Starbucks Business Strategy Analysis

This assignment delves into the business strategies employed by Starbucks, focusing on its competitive strategy, global marketing approach, and brand management. It examines various aspects such as product quality, service reliability, customer-oriented marketing, and the impact of social media. The analysis also considers Starbucks' successes and challenges in navigating the dynamic market landscape.

Running head: Introduction to management
Introduction to management

Introduction to management
Abstract
The paper is based on the Starbucks corporations. Further, it talks about the goals and objectives
of the company. It tells that how the company is conducting planning process in order to
determine the long term success and growth within the organization. SWOT analysis is also
explained in the report. Some implementation and suggestion have been given to the
organization to maintain the sustainability in the organization.
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Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................4
Analysis of planning process........................................................................................................................5
Suggestions and implications......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................8
Appendices................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
The report talks about the business activities and operations of the Starbucks. It explains
the planning process of the company. The paper explains the SWOT analysis and it also
describes the marketing strategies of the firm. It tells that how the company is overcoming on its
competitors in the world. It describes that how the Starbucks is becoming a global player in
coffee and beverage industry.
The star bucks is an American coffee company and it was founded on 1971 in Seattle,
Washington. It operates and manages approx 23,768 locations globally. It is one of the biggest
companies in food and coffee industry. The company deals in various products such as various
cold and hot drinks, whole bean coffee and tea products. In today’s era, the company is
increasing its revenue and profit day by day. There are approx 238,000 employees are employed
in Starbucks (Tu, Wang and Chang, 2012). The main objective of the company is to provide
good quality of coffee and beverage products to the customers around the world.
Literature review
The Starbucks is one of the biggest brands in the world. In 1971, the first Starbucks was
started. The company is dealing in various coffee and food products around the world. Paryani
(2011) said that the company has become one of the biggest coffee bars in Seattle. The firm is
flourishing and exploring its business activities and operations day by day. Further, the company
is recruiting and selecting potential and capable employees to do work effectively and efficiently.
A wide range of human resources is used by the company to manage and control the business
activities and operations across the world. Starbucks emphasizes and focuses on the level of
satisfaction and morale of the employees. It is the biggest coffeehouse company around the
world with 19,972 stores in more than 60 countries. Further, the company uses effective and
unique marketing strategies and plans in order to meet the long-term goals and objectives of the
firm. In addition, the organization focuses and monitors the needs, requirements, and desires of
the consumers in the global market. It analyzes and evaluates the various factors which affect the
consumer buying behavior in the world (Chua and Banerjee, 2013).
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After the various researchers, it has been studied by the Hossain and Islam (2015) where they
said that consumer behavior encourages and enhances the brand and reputation of the company.
The branding strategies play a vital and crucial role in the purchasing power of the consumers
across the world. Further, the company uses effective marketing mix strategies in order to
generate more revenue and profits globally. Along with this, effective and unique advertisement
and promotion strategies are used by the company to increase the sales of the products and
services (Karman, 2015).
There are various competitors of the Starbucks which include Costa coffee, McDonald’s
and Coca-Cola. The company is using social media to increase the number of customers in the
world. As a result, the internet is becoming a significant strategy of the Starbucks in order to get
connected with their consumers globally (Gopalakrishna, Victor, and Fleischmann, 2016). By
using the internet and social media, the company is launching and producing new and innovative
coffee and food products in the global market. In addition, the company is maintaining
sustainability and corporate social responsibility to protect the interest of the shareholders in the
world. Apart from this, the firm is focusing on the business ethics, rules, regulations and code of
conducts within the organization. The firm is maintaining a good and reciprocal relationship with
customers as well as suppliers. In this way, the company is rendering good quality of coffee
products and services to consumers globally (Qian and Xing, 2016).
Analysis of planning process
The planning process of the Starbucks is unique and excellent. The company maintains a
planning strategic management system within the organization to grow and expand the business
activities and operations. Planning analysis is done by the firm to predict and estimate the
competitor’s strategies and plans within the organization (Patterson, Scott, and Uncles, 2010).
The firm is one of the biggest distributors of coffee products around the world. Starbucks focuses
on the planning process in order to meet the long-term mission and vision of the firm
(Gopalakrishna, Victor, and Fleischmann, 2016). The porter five model provides competitive
advantages and opportunities to the company. Further, the company uses SWOT analysis to do
planning effectively and efficiently in order to meet the course of action of the firm. SWOT
analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Through SWOT analysis,
the company can evaluate and analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of
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the competitors across the world. The SWOT analysis of the Starbucks has been discussed below
(Haskova, 2015).
Strengths
 The main strength of the company is its strong and unique financial position through
which the company is able to build and develop a good image in the market. Further, the
firm is occupying various coffee and beverage stores around the world (Latif, Gulzar,
Bukhari, and Sameen, 2014).
 It is the biggest coffeehouse across the world due to its large size and high volumes.
Further, the firm has fixed the reasonable and appropriate prices of the coffee products.
