Detailed Analysis of Starbucks' Marketing Mix: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing mix of Starbucks Corporation, a leading coffeehouse chain. The report examines the four key elements of the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. The product section discusses Starbucks' focus on continuous innovation and modifications in its product lines, including coffee, tea, baked goods, and merchandise, to meet changing customer expectations. The pricing strategy is analyzed as a premium pricing strategy, where Starbucks leverages customer perception of high value to charge premium prices, aiming to create a strong brand image and maintain a competitive edge. The place component highlights Starbucks' distribution channels, including coffeehouses, mobile apps, and retailers, with a focus on enhancing the in-store experience and providing convenience. The promotion section focuses on the company's use of advertising, public relations, word-of-mouth, and sales promotions to attract and retain customers. The report concludes that a well-developed marketing mix allows Starbucks to influence consumer behavior, gain a competitive advantage, and drive profitability, ultimately establishing itself as a global market leader. References from various academic sources support the analysis.

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Marketing Mix
Student’s Name
9/21/2019

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Introduction
Starbucks Corporation is a leading coffeehouse chain in the world that focuses on delivering
maximum satisfaction to customers. The company uses its marketing mix to develop a strong
brand image and allows multinational growth of the business. The additional paragraphs will
reflect upon the marketing mix of Starbucks (Harrington, Ottenbacher and Fauser, 2017).
Marketing Mix
Product
It includes business offerings to customers. Starbucks focuses on making continuous
innovating and modifications in its product lines to fulfil the changing expectations of the
customers and expand the market share. The product offering served by Starbucks includes
Coffee, Tea, Baked goods, Frappuccino, Smoothies, Other foods and beverages and
Merchandise (mugs, instant coffee, etc.). The company develops a strong image by making
continuous innovations in its product to serve the changing customer trends and face the
competition under the international market (Gupta, Nagpal and Malik, 2018).
The company focuses on adding new flavours that are developed in its innovation lab and
attracts the customers by value addition in its products. Its products extensions help in
reaching worldwide customers and expanding its market share (Gupta, Nagpal and Malik,
2018).
Price
Pricing is considered as the most important component in driving the sales of the company
and influencing buyer behaviour. It is analysed that Starbucks uses the premium pricing

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strategy by taking advantage of buying behaviour of customers. The customer perceives the
high priced products as more valuable than the low price products. However, Starbucks
charges the premium prices for its products and delivers value to the customers. The
company charges high prices for its products and is perceived as a strong brand that delivers
premium quality products. It is analysed that the company enjoys premium pricing in
comparison to its competitors like McDonald's premium roast and develops high-end
speciality image that delivers satisfactory customer experience. This premium pricing
strategy allows the company to expand its business operations and become a global market
leader.
Place
It reflects the areas where the products of the company are being served. The company serves
its products through coffeehouses or cafes. It has also developed the mobile app and involves
retailers for distribution of the products. The company focuses on adopting the latest
technologies and has to deliver its product through online stores. This strategy came to end
in the year 2017 to focus more on the in-store experience and deliver maximum satisfaction.
The company developed a mobile app to provide convenience to the customers and easily
provide them with food and beverages (Chapter, 2017).
To enhance the in-store experience the company provides the free-Wi-Fi facility and live
counters to attract the customers and delivers a personalised experience. The core focus of the
brand is to enhance the experience from all the mediums and gaining the market share.
Starbucks also focuses on opening its stores on centrally located places to provide ease to the
customers and ensures the availability of its products to retailers (Sholihah, Ali, Ahmed and
Prabandari, 2016).

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Promotion
This component is used to disseminate information to the customers and develop the
communication strategies that help in attracting the interest of customers towards the brand.
The company uses Advertising as its main source of promotional tools and also focuses on
using interpersonal relations and communication for the promotion of its products. The
promotional mix of Starbucks includes public relations, advertising, word-of-mouth and sales
promotion (Li, 2017).
To address the above promotional tools the company develop strong public relations by
serving to the society and being responsible towards the environment. It delivers a
personalised experience to customers for positive word-of-mouth promotion and advertises
its products through the use of internet, media and advertising. It uses sales promotion as a
technique for attracting new customers and retaining existing customers. The company
provide freebies and has developed a loyalty programme for the customers. The above
discussed promotional mix allows the company to retain its brand image and increase the
profitability of the business by attracting and retaining the customers (Garthwaite, Busse,
Brown and Merkley, 2017)
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is analysed that the development of appropriate marketing mix
allows Starbucks to influence the buying behaviour of customers and develop the edge over
its competitors. It will help in becoming the global market leader and attain higher
profitability from the business.

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References
Chapter, W.R.T., (2017) One Company’s Perspective On Innovation–Starbucks Coffee,
CIRCA 2006. Accelerating New Food Product Design and Development, p.105.
Garthwaite, C., Busse, M., Brown, J. and Merkley, G., (2017) Starbucks: A story of
growth. Kellogg School of Management Cases, pp.1-20.
Gupta, P., Nagpal, A. and Malik, D., (2018) Starbucks: global brand in emerging
markets. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 8(4), pp.1-22.
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.
Li, P. (2017) Strategies and their effect mechanism of promoting leadership effectiveness of
traditional service enterprises: a case study based on Starbucks coffee. Tourism
Tribune, 32(3), pp.49-60.
Sholihah, P.I., Ali, M., Ahmed, K. and Prabandari, S.P., (2016) The Strategy of Starbucks
and it's Effectiveness on its Operations in China, a SWOT Analysis. Asian Journal of
Business and Management (ISSN: 2321–2802) Volume.