribution. There are three main modes of transport used by the Starbucks Company: air; motor and; water. Each transport mode has its advantages, and this is the reason the company prefers using them. The air transport is recommended by the company since it is very fast, and the motor allows the company to transport the products anywhere on the land. This allows them to transport the products and services to all cities. On the other hand, the water transport is cheap, but it carries bulky products. Moreover, for the company to reach its targeted consumers, it employs third party logistics to do the work for them. With this, many consumers are in a position of getting the products. Reference Vote for Us. (N.d). Starbucks Marketing Strategy Unconventionally Effective. Retrieved from http://www.voteforus.com/starbucksmarketingstrategy.html Read More