In “ The Starbucks Experience” author discusses essential business strategies that allowed Starbucks from its establishment in Seattle in 1971 as a single-location coffee shop to go worldwide. Nowadays, Starbucks has more than 11,500 non-franchised locations worldwide with annual sales more than $600 million and has been recognized as one of the best Fortune 500 companies to work for. The Starbucks former CEO and the current chairman, Howard Schultz, implemented the five core Starbucks principles for turning “ordinary into extraordinary”. By following these principles, Starbucks became extremely successful and since 1992 the Starbucks stock has grown a staggering 5,000 percent. The author discusses the five core principles that lead to Starbucks’ success such as: make it your own, everything matters, surprise and delight,
Starbucks has grown so fast in 40 years it is easy to see the things that they are doing right. One of the strengths that Starbucks has is they have built strong customer connections through value-added services. Looking deeper into this, starbucks prides themselves on retaining their current customers and how they are able to attract new ones. They sell world-renowned coffee in so many flavors that meet many peoples demands. They have been a company that has focused on meeting their customers demands while offering other services other than coffee. (Marketline, 2016).
Inspired by the book and the movie about Moby Dick, Starbucks first opened as a storefront in Pike Place Market in 1971. It wasn’t until 1984 when Howard Schultz joined the operation as a chairman, president, and chief executive officer, and introduced to Starbucks the new Italian breed of coffee bean and Italian style of coffee drinking; a style that refreshed the idea of socializing and interacting among people of all walks in times that corporate life style was winning over the family and friendly style of living. Such goal was established by officially making it company’s mission statement; “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks, n.d). After 43 years of business, Starbucks currently operates in 18,000 locations in sixty-two countries (Starbucks, n.d). The annual report released by the company for the year 2013 indicates a total sales/revenue of 14.89 billion dollars, which was 1.5 billion dollars made in 2012 (MarketWatch, 2014).
Starbucks Communication Plan
Once the action plan is in effect, the plan then relies on the implementation and the communication strategy for the idea to work. Communication objectives are obtained and the strategic tactics on how to communicate and disseminate the communication objectives formally and informally.
Communication Objectives
The communication objectives are to be clear and concise and must be entirely different from other marketing strategies goals of the other competitors.
Starbucks, a coffee bean sales company did not have much of a marketing plan in place at its inception. Based in Seattle Washington the company began to sell coffee beans to espresso bars and upscale restaurants back in 1982. It took 11 years to progress to that level of production, they originally were a local store vendor at Pike Place Market. The director of marketing brought back the espresso bar idea from his travels in Milan. (Company Profile, 2015) The Pacific Northwest was filled with working class men and women that were drawn to the coffeehouse tradition brought in from Italy.
Starbucks Company was established in 1971 with their first store in Western Avenue from that same year to 1976. They started as retailers of ground coffee tea and spices with a single in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. Starbucks is named after the first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and their logo is inspired by the sea-featuring a twin-tailed siren from Greek mythology. Starbucks had always wanted to inspire the human spirit. They believe in serving the best coffee by growing the coffee under quality standards. Starbucks believes rendering good services to customers is very significant to the success of the company. From just a narrow storefront, Starbucks now has more than 20,000 stores in over 60 countries and they offer some of the world’s finest fresh-roasted whole bean coffees. Their coffee houses have become a beacon for coffee lovers everywhere. Starbucks believe that they can elevate their customers, partners, suppliers and neighbours to create positive change. They call their corporate offices “a support centre” for some reasons. They try to make everything they do there to support their retail store partners and make an impact on the communities they serve. They have a research and development team of over 200 people which are responsible for the science behind their great products. They are the innovators of delicious beverages and brewing equipments. They drive the innovations, conduct the research and test products. They have a public affairs, communications and community team of over 50 people who promotes and protects the company’s reputation all around the world. They also have a partner resources team of over 500 people that help their partners all around the world become their very best...
Abstract
Starbucks started out in a “single store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market” (Starbucks, 2017, p. 2). Starbucks only offered fresh roasted whole bean coffees and dark roasted in small bags. In 1981, Howard Schultz stepped into his first Starbucks and had his first drink (Starbucks, 2017). Howard ended up becoming the chairman and CEO for Starbucks.
Starbucks is currently the industry leader in specialty coffee. They purchased more high quality coffee beans than anyone else in the world and keep in good standings with the producers to ensure they get the best beans. Getting the best beans is only the first part, Starbucks also has a “closed loop system” that protects the beans from oxygen immediately after roasting to the time of packaging. They did this through their invention of a one-way valve which let the natural gasses escape but keeping oxygen out. This gave them the unique ability to ensure freshness and extended the shelf life to 26 weeks. Starbucks isn’t only about the coffee, it’s also about a place where people can escape to enjoy music, reflect, read, or just chat. It is a total coffee experience. The retail outlet has been responsible for much of Starbucks growth and has contributed substantially to their brand equity.
When I saw this discussion, I couldn’t help but think of Starbucks and the impact they’ve made throughout their 45 years of establishment. I worked with them for about 7 years and saw how unique they were from your everyday coffee and latte spots. A retail company with thousands of coffee shops in the US as well as in other countries, this particular retailer has been able to catch the eyes of all ages as well as locations throughout the world. For example, today college students utilize Starbucks locations to study rather than go to a nearby library. Starbucks is also known for its best coffee and espresso drinks (Latte or Frappuccino) and with one of its delicious espresso 's any student or just a person stopping in to enjoy its lounge area where there is free Wi-Fi is awesome! Starbucks lifecycle has made a 360 turn around and been revamped twice to accommodated the growing market. Customizing their brand to fit more in with everything and not just one thing. By doing this they’ve created multiple product lifecycles within their own lifecycle as a corporate company.
Starbucks is a worldwide company, known for is delicious brews of coffee and seasonal varieties of tasty drinks for any occasion. Starbucks opened with two main goals, sharing great coffee with friends and to help make the world a little better. It originated in the historic Pike Place Market of Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. The creation of Starbucks’ name came from the seafaring tradition of early coffee traders and the romance evoked from Moby Dick. At the time, this individual shop specialized in the towering quality of coffee over competitors and other brewing services enabling its growth to becoming the largest coffee chain in Washington with numerous locations. In the early 1980s, the current CEO Schultz saw an opportunity for growth in the niche market. After a trip to Italy he brought back the idea of a café style environment of leisure and social meetings to the United States we now see in Starbucks locations today. Schultz ultimately left Starbucks to open his own coffee shop, Il Giornale which turned out to be a tremendous success. Fast forward a year later, Schultz got wind that Starbucks was going to sell all their components of Starbucks including their stores and factories, he immediately acquired the funds to buy Starbucks and linked both operations. Within five years he was able to open more than 125 stores starting in New England, Boston, Chicago, and gradually entered California. He wanted Starbucks to be a franchise system based on the mission of telling the truth and emphasize the quality,