INTRODUCTION
In this essay, I will select an organization that I am familiar with and identify and analyze one of the competitive tactics it uses to determine when and where their strategy should be implemented. I will then consider its internal and external environment using either the SWOT, 5 Forces, or PEST strategic management tools in the course. Finally, I will then develop a new idea for a competitive tactic that it should attempt.
STARBUCKS In 1971, three former University of San Francisco students opened the first Starbucks coffeehouse in Seattle, Washington to simply sell freshly roasted coffee beans. The continued success over the course of the next twelve years, attracted current owner Howard Schultz. As Marketing Director,
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The Market Location Tactic is classified into two categories; offensive and defensive. The offensive market location maneuver that Starbucks has successfully executed is the Frontal Assault. The Frontal Assault is a military tactic that incites head-to-head combat. In the Strategy Formulation paper written by Dr. Rex C. Mitchell, says that in order for this tactic to be successful, the attacker must have, “superior resources and be willing to continue longer than the company attacked.” Starbucks’ volume competitors include McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts, but because of the high quality coffee, the cozy or remote office feel (depending on the neighborhood), and superior customer service, Starbucks is really in a league of their own. To fulfill their mission of bringing high-quality coffee to every corner of the world, Starbucks has blanketed neighborhoods all across the globe, yielding over 24,000 retail stores spanning 70 countries and a host of grocery stores that carry the …show more content…
To do this, they have created brand and customer loyalty, first by taking care of their 238,000 employees (or partners as they refer to them) by offering a wide array (or “Special Blend”) of employment benefits. Employees who work a minimum of 20 hours per week receive benefits ranging from tuition reimbursement for a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University (online), superior healthcare coverage, stock options, discounts and more. Like the partners, customers too receive a range of offerings, especially the loyals. Starbucks boasts of over 87,000 drink combinations to tailor to each customer; giving them a specialized drink experience. They have created a loyalty program where members’ purchases equate to points or stars which accumulate and in turn lead to free items, every year for your birthday you receive free items, and you can get free in-store refills. There are a host of other discounts that cater to their members individually by using past purchase algorithms and location sensitive push notifications through their app. These attentions to internal and external detail have positioned Starbucks to be the global retail coffee favorite making it difficult for other coffee retailers to compete and even more difficult for new companies to enter the
The story of Starbucks coffee history begins in Seattle in 1971 when the first Starbucks opened at Pike Place Market, which is Seattle's and the Nation's oldest Farmer's Market. At this time the company was a local coffee roasting facility. That remained their core business until 1982 when Howard Schulz joined the company. He was the new marketing executive and began right away to convince more and more local cafes, upscale restaurants, and hotels to buy Starbucks coffee. The turning point for the company and the beginning of coffee history should be one year later when Schulz traveled through Italy. He got inspired by the Italian coffee bar tradition to serve fresh brewed Espresso and Cappuccino. He convinced the Starbucks founders to give his idea a chance and in 1985 he opened the first coffee bar in Seattle, named Il Giornale. (Wilson)
they use the weakness of the competitor company to for example, reliance on US market, reliance on beverage innovation, lover revenue and income per employee, lower returns on quality than peers and problems in some international operations. Starbucks now are working really well on their technology in order to succeed. They now have new thing in which you can order and pay to their customer is about meeting their needs of convenience and customization at any time. Over many competitors, Starbucks now represents the easiest and fastest technology application on the phones they can be received by their customers and store partners. According to starbucks.com, the mobile order and pay feature allows customer to choose the beverage and food items. Starbucks correlates the job order cost system, by customizing the beverages in its stores. The raw materials are coffee. The works in process is the part where the customer customizes their order. An example of this step is when a guest orders the “iced coffee with two pumps of caramel syrup with soy milk. The finished product is the completed drinks that the barista makes. The cost of goods sold is the sale of the drink to the customer. It is a customized drink so the customer is paying for the “cost assigned for each job or
The company started its activity in 1971 as small coffee shop located in Seattle specialized in selling whole arabica coffee beans. After being taken over by Howard Schultz in 1982, following a rapid and impressive growth, by mid 2002 the company was the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, running about 4,500 stores, 400 international stores and 930 licenses.
Foreign policy with foreign nations that host the Starbucks brand. Import and export tax is an expenditure that may and can become costly and profits can be lost. Other companies like McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and the Coffee Beanery provide consumers with an ambient environment and some specialty coffee flavors. Proximity may be the only thing required for the consumer to select the services of the rival coffee dispensing businesses.