 Starbuck’s is introducing new and innovative coffee products in the supermarket around
the world. The firm is selling branded products globally to maximize and increase the
goodwill and reputation.
 It is one of the biggest and strong franchises across the world with more than 6500
Licenses stores in the global world. Further, it provides effective and excellent services to
its customers (Talpau and Boscor, 2011).
Weaknesses
 Starbucks focuses and monitors on the US domestic market thus it is one of the biggest
concerns of the company.
 Sometimes the company sells the products at high prices thus; consumers are not able to
buy the coffee products in the market. It affects the success and growth of the company
(Talpau and Boscor, 2011).
 The employees are not happy with the management of the company thus they complaints
about the management of the Starbucks. In this way, various issues are faced by the
company (Qian and Xing, 2016).
Opportunities
 The company can introduce new versions of the coffee in the market. It can become the
greatest opportunity for the firm.
 The company can diverse its coffee products worldwide.
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 Rising and increasing consumerism is another opportunity of the Starbucks.
 It covers all the small cities and towns (Jianfei, 2014).
Threats
 Threats of existing competitors in the coffee industry are the biggest threat to the
company.
 Mainly, the prices of the products dependent on the government commodity rates.
 Global financial crisis is one of the significant issues in Starbucks.
 Recession can also affect the sales and revenue of the company. It affects the business
activities and efficiency of the company.
Through SWOT analysis, Starbucks can evaluate and measure the plans, policies, and strategies
of the competitors. In this way, the firm can overcome on the competitors around the world
(Farida and Ardyan, 2015).
Suggestions and implications
There are various suggestions have been given to the Starbucks corporation to improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of the employees within the organization. The company should
focus on the quality and quantity of the products in order to increase the number of customers
around the world. The organization must focus on the premium product strategy, product
differentiation strategy to differentiate its products from the competitor’s products around the
world. Along with this, the firm should focus on the growth strategy and business level strategy
to increase the growth and success of the organization. Further, the company should focus on the
packaging strategy to attract the more customers around the world (Latif, Gulzar, Bukhari, and
Sameen, 2014).
In addition, the firm must evaluate and predict the purchasing power, needs and habits of
the consumers in the market. Further, the company must make changes in current e-commerce
strategies and policies. Along with this, the company needs to implement corporate level
strategies to beat the competitors around the world. It should maintain a sustainable human
resource management in order to hire potential and capable employees within the organization.
Further, the firm must analyze and evaluate the external environment of the company to gain
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long-term benefits and profits globally. Pestle analysis must be done by the company to evaluate
the external factors of the environment (Morais et al, 2014). Further, the company also maintains
supply chain management system within the organization. In this way, the company is able to
explore and flourish its business in the universal market.
Conclusion
On the above discussion, it has been evaluated and concluded that Starbucks is the global
player in coffee and beverage industry. It makes an effective and unique reputation in the global
market. Effective and unique planning analysis is done by the company to gain the competitive
advantages around the world. Further, various seminars and programs must be conducted by the
Starbucks to enhance and increase the coffee and beverage products. SWOT analysis is done by
the company to identify its competitors globally.
Bibliography
Chua, A.Y. and Banerjee, S., 2013. Customer knowledge management via social media: the case
of Starbucks. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), pp.237-249.
Farida, N. and Ardyan, E., 2015. Repeat purchase intention of Starbucks consumers in Indonesia:
A green brand approach. Market-Tržište, 27(2).
Gopalakrishna, P., Victor, R. and Fleischmann, D., 2016. Starbucks In India. Journal of Case
Studies, 34(2), pp.92-101.
Haskova, K., 2015. Starbucks Marketing Analysis. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research and
Interdisciplinary Study, 2015(1), pp.11-29.
Hossain, M. and Islam, K.Z., 2015. Generating ideas on online platforms: A case study of “My
Starbucks Idea”. Arab Economic and Business Journal, 10(2), pp.102-111.
Jianfei, X., 2014. Analysis of Starbucks Employees Operating Philosophy. International Journal
of Business and Social Science, 5(6).
Karman, M.A., 2015. The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Equity toward the
Purchase Intention of Starbucks Indonesia. iBuss Management, 3(2).
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Latif, M., Gulzar, H., Bukhari, S.R. and Sameen, S.N., 2014. Starbucks sustained during
economic crisis. International Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting, 4(1), p.307.
Morais, U.P., Pena, J., Shacket, K., Sintilus, L., Ruiz, R., Rivera, Y. and Mujtaba, B.G., 2014.
Managing diverse employees at Starbucks: Focusing on ethics and inclusion. International
Journal of Learning and Development, 4(3), pp.35-50.
Paryani, K., 2011. Product quality, service reliability and management of operations at
Starbucks. International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, 3(7), pp.1-14.
Patterson, P.G., Scott, J. and Uncles, M.D., 2010. How the local competition defeated a global
brand: The case of Starbucks. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 18(1), pp.41-47.
Qian, Y.A.N.G. and Xing, T.U., 2016. Starbucks VS Chinese Tea—Starbucks Brand
Management Strategy Analysis in China. International Business and Management, 12(1), pp.29-
32.
Talpau, A. and Boscor, D., 2011. Customer-oriented marketing-A strategy that guarantees
success: Starbucks and McDonald's. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic
Sciences. Series V, 4(1), p.51.
Tu, Y.T., Wang, C.M. and Chang, H.C., 2012. Corporate brand image and customer satisfaction
on loyalty: An empirical study of Starbucks coffee in Taiwan. Journal of Social and
Development Sciences, 3(1), pp.24-32.
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Appendices
1. Competitive strategy of Starbucks
2. Global marketing strategy
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