Starbucks SWOT Analysis

The assignment content is about a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Starbucks, a popular global brand. The strengths include diversification and global supply chain, while weaknesses are high prices and lack of alignment with café ambience and products. Opportunities for expansion in Middle East, Africa, and Asia are identified, as well as threats from competitors like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.

SWOT Analysis

Starbucks is considered as one of the most popular brand globally. The target audience of the
company is growing tremendously as the company is providing high quality of products and
services within the specific time framework. The company has a global supply chain which
provides competitive advantage to the company. There are various subsidies which are acquired
by the company such as Seattle’s Best Coffee, Ethos Water, and Teavana. The SWOT analysis of
the company shows diversification and global supply chain as the competitive advantage to the
company (Ayub et al., 2013).
The target audience of the company is higher middle class and prices are relatively higher which
acts as a weakness for the company. The company offers generalized corporate standards that
make products less aligned in terms of café ambience and products. The SWOT analysis shows
that company has innovative products and services which enable to overcome its weaknesses
through providing competitive advantage to the company. The company has various
opportunities in order to expand its profitability through expansion in Middle East and Africa as
the company has minimum presence here and the company can also expand its operation in Asia
due to high economic rate in these regions. The company has diverse range of products which
provide competitive advantage to the company. The SWIR analysis shows that the company has
wide opportunities to generate high profitability.
The threats of the company include high competitors such as McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts
who are providing low cost coffee to the competitors. There is a high threat of new competitors
who can attract the target audience. There are various new entrants who are imitating such as
Star and Bucks in Palestine territories. The trend of supporting coffee house by the social
movement for independent coffee house is providing benefits to the company. This section
shows that the company has potential threats and opportunities.

The company has been conducting market research over the past few years in which company
has developed a website in the year 2010 “My Starbucks idea” in which thoughts are shared by
the audience in order to improve customer satisfaction. The company has also provided access to
the newsletter of the company through entering email ids in order to signed up which enable to
conduct customer preference analysis in order to standout among the competition within the
same industry that enable to conduct primary research.
The company can conduct secondary market research through creating customer profiles which
enable to research the market through geographic, demographic, behavioral, and psychological
manner. It shows that the target audience of the company is 18-45 years which shows that the
youngsters who want to get together with their friends and office colleagues are the main
audience (Meyer et al., 2015). The college students are also target audience of the company.

References
Meyer, P. (2015). Starbucks coffee company’s organizational structure.
Ayub, A., Razzaq, A., Aslam, M. S., & Iftekhar, H. (2013). A conceptual framework on
evaluating SWOT analysis as the mediator in strategic marketing planning through marketing
intelligence. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 2(1), 91-98.