Starbucks Case Analysis

There are 15,756 Starbucks stores in 44 countries. To have that many stores, serve that many people, and ensure they still maintain the best and highest quality of beans, really sets some doubts. Starbucks has truly become the McDonald’s of the coffee industry because of the supply and demand. In the Starbucks business, quantity is greater than quality because quantity equals to money, where as quality costs more money. There is no win/win situation with this equation when your business is serving practically the world.

According to Exhibit 8, the profile of the customers retained had changed. The brand image was not as strong for the newer customers (first visited in the year prior to date of exhibit) as it was for established customers

In addition to the trade-offs Howard Schultz and Starbucks made. Another consists of the company’s management deciding to invest a significant amount of capital to provide the highest quality coffee products for their customers. Providing quality coffee requires extreme dedication and

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

Starbucks has developed a brand image that has revolutionized coffee drinking experience. It has created an ambiance that is designed to attract customers and keep them coming back to Starbucks stores. It offers wide varieties of services such as comfortable seating areas with unique music and free wireless Internet for their customers while sipping their favorite coffee. This distinctiveness sets Starbucks apart from most of its competitors and has allowed the company to successfully grow and profit while charging premium prices for their products.

We will ensure you that this will never happen again at our restaurant. We have addressed the issue with the employee responsible and will make sure to further our training for new employees to guarantee they can meet all the needs of the customer. To make up for our mistake, we would like to offer you a voucher for a free coffee

Starbucks’ commitment to ethical behavior is evident in the many steps they take to ensure employees not only comply, but also are able to report any issues. There are several available methods of communication for employees who wish to report unethical behavior, be it face-to-face, anonymously through the Helpline, or through their

1. In the beginning, how was Starbucks different from other coffee options for coffee drinkers in the United States? What activities and assets did Starbucks leverage to differentiate itself from competitors?

Starbucks has put heavy concentration on product innovation, new product launches and branding strategies and as a result, the company has lost sight of the customer’s wants and needs. Ultimately, Starbucks is not properly or correctly measuring customer satisfaction. They are basing these scores on characteristics affecting the product, and not precisely measuring the quality of their services. As Exhibit 10 from the case study shows, Starbucks’ customers ranked a clean and convenient store as the most important attributes of creating customer satisfaction. As marketing research is beginning to reveal, this should not be the only focus. Starbucks needs to shift their priorities and rank fast service, customer experience, and atmosphere as most important, as new studies suggest.

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.

Please answer all the following questions as they relate to the case. Please utilize as much outside resources as you deem necessary to reinforce your answers—especially the last question. Remember that this case is over 10 years old and Starbucks has changed since then.

Thus, it is evident that the Starbucks is well positioned around its strengths, which far outweighs its weaknesses. The company must maintain its supplier relationships, and continue to offer compelling and premium products to its customer base in order to stay relevant and compete against other coffee giants.

Furthermore, Starbucks always involves with its customers and the community, providing customers with everything they want, and being continuously loyal to the customers while providing products that are good quality. Moreover, Starbucks also makes sure that the provided products are good at the beginning, rather than provides low quality products and makes improvement in the future. In order to do this, Starbucks gets the best ingredients possible and trains its partners properly so that is can prevent any defects in the products. To ensure that all products are with good quality, Starbucks always listens to feedbacks from its partners and its customers in order to better the process in which the products are made and the end result itself (Sandhu, M., Singh, R., Ratra, R. et

Starbucks is one of the top leading coffee sellers in the world. With more than 17,000 stores in more than 55 countries, Starbucks has created the ultimate brand and coffee shop (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2015). Building Starbuck’s name was a process performed by the founder Howard Shultz that focused on quality ethics and good coffee. One of the main aspects of Starbuck’s culture is its mission. Starbucks brand has been ranked number 16 in the Fortune’s one hundred companies to work for because of its honorable, ethical back-round (Lemus, von Feigenblatt, Orta, & Rivero, 2015). However, like all businesses, Starbucks has encountered some ethical issues along the way of their success.

Starbucks was bought out by current CEO Howard Schultz in 1987. Since then, Andrew Harrer (2012) reports the company has grown to operate over “17,244 stores worldwide” (para. 1). Fortune (n.d.) reports in its yearly 100 Best Companies to Work for that Starbucks employs “some 95,000 employees”. From only a handful of stores in 1987 to a billion dollar franchise today, the success of Starbucks is due in great deal to their corporate culture, specifically how employees, or as Starbucks calls them, partners are treated. Joseph Michelli (2007) echoes this sentiment, “A great cup of coffee is only part of the Starbucks success equation” (p. 767).