Starbucks' Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Starbucks' integrated digital marketing strategy, focusing on its objectives, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as the marketing framework and strategies employed. It begins by defining digital marketing and its objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, enhancing conversion rates, and reducing bounce rates. The report then discusses the advantages of digital marketing, including brand development, wider reach, and lower costs, while also addressing disadvantages like internet dependency, time consumption, intense competition, and security concerns. Furthermore, it explores the strategic marketing framework used by Starbucks, emphasizing segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) and the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion). The report highlights how Starbucks utilizes these frameworks to achieve its marketing goals and maintain a competitive edge in the global market. Desklib provides access to this and similar solved assignments for students seeking study resources.

Integrated Digital
Marketing Strategy

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Digital marketing and its objectives.......................................................................................1
Advantages and disadvantages of Digital Marketing.............................................................2
Digital marketing framework and strategies..........................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References:.......................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Integrated digital marketing, as the name suggests, is the integration of multiple marketing
strategies in order to form a cohesive online approach for the business firms with the aim of
creating a single and unique form of expression which is easily encountered in all the channels of
communication which customer uses. Integrated marketing communication makes use of
different modes of communication channel to educate and establish the brand image of the
company among the target audience such as sales promotion, advertising, public relations, social
media, direct marketing, customers support as well as customer relationship management
(Harrigan and et. al., 2021). It is based on the method of engaging present and prospect customer
with the company which combines numerous parts of marketing communication used by the
brand to work in a cohesive manner and assist customers during the entire journey of brand
awareness to loyalty. Starbucks corporations is a most prominent and leading MNC chain of
coffeehouses and roaster reserves, founded in the year 1970, headquartered at Seattle,
Washington. An effective digital marketing strategy relies completely on tactics, methodologies,
media, channels, and other tools that work collaboratively toward common objective, therefore
this report talks about the objectives, pros and cons of digital marketing along with digital
marketing framework and strategies.
Main Body
Digital marketing and its objectives
Concept of Digital Marketing
Digital marketing can be easily understood by its name as, any marketing which makes use of
internet and online based digital technologies such as mobile, tablet, laptop, computer and other
digital media or platforms for the promotion of brand, communicate with customer and selling of
goods and services. Use of digital platforms to promote the brand and engage with customer has
increased rapidly due to almost half of the population around the world is engaged on internet
and social media sites (Melkonyan and et. al., 2019). Use of digital marketing is not only limited
to the email, social media but also encompasses text, multimedia messages, SEO, SEM,
influencer marketing, content marketing, e-books, display advertising etc. With the help of
digital marketing, Starbucks reach out to the specific targeted audience and makes the interaction
with customer interactive with the creative content and graphics. Digital marketing also extends
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to the non-internet channels of media such as television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), caller
tones, ring tones and call back on mobile phones.
Objectives of digital marketing
Prime and significant objective of digital marketing is to increase the brand awareness over
online and internet platforms, promoting value added goods and services, reach maximum target
audience, make products and services easily accessible, and engage with customer on a regular
basis with the aim of establishing positive relationship (Gielens and et. al., 2021). Below
mentioned are the SAMRT objectives of Starbucks:
 Increase sales: Starbucks, with the integrated marketing strategy wants to increase the
sales revenue through expanding its customer base and maintaining its global presence in
a short span of time. Increment is the sales is easily measurable through using key
performance indicators and evaluate its performance level. Starbucks wants to increase its
present sales by 25% by the end of the quarter.
 Enhance conversion rate: Conversion rate is related with the converting prospect leads
into successful sales. With the help of Google analytics, Starbucks sets goals and measure
the reports on conversion of traffic sources, keywords, campaigns, landing website pages
etc. Starbucks wants to improve the conversion rate by 15% and obtain maximum
successful leads through digital marketing strategies.
 Reducing bounce rate: Starbucks wants to improve the bounce rate by 20% which will
help in keeping the visitors engaged on websites and other online platforms through
creative content and unique selling features of products and services (Kang, Diao and
Zanini, 2020). Bounce rate can be defined as the leaving the web page by visitors instead
of visiting another pages and search for some information.
Advantages and disadvantages of Digital Marketing
Advantages
 Brand development: Business firms are not a mere name and product that it offers rather
it is a message and voice that has to be raised in the market and established so that brand
name receives a wider reach and conceives as a respected and leading brand. Digital
marketing helps Starbucks in building a brand rapport through personalised content and
direct campaigns which brings customer closer and enriching their experience by unique
preposition and brand value of company.
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 Wider reach: With the help of digital marketing any business firm can reach to a wide
audience and expand its reach disregards of geographical boundaries. With the help of
social media and website pages, prospect and target audience can view the company
profile globally, thus making it convenient to reach maximum audience as possible
(Arora and Sahney, 2019).
 Lower cost: Unlike traditional method of marketing, digital marketing is a cost friendly
and easiest approach to communicate effectively with the target audience and keep them
engaged regularly with the brand.
