Starbucks: Evaluation of the International Business Strategy

1983 Words4 Pages

Starbucks first opened its doors in Seattle’s Pike Place Market with the name being coined from that of Moby Dick’s first mate (Schultz & Yang 1999). It has spread its shops across North America, all over Europe, the Middle East, Latin America as well as the Pacific Rim with an estimated 35 million customer weekly (Michelli, 2008). With tremendous growth from a small time coffee shop, the company has matured to an international icon that today it is one of the world’s leading retailer, roaster and brand specialty coffee (Story, 1971). The company offers whole bean coffees, espresso beverages, and confectionery and bakery items. Since its inception, the company has established itself as the premier purveyor of the world’s finest coffee. Safe for this, it has gained popularity for being the most aggressive retailer coffee house. The company has had such an impact to the world to develop a niche in the market that has seen the company transform coffee as a beverage to be viewed as a lifestyle accessory, more of a fashion icon (Starbucks.com). The main strategy of Starbucks has to develop the company and put up shops all over the globe offering fresh-brewed coffee. This they plan to achieve by maintaining the highest quality products whilst offering the same at a premium price. As earlier noted, Starbucks predominantly focuses its business on only coffee-related products as well as retail stores. The strategic approach adopted by Starbucks is more or less of a corporate level strategy based on theirs being a single business company. This corporate strategy has its core purpose to ensure that it retains their uncompromised growth principles whilst at the same time remains to be a purveyor of the world’s finest coffee in the world... ... middle of paper ... ...-hikes-drink-prices due-to-soaring-coffee-cost-sep-22-2010/ Rodenberg, J., Costa Coffee vs Starbucks. Business Intelligence. Retrieved from: http://www.rodenberg.nl/publications/publications/COSTA_COFFEE_vs_STARBUCKS.pdf Schultz, H., & Yang, D. J., 1999. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time (p. 351) Stigler, G. J., 1958. The Economies of Scale. Journal of Law and Economics, 1, 54-71. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/724882 Story, T. S., 1971. Starbucks Company Profile. Folklore. Vitez Osmond, 2011. eHow Contributor. Key Elements of a Market Analysis. Available at: http://www.ehow.com/about_5415382_key-elements-market-analysis.html Warwick-Ching, Lucy, 2007. Costa tops table of coffee outlets. Financial Times. Retrieved from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/44580364-0cb7-11dc-a4dc-000b5df10621.html#axzz1LI8spN30

More about Starbucks: Evaluation of the International Business Strategy

Open Document