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starbucks case

Good Essays

Emily Thomas
Professor Gervais
Strategy
Starbucks Case
April 2, 2012

Starbucks’ Strategy and Internal Initiatives to Return to Profitable Growth

Starbucks has been the world’s premier roaster and retailer of coffee since its founding in 1987. Today they operate stores in over 50 countries. They have 8,812 company-owned stores and 7,583 licensed stores. Sales accumulate on average to about $10 billion dollars.

Starbucks along with the rest of the world was hit hard with the worldwide recession beginning in 2008. They were forced to change the way in which they operated. Starbucks is a rapidly expanding company and it is imperative through the leadership of Howard Schultz that they continue to evolve.

1. Summarize the overall …show more content…

Starbucks also partnered with iTunes to make their music selections available for sale. Overall, Starbucks greatly increased their market segments and increasing distribution channels in various ways.
Starbuck’s had a specific strategy when it came to opening new locations. They believed more in licensing locations as opposed to franchising new stores because of the lack of control that comes with franchising. Starbucks also wanted to enter more international markets realizing that these new markets could increase revenues drastically. All of these things helped Starbucks as a rapidly expanding company.

2. Which one of the five generic competitive strategies discussed on Chapter 5 most closely approximates the competitive approach that Starbucks is employing?

Although Starbucks follows many of the five generic competitive strategies the strategy they follow most closely is the broad differentiation approach. Starbucks has put an emphasis on product differentiation in order to keep up with their ever-expanding company base. They have been extremely successful in their differentiation compared to their competitors. Starbucks offers such a multitude of products, which allows them to appeal to a variety of consumers. There are seven differentiating features of the generic competitive strategies. The following are ways in which the

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