 Accessibility: Digital marketing enables companies like Starbucks to make easily
accessible to the prospect and existing customers. Starbucks has a bricks and mortar
establishments, making online presence through digital marketing make it convenient for
customers to stay connected with the business. Customer may always want to write
reviews on the sites with regards to their bad or good experience and they may want to
place recommendations for their friends. Furthermore, prospect clients may also want to
know more about the brand, its location, working hours, services offered, discounts,
offers and more.
Disadvantages
 High dependability over internet: Digital marketing seems to be irrelevant without
internet and technologies, and evidently internet is prone to errors (Valos, Mavondo and
Nyadzayo, 2019). Sometimes links may not work, pages may not load, and page buttons
may stop functioning. All these discrepancies may take the prospect customer away from
the website and landed on competitor’s page.
 Time consuming: One of the most difficult challenges faced by digital marketing is time
consuming and putting lots of efforts in selecting appropriate tactics and strategies to
devise right marketing campaigns and message.
 Intense competition: Growing use of technology across globe and huge amount of
internet users has made it accessible for companies to establish their strong presence over
digital platforms and sites; along with that it has also increased competition where
everyone is coming up with creative content and effective tactics to outperform other
competitors.
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 Security and privacy issues: Along with the wide use of technology and internet,
security threats are growing concern for the company as internet users may become
vulnerable to the data breach and theft. Website protection and securing customer’s data
is significant to maintain good brand image and promote itself as a responsible brand in
the market (Ližbetinová and et. al., 2019).
Digital marketing framework and strategies
Marketing goals and objectives can be easily attained through appropriate selection of
tools, techniques and framework along with devising appropriate strategies to achieve stated
objectives. Marketing strategy can be defined as the overall plan made by the company to reach
prospect customer and convert them into potential customers for the products and services
offered by company. It is the process through which an organisation utilises its constrained
resources for the better opportunities to maximise sales and attain sustainable competitive
advantage. An effective marketing strategy contains brand message of company, information
related with target customer, company’s value preposition and use of marketing tactics to
achieve the ultimate goals and objectives. Below mentioned are the few marketing framework
essential in meeting company’s objectives:
Strategic marketing framework in Starbucks
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
One of the most significant and recognised marketing strategic models used by the
business firms is STP process which is an ideal approach to make a shift from product centric
approach to customer centric approach which enables companies to better understand the
customer, their needs and a viable solutions to their problems along with positioning themselves
for success (Casais and Sousa, 2019). It is a three step process where STP stands for
segmentation, targeting and positioning allows companies to develop specific and actionable
marketing strategy.
 Segmentation: Segmentation of a market into a small groups are made to identify
distinctive and common traits among the people of target audience and similar product
needs with the aim of indentifying and selecting appropriate target audience.
Segmentation allows the company to develop much relevant and engaging marketing
campaign to place a much stronger impact than broader marketing campaigns.
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Segmentation can be done on the basis of demographics, geography, values, life stages,
behaviours and psychographics.
 Targeting: After identifying the appropriate segment, the next step is to determine the
best possible opportunities available for the company (Kuzior and Lobanova, 2020). In
this, the first and foremost step is to identify the size of the selected segmented group to
analyse whether it is worth pursuing with selected market. Larger the size of the customer
segment, more are the chances of success for the offerings. Further step is to identify the
measurable differences among the segments which make them distinct apart which will
act as a basis of STP process. Then financial perspective must also be evaluated to
identify the adequate amount of profit generated by the target group to cover the
marketing cost and in last is imperative to evaluate whether the target audience is easily
accessible or not and Starbucks can get their message in front of them.
 Positioning: Since the company has tangible data related with the target audience
desires, needs and wants, Starbucks can makes use of that information in order to
highlight the unique features of products and establish their unique selling preposition
through presenting appropriate message at right time, right place. Indentifying these
opportunities will allow the company to respond effectively to the unmatched needs of
the customers (Klietz and et. al., 2020).
Figure 1 Marketing Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning or STP Process, 2021
Source: (Marketing Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning or STP Process, 2021)
Marketing Mix
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Marketing mix is defined as the set of tools, actions and tactics used by business firms in
order to promote and sell their products and services to the target audience. Marketing mix is
composed of four P’s which are product, price, place and promotion, essential key factors
determining the success of marketing campaigns and objectives (Budanov and Aseeva, 2019). Product: Products refers to the something which is offered by business firms in order to
satisfy the unsatisfied needs of the customers through added value. Starbucks offers
compelling products that creates desire among the customer to buy that product and
create further demand. It is essential to understand the life cycle of the product in order to
deal with the product at each stages and exceeding the customer expectations. Price: It is the amount that customer pay for satisfying their needs and wants for the
products. The price should be as per the real and perceived value of the product by
customer and as per the budget of target audience, cost of production, channels of
distribution and pricing strategies as per other competitors. Place: Place plays a significant role in determining the success and attainment of
marketing objectives. It is the place from where company offers its offerings to the target
audience and channels of distribution to make the product easily available (Hurtado,
Dorneles and Frazzon, 2019). Promotion: These are concerned with the activities undertaken by the company to
promote and make the products and services known to the user by means of different
communication channels and marketing tools. Starbucks makes use of digital marketing
to communicate and keep customers engage with the business. While making selection of
appropriate channels it is imperative to analyse the best medium through which target
audience can be addressed effectively and understanding of message.
