Business Comparison in Starbucks Corporation and Caribou Coffee - Essay Example

Business Comparison in Starbucks Corporation and Caribou Coffee Since decades, experts have continued to put efforts to analyze different processes of business organizations around the globe, in order to propose new strategies and methodologies for the improvement and ensuring success in the future. In this regard, this paper is a similar effort that will include comparison of two business organizations, and subsequently, will involve identification of similarities and differences of these organizations that will facilitate in comprehensive understanding of different processes of the business. In particular, the researcher has chosen Starbucks Corporation and Caribou Coffee for analysis of their different business processes, and researcher will put efforts to provide a comprehensive and critical comparison in the paper. Starbucks Corporations (2010) is one of the corporations that are flourishing in midst of survival competition in the global market, and it has not only survived but has been successful in expanding its presence in a number of countries around the world. In particular, Starbucks initiated its business activities in the year 1971 from Seattle, and until today, it has continued to flourish and expand itself successfully. Began from a small coffeehouse, nowadays, Starbucks Corporation (Bussing-Burks, pp. 23-25, 2009) is the business leader in its field and proud to have huge number of famous coffeehouses globally. In different parts of the world, the corporation has roughly sixteen thousand eight hundred coffeehouses in approximately fifty-four countries that is a huge success. Analysis of its different areas has indicated that in marketing, the corporation has played an effective role by establishing its Starbucks Entertainment Department (Starbucks, 2010) that puts efforts to market its products on television, films, etc; in other words, a revolutionary way of marketing that resulted in huge increment in its sales (Haig, pp. 29-44, 2004). In addition, in the marketing, Starbucks had the realization that offering of only coffee will not let it become market leader, and thus, nowadays, one can observe a wider range of products on Starbucks’ list (Bussing-Burks, pp. 39-44, 2009). For instance, the corporation is now offering coffee, as well as snacks, flavored drinks, etc that has enabled it to target a huge range of customers around the globe. In addition, Starbucks took one more way of marketing its products that is through grocery stores. In specific, one can witness lines of customers waiting for a scoop of Starbucks ice cream that has been another major factor of its success in masses. In addition to marketing, analysis of its financial side has indicated that during the year 2008, the corporation was successful in turning its coffeehouses into money-generating machines that gave corporation the income of approximately ten billion dollars (Starbucks, 2010). Detailed analysis has shown that during last quarter of the year 2008, the Starbucks recognized a three-percent increment in its net income, as compared with net proceedings of last quarter of the year 2007 that gave 2.4 billion dollars to the corporation (Starbucks, 2010). In this regard, the corporation has continued to open new coffeehouses every other week in different parts of the globe that has been the major factor of increment in its sales globally. On the other hand, Starbucks Corporation (2010) is not the only one surviving in this global retail market, and scrutiny of resources has indicated that Caribou Coffee (2010) is one of the major corporations that are giving fierce competition to Starbucks in the United Kingdom, as well as in other parts of the globe. One of the main reasons of such competition is that both corporations have been involved in offering experiences and moments to their customers and consumers rather than just a cup of coffee. In particular, Caribou Coffee (2010) is one of the top business retailers in the United States; however, it has been a problem for Starbucks in the United Kingdom as well. In only the United States, Caribou Coffee (2010) has more than five hundred coffeehouses, and three hundred in the United Kingdom that indicates the level of competition both corporations are confronting on local, as well as international level. It is an observation that although both are providing experiences; however, Starbucks has stayed ahead in the race by improving its availability and delivery in the retail market that has enabled it to grasp more revenues as compared with Caribou. On the other hand, Caribou Coffee has been leading the market in the areas of offering variety of products, in which, Starbucks has a smaller range of products. As compared with Starbucks, Caribou has slighter lesser number of coffeehouses globally; however, they have been successful in giving competition to Starbucks due to their strong media presence similar to Starbucks’ Entertainment department (Starbucks, 2010). However, Caribou is the pioneer in this media promotion practice, as it made Starbucks to begin its media marketing in the year 2007, as it began to confront huge decline in its sales and witnessed its customers going for other retail outlets and restaurants. This all happened in the year 2006, Caribou Coffee (2010) launched its first ‘Multi-Media Advertising Promotion With Apple(R) iTunes(R) and iPod(R) Giveaways’ (Ireland, pp. 51-57, 2009) that made a huge difference in its sales. In brief, statistics has shown that during the year 2007, Starbucks was successful in making 9.2 billion dollars in its revenues. On the other hand, Caribou showed more than thirty-five percent increments in its sales; however, during fourth quarter of 2007, the company showed net loss of roughly fifteen million dollars that brought its income to eighty-seven million dollars (Caribou, 2010). In conclusion, the paper compared and analyzed some of the major areas of marketing and finance of the Starbucks Corporation and Caribou Coffee, which are some of the most popular coffee retailers on the global level. It is anticipation that the paper will be beneficial for the students and nonprofessionals in better understanding of the topic. References Bussing-Burks, Marie. 2009. Starbucks. ABC-CLIO. Caribou. 2010. Caribou Coffee. Retrieved on November 10, 2010: www.cariboucoffee.com Haig, Matt. 2004. Brand Royalty. Kogan Page Publishers. Ireland, Duane. 2009. Strategic Management. Cengage Learning. Starbucks. 2010. Starbucks Corporation. Retrieved on November 10, 2010: www.starbucks.com Read More