Brand Equity of Starbucks: Activities to Build and Maintain It

This article discusses the brand equity of Starbucks, its activities to build and maintain it, and how it has become a strong brand globally. It covers the Starbucks brand, brand equity, activities to build brand equity, and customer service. The article also mentions the subject of marketing and references for further reading.

Marketing

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
The Starbucks brand...................................................................................................................1
Brand equity of Starbucks..........................................................................................................2
Activities to build brand equity..................................................................................................3
Tweet a coffee........................................................................................................................3
Treat Receipts.........................................................................................................................3
Loyalty cards..........................................................................................................................4
Customer service....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Brand equity plays a vital role in the success of any business. Brand equity refers to the
commercial value of any brand owing to perception of consumers about the brand1. Brand
equity of any business is the result of effective customer service, positive customer
relationships, wide brand awareness and large reach of the brand. The organization in
discussion is Starbucks. Starbucks is a leading coffee chain first found in America but with
stores all over the globe.
The Starbucks brand
Starbucks coffee chain has a positive brand equity owing to top quality of its products and
services, positive customer relationships, enhanced brand loyalty among customers as well as
wide consumer reach. The brand’s logo is ideally a twin tailed mermaid. However over a
period of time, the logo evolved immensely2. The logo is recognizable because of its unique
shape and smart colour selection.
Starbucks outlets have the same look and feel throughout the globe. The outlets have
comfortable couches, free Wi-Fi, charging points, bright lighting and soothing music on the
background. Customers are supposed to place the order at the counter and the food get
delivered on their table. The outlets are comfortable and depict the ambience of a casual
hangout place. Starbucks’ employees write the names of the customers on their coffee mugs.
Starbucks targets youth between the ages of 15 to 42. Therefore, the environment at all their
outlets is lively and vibrant.

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Starbucks advertises its products with the help of television advertisement, social media
promotions and digital marketing tools. Starbucks widely banks on social media pages like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to reach out to its customers and set an effective
positioning for the brand. The brand also tries to address various social issues through its
advertising. The company puts efforts towards attracting a large amount of user generated
content by creating social campaigns on various media platforms3.
Brand equity of Starbucks
Starbucks exhibits a strong brand equity. This is evident through its increased brand
awareness as well as brand loyalty among its customer. The brand provides its customers
with loyalty cards through which they can collect and redeem Starbucks points with every
purchase4. The Starbucks mobile application is user friendly and allows customers to remain
engaged with the application by offering short term offers at random times during the day.
Starbucks unique taste and ambience makes its outlets a ‘third place’ between people’s
offices and homes.
The perceived quality of Starbucks is much higher than its competing brands like Costa
Coffee, Barista and Café coffee day. Once a customer enters a Starbucks outlets, a great cup
of coffee is guaranteed. Starbucks has also entered into various joint ventures with leading
brands for expanding into international markets like Alsea (Columbia), TATA (India), Kesko
(Finland) and UPEC (China) etc. Starbucks has effectively utilized the brand value,
awareness and expertise of these local brands to mark its presence in these countries. Such
joint ventures have also helped Starbucks promote itself better through these brands. These

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cobranding strategies allow customers to become aware of the brand and position the brand
positively.
Starbucks is a name which is widely known through different countries. The brand also has a
positive image in the minds of its consumers because of the right positioning strategies
adopted by the firm. The brand is synonymous to integrity, value, taste and excellent
customer service.
Activities to build brand equity
Starbucks has always worked towards enhancing its brand equity through ensuring excellent
customer service and high level of induced brand loyalty5. The business ensures that people
across the globe are well aware of the brand. In order to ensure the same, they create unique
social media campaigns and attractive television advertisements. The brand works towards
creating user generated content which is often the most reliable source of information about
the brand. Few of their social media campaigns are as below:
Tweet a coffee
Starbucks introduced a twitter campaign where that enabled people to gift a $5 gift card by
using @Tweetacoffee and a friend’s twitter handle in a tweet. Starbucks would automatically
gift the friend a $5 gift card and deduct the amount from the person’s credit card. This kind of
a campaign enhances customer engagement and hence leads to increased customer
awareness6.
Treat Receipts
One of the initiatives by the brands to engage customers was a Facebook campaign where
users to use the hashtag #TreatReciepts if they have had a Starbucks coffee during the day.
Post which, their next coffee would be on the house.

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Loyalty cards
Starbucks has also introduced various loyalty cards to encourage customers for repeat
purchases of the brand. These loyalty cards help customers in gaining and redeeming reward
points with every purchase at any Starbucks outlet across the globe. These loyalty cards also
provide various perks and discounts to customers and help the brand maintain positive
relationships with their customers. This loyalty has led to an enhanced brand equity of
Starbucks.

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Customer service
Another strategy adopted by Starbucks to enhance its brand equity is providing excellent
customer service to its customers. The level of Starbucks customer service and the efficiency
with which customer grievances are addressed have helped the firm build a positive goodwill
in the market. Satisfied customers further spread word of mouth publicity for the brand
eventually leading to a stronger brand equity.
Conclusion
Brand equity of Starbucks plays a vital role in the success of the brand throughout the globe.
It is a brand which is well known through different parts of the world and has a large set of
loyal customers. The brand has never compromised on its quality rather always worked hard
at introducing new options and building deeper relationships with their customers. The brand
elements including logos, advertisements, social media pages, slogans and outlet structures
are uniquely designed which makes them easy to remember. The brand has also worked hard
in building a loyal set of customers by positioning the brand effectively across the minds of
its consumers. Starbucks further associations with leading brands across the globe have added
to its strong brand equity. Overall, the brand has built trust and respect through the value they
deliver and this is what makes Starbucks a strong brand throughout the globe7.

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References
1. Keller KL, Parameswaran MG, Jacob I. Strategic brand management: Building,
measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India; 2011.
2. Van Grinsven B, Das E. I love you just the way you are: When large degrees of logo
change hurt information processing and brand evaluation. In Advances in Advertising
Research (Vol. VI) 2016 (pp. 379-393). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
3. Goh KY, Heng CS, Lin Z. Social media brand community and consumer behaviour:
Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information
Systems Research. 2013 Mar; 24(1):88-107
4. Nam J, Ekinci Y, Whyatt G. Brand equity, brand loyalty and consumer satisfaction.
Annals of Tourism Research. 2011 Jul 1; 38(3):1009-30.
5. Pradiptarini C. Social media marketing: Measuring its effectiveness and identifying
the target market. UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research XIV. 2011.
6. Tuten TL, Solomon MR. Social media marketing. Sage; 2017 Nov 20.
7. Aaker DA, Biel AL. Brand equity & advertising: advertising's role in building strong
brands. Psychology Press; 2013 Oct 31.