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Figure 2 the Marketing Mix, 2021
Source: (The Marketing Mix, 2021)
Methods and tactics of digital marketing in Starbucks
There are numerous methods and tactics used by the digital marketing which makes the
marketing campaign more effective and help company in realising its goals and objectives. These
tactics are widely used in the several industries to expand its reach and create intense brand
image in the market (Caliskan, Özen and Ozturkoglu, 2020). Most common and widely used
tactics are used by Starbucks and some other companies are: Social media marketing: Social media marketing can be defined as the promoting and
selling a goods and services to the target audience by means of social media platforms
and website such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap Chat, Tik-Tok etc. It is a form of
internet marketing which involves generating and sharing content on social media
platforms with the aim of spreading brand awareness and achieving marketing goals. It is
the most powerful tool used by many businesses of all sizes with the aim to reach
prospect customers and convert them into valuable and loyal customers. Social media
marketing helps Starbucks in building personalised content for the target audience which
attracts the audience on a large scale and drives lot of website traffic over social media
platforms (Harrigan and et. al., 2021). Another significant advantage of social media
marketing is raising brand awareness through establishing effective communication and
keeping the customer engaged with the business. Pay per click marketing: PPC is a most common internet based marketing tool which
allows advertisers to place their website link on the top of search list through use of
strategic key word. Under pay per click, advertiser pays a certain amount each time their
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ad link is clicked in order remain visible, to attract and pull website traffic to the website
and increase the chances of converting the leads into real sales. Starbucks makes use of
effective and creative key words for the search engine, which is selected on the basis of
most searched and place the ads on search engine webpage result page. Websites: Website is a common term used to define a collection of web pages and
associate content which is determined by the common name. These official websites of a
business firm serves as a significant tool for customer to get connect with the business
and avail the products and services of business firm (Melkonyan and et. al., 2019).
Websites are designed to inform customer with the necessary information associate with
the products and services, their unique features, background of company and other
information related with business. Websites defines authenticity and credibility of
business and helps in establishing strong brand image in the market and target audience.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned report it has been conclude that integrated marketing
communication helps the business firms in creating unison content for the different marketing
channels so that all the marketing communication campaigns and advertisement seems to be
inter-related and deliver one message to target audience through distinct channels of
communication. Apart from this it has also been observed that implementing right marketing
strategy as per the vision, mission and value preposition of the company helps in attaining the
marketing and business objectives. Furthermore, it has been revealed that marketing tactics and
framework will allow the business firm to create effective marketing content and make it easily
accessible for the target audience to make them aware about the goods and services offered by
the business firm.
.
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References:
Books and Journals
Arora, S. and Sahney, S., 2019. Examining consumers’ webrooming behavior: an integrated
approach. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Budanov, V. and Aseeva, I., 2019. Manipulative marketing technologies in new digital
reality. Economic Annals-XXI, 180.
Caliskan, A., Özen, Y.D.Ö. and Ozturkoglu, Y., 2020. Digital transformation of traditional
marketing business model in new industry era. Journal of Enterprise Information
Management.
Casais, B. and Sousa, B., 2019. 'Portugal, the best destination': the case study of a CSR
communication that changed mentalities and increased business performance. World
Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development. 15(1-2).
pp.29-41.
Gielens, K., and et. al., 2021. The future of private labels: towards a smart private label
strategy. Journal of Retailing. 97(1). pp.99-115.
Harrigan, P., and et. al., 2021. Identifying influencers on social media. International Journal of
Information Management. 56. p.102246.
Hurtado, P.A., Dorneles, C. and Frazzon, E., 2019. Big Data application for E-commerce’s
Logistics: A research assessment and conceptual model. IFAC-
PapersOnLine. 52(13). pp.838-843.
Kang, J., Diao, Z. and Zanini, M.T., 2020. Business-to-business marketing responses to COVID-
19 crisis: a business process perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Klietz, M.L., and et. al., 2020. Social media marketing: what do prospective patients want to
see?. Aesthetic surgery journal. 40(5). pp.577-583.
Kuzior, A. and Lobanova, A., 2020. Tools of Information and Communication Technologies in
Ecological Marketing under Conditions of Sustainable Development in Industrial
Regions (Through Examples of Poland and Ukraine). Journal of Risk and Financial
Management. 13(10). p.238.
Ližbetinová, L., and et. al., 2019. Application of cluster analysis in marketing communications
in small and medium-sized enterprises: An empirical study in the Slovak
Republic. Sustainability. 11(8). p.2302.
Melkonyan, A., and et. al., 2019. Scenario and strategy planning for transformative supply chains
within a sustainable economy. Journal of cleaner production. 231. pp.144-160.
Valos, M.J., Mavondo, F.T. and Nyadzayo, M.W., 2019. How do alternative strategic
orientations influence social media performance?. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 27(1). pp.1-20.
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