Marketing Report: Starbucks' Marketing Strategy and Analysis

This marketing report provides a comprehensive analysis of Starbucks, examining its internal and external environments to determine its strategic intent. The report begins with an introduction to Starbucks and its mission, followed by an environmental analysis considering political, economic, and social factors. A detailed SWOT analysis highlights the brand's strengths, such as its strong brand image and widespread presence, and weaknesses, including limited product offerings and high prices. Opportunities, like product line expansion, and threats, such as competition and health concerns, are also discussed. The report then explores consumer behavior, STP strategy, and the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion). Finally, the report recommends strategies such as expanding product lines, offering competitive pricing, and increasing promotional activities to enhance Starbucks' market position. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of these strategies for Starbucks' continued success.

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Introduction
Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, America, with the mission of
inspiring and nurturing the human kind. From the very tome of its inception, Starbucks has
been a company of one of a kind. It had created a unique brand identity and image for being
more successful within the global market. The company has been capable of differentiating
itself in the competitive environment through different strategies. The company has always
been priding itself for the assurance of quality of its products along with a distinct brand
marketing strategy (Armstrong et al., 2015). The organization has always made their fine
quality products speaking for themselves. This marketing report will do and internal and
environmental analysis for the organization to find out the strategic intent of Starbucks.
Environmental Analysis
Considering the global environment of Starbucks, political factors can be very much
significant for Starbucks as the rules and regulations of the countries they business with for
the raw materials. The continuing international economic recession is also another factor that
can affect the business of Starbucks that the company always has to deal with the rising
operational and labor costs on a global level (Strauss, 2016). The rising frequency of startups
can also be a huge social threat for the company. The changing patterns of work, food
preferences and family patterns can also affect the business environment. However, the
emerging mobile waves have helped the company to attract more customers.

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SWOT Analysis
Strength
As stated by Harrington et al. (2017) as a brand, Starbucks tends to occupy majority
of the coffee industry. The brand image is quite strong due to its innovative marketing
strategy such as their prominent logo and rigorous advertising campaign. It should be noted
that the company mostly spends a little amount of money for their media promotions and they
tend to focus on expanding the numbers of stores. Therefore it is nearly difficult for the
customers to look for any substitutions. The brand is nearly present at every corner. Starbucks
also utilizes their customers promoting for them while holding a drink in their hand.
Weakness
According to Palmer, Simmons & Mason (2014) a major weakness of the brand is
that it does not really have many products other than coffee. Starbucks is trying quite hard,
but it has not been much successful yet. Another major weakness of the brand is the high
price. There are a large section of consumers who may not opt for the brand for saving
money. Starbucks also has huge lines in the peak hours. Also, Starbucks is mostly dependent
on the U.S market other than any other country.
Opportunities
Starbucks has expanded the product lines in recent times. As indicated by Atwal &
Williams (2017) they are also opting for more products other than the tea and coffee.
Starbucks has started promoting the food items such as brunch or breakfast foods other than
the strict stereotypical coffees. Starbucks also offers happy hour facilities as money saving
options for the customers. The organization should extend such deals more, so that they can
attract more customers while they expand to different countries other than the European
vicinity.

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Threats
One of the major threats of Starbucks is the competitors in the market. There are
several organizations such as Dunkin Donuts, Tim Horton’s, Keurig give tough competition
to the brand in the global market (Schlegelmilch, 2016). There is another issue that can be a
significant threat to the brand is that the heath precautions that the doctors say regarding
caffeine addition. The cost of coffee beans is also rising to a great extent which can make
their products more expensive with the course of time.
Strategic Intent:
From the above analysis, it can be found out that Starbucks has to deal with the
customer knowledge more. The brand should be more consumer-centric and provide more
customized products.
Consumer Behavior
The alternative marketing strategy will target the behavior of the customers on the
basis of their emotional connection, functionality which have a huge impact on the brand
decision of the customers. As indicated by Vásquez & Escamilla (2014) there are several
times while people decide on brands on the basis of their social status and personality. As the
products of Starbucks are quite expensive, it tends to provide a sense of higher social status to
the consumers. Therefore, Starbucks can come up with cheaper products that are for all the
customer segments.
STP Strategy
Starbucks tend to divide their customer base in different segments, where now the
brand will focus more on the behavioral and demographic segments. According to Hsu
(2014) the demographic segment is quite important to the brand as it can drive the consumers

