Brand Positioning and Value: A Case Study of Starbucks

This report discusses the concept and significance of brand positioning and value using Starbucks as a case study. It analyzes the ten characteristics of Starbucks' brand report card and its impact on brand equity.

Running Head: MARKETING
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Digital business and Retailing
5/28/2019

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Executive Summary
The concept of brand positioning and value are considered vital to every business
organisation irrespective of the nature or type of operations. In this report, Starbucks
explained the aspect and significance of the brand positioning, brand equity and hierarchy.
Starbucks has become a leading player in the market, and serves to ensure high value to their
customers through products and beverages and will continue to rise and growth in the future
years.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Brand positioning, values and brand equity...........................................................................................3
Starbucks Corporation...........................................................................................................................3
1. The customer benefits represents the excellence of the brand....................................................3
2. Relevancy of the brand..............................................................................................................3
3. The consumer’s perceptions determines the pricing strategy.........................................................3
4. The positioning of the brand..........................................................................................................4
5. The brand consistency...................................................................................................................4
6. The portfolio of the product/brand and hierarchy..........................................................................4
7. The marketing activities and other tools used and coordinated by the brand to establish brand
equity.................................................................................................................................................4
8. The meaning of the brand and value from the perspective of consumers......................................4
9. The support given to the brand is maintained over long period.....................................................4
10. The monitoring of the brand equity for the company...................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the assessment of a brand using the Keller’s brand
report card and, ‘Starbucks’ has been taken as the company in this report.
Brand positioning, values and brand equity
Brand positioning is important as it significantly determines the reasons for the ‘target
customers’ to buy the brand in comparison to others. Therefore, establishing and maintaining
brand equity has become the top- most priority for the companies (Wheeler, 2017).
Starbucks Corporation
Starbucks, an American company opened in the year 1971, by jerry Baldwin, Gordon
Bowker, and Zev Siegal. Howard Schultz has been the president and CEO of the company.
The first store across the street from the Historic Pike place market in Seattle. The company
has been recognised as World’s largest coffeehouse company, and operates 30,000 locations
around the globe (Starbucks, 2018).
Now, the below section of the report will analyse and demonstrate ten characteristics, shared
by the global brand Starbucks to construct the brand report card.
1. The customer benefits represents the excellence of the brand
Starbucks has become a leading coffee house company, as the company serve their
customers, coffee as produce. The company directed their efforts establishing a coffee bar
culture, and all the stores delivered number of effective and large benefits to their customers.
Benefits in respect to these five senses, i.e. aroma of the beans, taste of the coffee, display of
product, attractive art on the walls, music in the background, and warm feel of ambience
(Harrington, Ottenbacher and Fauser, 2017).
2. Relevancy of the brand
Starbucks has served the relevancy of their brand, as it is an essential element in today’s
market, through using slogans, logos, advertisements, and imagery pictures.

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3. The consumer’s perceptions determines the pricing strategy
Starbucks has established a right blend of the aspects of product quality, features, prices, and
own the mechanism of premium pricing to increase profits.
4. The positioning of the brand
Starbucks has been well positioned against their competitors, due to certain characteristics,
such as countless locations, status symbol, and others.
5. The brand consistency
Starbucks has shown consistency in terms of messaging and branding of their products
(Heding, Knudtze and Bjerre, 2015).
6. The portfolio of the product/brand and hierarchy
Starbucks market number of different products, beverages and retail items at varied prices,
and the company works on a functional hierarchy, i.e. different departments.
7. The marketing activities and other tools used and coordinated by the brand to
establish brand equity.
Starbucks Card technique has been implemented which enables promotion of their products
through a referral system, and builds brand equity through delivering premium
products/services (Wheeler, 2017).
8. The meaning of the brand and value from the perspective of consumers.
Starbucks supervisors understand the totality of the brand, and their significance from the
perspective of customers. Customers perceive the meaning of the brand, i.e. Starbucks as an
experience (Starbucks, 2018).
9. The support given to the brand is maintained over long period.
Customers of the coffee house have well established brand awareness, and value delivered
through their beverages. This provides a major support to the brand, and ensures
sustainability in the long run (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2016).
10. The monitoring of the brand equity for the company
The company is using the brand audit exercise to assess their brand, and value or monitor
their existence against other companies to lead change or innovation.

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Thus, to analyse the positioning statement, it has been analysed that Starbucks aims to
become a major player in the international market. Furthermore, achieve their vision, and
mission and currently perceived as strong brand in the market (Shapiro and Bottary, 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion, it has been found that Starbucks has achieved great
importance amongst other brands, and created a high brand-equity or market value.

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References
Harrington, R.J., Ottenbacher, M.C. and Fauser, S. (2017) QSR brand value: Marketing mix
dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), pp. 551-570.
Heding, T., Knudtzen, C.F. and Bjerre, M. (2015) Brand management: Research, theory and
practice. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Ramaswamy, V. and Ozcan, K. (2016) Brand value co-creation in a digitalized world: An
integrative framework and research implications. International Journal of Research in
Marketing, 33(1), pp.93-106.
Shapiro, L. and Bottary, L. (2016) Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives
Leadership, Growth, and Success. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Starbucks. (2018) Company Information. [online] Available from:
https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information [Accessed 28/05/19].
Wheeler, A. (2017) Designing brand identity: an essential guide for the whole branding
team. United States: John Wiley & Sons.