University Case Study: Business Strategy of Starbucks - MIS 201

This case study delves into the business strategy of Starbucks, highlighting its product differentiation approach. The company distinguishes itself through specialized beverages, friendly service, and customer-centric shop designs. Starbucks leverages Wi-Fi and information systems, including mobile applications, to enhance customer experience and streamline processes. The analysis explores how Starbucks integrates technology, particularly mobile platforms, to improve customer service and streamline core operations. The study examines the company's efforts to revamp in-store technology and integrate business processes with wireless technology. The case also touches upon Starbucks' digital initiatives, such as the 'Starbucks Digital Networks' portal, designed to engage customers and improve brand relationships. The company's focus on core competencies and its value chain is discussed, providing insights into how Starbucks has maintained its market position and adapted to changing consumer preferences and market dynamics.

Running head: BUSINESS STRATEGY OF STARBUCKS
Case Study 2: Business Strategy of Starbucks
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1BUSINESS STRATEGY OF STARBUCKS
1. The Starbucks Company employs an aggressive form of product differentiation
strategy for the purpose of setting themselves apart in the competitive market. They thus offer
their customers with a high and unique experience by serving them with specialized beverages
and coffee, knowledgeable and friendly servers and designing customer-friendly shops. The
company also employs the use of Wi-Fi networks and information systems for the purpose of
enabling new kind of specialized services for their customers such as applications. Customers
have also claimed the fact that paying for the services through their smartphones have been
considered as safe, secure and faster.
The company has also made immense efforts for developing efficient strategies for
reduction of waste and utilize the saved time for providing better kind of customer service.
Focusing on the business incorporations, the company has mostly focused on the improvement of
methods by which baristas prepare and serve coffee to customers (Lemus et al., 2015). Baristas
thus would be able to utilize their extra time for engaging with customers and enriching their
experience while they visit the shop. With the engagement of such core competencies within the
business, the company has also been able to improve their services and determine the efficiency
within their business value chain.
2. The business strategy, which has been adopted by Starbucks is based on product
differentiation. They thus are able to identify the special products, which could be offered by
them for the customers and which have the maximum chances of being liked by customers.
Thus, they offer unique experiences for their customers every time they would visit the shop.
The company also focused on revamping their in-house technology while also seeking to
integrate their business processes with wireless form of technologies. Incorporation of mobile

2BUSINESS STRATEGY OF STARBUCKS
platform usage within the stores have also helped the company to reach the customers in a
friendly manner and thus provide efficient customer services.
The use of wireless technology by Starbucks have majorly helped them for their efforts in
simplification of core business processes. The district managers at the company have made use
of in-store wireless networks for running the entire operations within the store while also
connecting with the private corporate systems and network (Haskova, 2015). Thus, these
technologies have reduced the working load over managers as they can easily oversee the entire
business processes while defining new and useful strategies for the business whenever needed.
3. Starbucks had launched a specially designed portal names as “Starbucks Digital
Networks”, which could be used in mobile devices. The website would be optimized for different
smartphone operating systems such Android, iOS and BlackBerry. The website application
would thus be able to respond based on multi-touch capability such as for use in iPad. The site
would have been developed with Yahoo and thus would be able to function as a web-based
content portal (Becić, Stojanović & Nikolić, 2018). Based on using the service being offered by
Starbucks, people would have free access to Wall Street Journal, access a wide range of content
and select free iTunes for download purposes.
The site that would be introduced to a large number of customers would be free of
advertising. Thus, the company has hoped that with the inclusion of such kind of strategy, it
would become one of the most profitable venture for Starbucks. However, different analysts
have also focused on the fact that the site would be an effective process for improving the
relationship with their valuable customers. A creative use of the platform based on enhanced
design would thus be able to enhance the satisfaction of customers.

3BUSINESS STRATEGY OF STARBUCKS
References
Becić, S., Stojanović, M., & Nikolić, M. (2018). Role of marketing and social networks in
improving business effectiveness. Ekonomika, 64(3), 77-88.
Haskova, K. (2015). Starbucks Marketing Analysis. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research
and Interdisciplinary Study, 2015(1), 11-29.
Lemus, E., von Feigenblatt, O. F., Orta, M., & Rivero, O. (2015). Starbucks Corporation:
Leading Innovation in the 21st Century. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social
Sciences, 7(1), 23-38.