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to a specific life style. Most of the times are consumers are the ones from higher income
groups and come from an enjoyable environment. The brand also provides a social status to
the customers. Therefore Starbucks can provide a positive attitude to the customers.
Considering the targeting strategy, the brand can use undifferentiated marketing
strategy by ignoring the primary differences of the market segments and target the entire
market with their offers. Therefore this strategy can be applicable to all segments and will be
easier to promote the brand (Tuan, 2014). Therefore, Starbucks can also position the brand as
a life style brand in the global market. However, they can also provide cheaper products and
pull off their new marketing strategy based on the needs and taste of people.
Marketing Mix
Products
The Starbucks products are already considered to be good quality ones, yet expensive.
However the brand can initiate few products that come under the budget (Taecharungroj,
2016). They can offer more variations in their convenience products.
Price
The existing pricing strategy of the brand is a combination of pricing based on
competition and cost. However the brand can initiate a new pricing strategy which is
comparatively cheaper, therefore more products can be sold to a larger market segment.
Place
Starbucks should promote their products out of the European and American countries.
More stores in such countries can be very helpful for the brand (Vásquez & Escamilla, 2014).
The brand is mostly dependent on the American customers, however they should move out of
the vicinity.

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Promotion
Starbucks already has rigorous promotional strategies, but with a new product line,
they should spend more money on the media consumption. The organization should use both
the online and print media for advertising their brand and creating an identity (Strauss, 2016).
During specific time of the year, the company should also come up with large discounts
which will bring more customers to the brand. Such promotional strategies can bring
Starbucks closer to their target customers.
Metrics
For the new marketing strategy, the brand should also be monitoring the
particular outcomes. Starbucks should monitor the sales growth of the year after they
implement the strategy to different stores across the world. The brand could also utilize its
social media metrics to overview the reaction of the customers after they implement the new
marketing strategy and their product line.
Conclusion
Starbucks has already implemented great marketing strategies; however the
brand should now extend their product lines to target a greater customer segment. Starbucks
can also bring up some promotional events and offer more discounts in their stores so that
they can also attract customers from middle income group. Other than that, they can also
stretch their product lines by putting more seasonal flavors in their product line. Therefore
this marketing report has detailed the marketing strategy and recommended potential
strategies for the brand. By expanding their product line and numbers of store, the brand can
reach to a larger number of customers as well.

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Reference list
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Atwal, G., & Williams, A. (2017). Luxury brand marketing–the experience is everything!.
In Advances in Luxury Brand Management (pp. 43-57). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
Harrington, R. J., Harrington, R. J., Ottenbacher, M. C., Ottenbacher, M. C., Fauser, S., &
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), 551-570.
Hsu, I. L. (2014). The Impacts of Social Commerce Design Model on Purchase Intention-A
Case of Facebook President Starbucks Fan Page.
Palmer, M., Simmons, G., & Mason, K. (2014). Web-based social movements contesting
marketing strategy: The mobilisation of multiple actors and rhetorical
strategies. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(3-4), 383-408.
Schlegelmilch, B. B. (2016). The Future of Global Marketing Strategy. In Global Marketing
Strategy (pp. 221-249). Springer International Publishing.
Strauss, J. (2016). E-marketing. Routledge.
Taecharungroj, V. (2016). Starbucks’ marketing communications strategy on
Twitter. Journal of Marketing Communications, 1-19.
Tuan, T. (2014). Taiwanese College Students’ Views on Starbucks’ Brand Loyalty Strategy
and What Other Coffee Shops can Learn from it.

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Vásquez, G. A. N., & Escamilla, E. M. (2014). Best practice in the use of social networks
marketing strategy as in SMEs. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148,
533-542.