Starbucks has many business-level strategies, such as cost leadership strategy. Starbucks focused on increasing its profits and compete with other competitors (Starbucks,n.d). According to Starbucks (n.d), “a cost leadership business strategy focuses on gaining advantage by reducing its economic costs below all of its competitors. Although Starbucks targets product differentiation as their main business strategy, they have also implemented cost savings strategies in an effort to maximize profitability. An example of Starbucks cost saving strategy can be identified between 2007 and 2008 when their operational expenses increased by more than $125 million while sales for the same time period were beginning to dip. As outsourcing for distribution contributed to 70% of Starbucks operational expenses, they began targeting these outsourcing agreements for renegotiations in an effort to bring down costs.” Starbucks intended to reduce their
Thompson, A. A., Strickland, A. J., & Gamble, J. E. (2008). Crafting & executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage (16th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Starbucks recognizes its employees for much of its success. This is due mostly to maintenance of a great and proven work environment for all employees. The company does not have a formal organizational chart; sot employees are permitted by management to make decisions without a management referral. Moreover, management trust and stands behind the decision of the employees and it is this that allows for employees to thinks for themselves as a part of the business, so as to make them feel as a true asset and not as just another employee.
This strategic capitalises on weaknesses since will decrease the cost of coffee beans/beverages but also Starbucks operating cost which they regularly ship across the world to various stores. Starbucks can capitalise on this weakness to improve their brand options. It adds value in the inbound logistics activities, operations and procurements. Starbucks should consider this option since it will decrease their operating cost and therefore will reduce the prices on their menu. The attractiveness is the exact same as mentioned in option 1.
...nal locations in the heaviest coffee drinking countries. This has to be done quickly as to get the jump on other that may also be considering this type of a move. At the same time they should be selling franchise right for the coffee carts. This will provide an increased cash flow as well. During all of this Starbucks should be looking at coffee producers who are in financial trouble or are looking at selling their farms. This has to be done discretely as not to cause unnecessary bad press. After they run a couple of these coffee producing farms for a few years they should be able to see how the whole operation works and determine its viability. Once it’s proven viable they should send out simultaneous offers to the biggest producers as to catch them and other coffee companies off guard. Starbucks also should be getting into the bottled Frappuccino as soon as possible. They should leave the introduction of the product up to Pepsi because of their past experience. They should leave their entry into the grocery store market until some of these other strategies are implemented. This will prove to be the best strategy for Starbucks being able to reach their long-term gaol.
Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin and Ziv Siegl founded Starbucks in 1971. Their goal was to sell the finest quality whole beans and ground coffees (Starbucks timeline and history, 2004). In 1982, Starbucks had grown to five stores and started serving coffee to restaurants and espresso bars. Harold Schultz was employed as the director of retail operations and marketing. Harold Schultz convinced the founders of Starbucks to open a downtown Seattle coffee bar, which opened in 1984. With the success of Seattle coffee bar, Schultz left Starbucks to start his own company named Il Giornale. In 1987, Il Giornale acquired Starbucks retail operations for 4 million dollars. In addition, Il Giornale changed its name to Starbucks Corporation and opened locations in Chicago and Vancouver, B.C. (Starbucks timeline and history, 2004).
The structure of Starbucks business communication is exceptional. Rather you are in their store buying a Caramel Frappuccino®, visiting their website or watching one of their advertisements on television; as the consumer, the message is loud and clear. Pick up any newspaper and you are likely to find an article about the coffee giant. Starbucks pledges a commitment to their over 172,000 partners (employees) and the community. “We realize our people are the cornerstone of our success, and we know that their ideas, commitment and connection to our customers are truly the essential elements in the Starbucks Experience” (Starbucks, 2008).
One important aspect of Starbucks is his supply chain strategy. “The ability of supply chains to provide the level of value desired by the customers begins, with the capacity of channel integrators to optimize their productive resources” (Frederick Ross, 2008).
According to Investopedia website, “a technique that reduces risk by allocating investments among various financial instruments, industries and other categories is known as diversification. Diversification is the most important component of reaching long-term financial goals while minimizing risk” (“Investopedia”, 2011). “Fundamentally, this strategy is about creating new products with new product life cycles and making existing ones obsolete” (Olsen, n.d.). With diversification, Starbucks would be able to enter new markets with new products. By having a diversification strategy enforced, this will create a path for effective growth for the business. As with any company considering new products in new markets, there are risks associated with it and Starbucks would need to be prepared to respond accordingly.
Starbucks is a worldwide company, known for is delicious brews of coffee and seasonal varieties of tasty drinks for any occasion. Starbucks opened with two main goals, sharing great coffee with friends and to help make the world a little better. It originated in the historic Pike Place Market of Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. The creation of Starbucks’ name came from the seafaring tradition of early coffee traders and the romance evoked from Moby Dick. At the time, this individual shop specialized in the towering quality of coffee over competitors and other brewing services enabling its growth to becoming the largest coffee chain in Washington with numerous locations. In the early 1980s, the current CEO Schultz saw an opportunity for growth in the niche market. After a trip to Italy he brought back the idea of a café style environment of leisure and social meetings to the United States we now see in Starbucks locations today. Schultz ultimately left Starbucks to open his own coffee shop, Il Giornale which turned out to be a tremendous success. Fast forward a year later, Schultz got wind that Starbucks was going to sell all their components of Starbucks including their stores and factories, he immediately acquired the funds to buy Starbucks and linked both operations. Within five years he was able to open more than 125 stores starting in New England, Boston, Chicago, and gradually entered California. He wanted Starbucks to be a franchise system based on the mission of telling the truth and emphasize the quality,