Starbucks Strategy

1) Starbucks used mostly a differentiation strategy, however it had also used a cost leadership strategy. Its differentiation strategy was exemplified by their stores providing an experience, offering interesting coffee-related drinks in a theatrical kind of atmosphere, their unique Coffee blending and roasting process which enabled them to create an extensive product variety, their employees received great deal of training to become very knowledgeable about coffee in order to provide an exceptional service to increasingly coffee-educated consumers, and their ability to find the perfect location for their stores enabled them to maximize market share in a given area of a city and build their regional reputation which then increased their image to a national level of high prestige and status. For all these reasons, consumers were willing to pay a premium. Their cost leadership strategy was exemplified by their supply chain operations where they received the best transportation rates, and were able to achieve economies of scale by eliminating redundancy and maximize efficiency. Starbucks was also a cost leader due to its good relationship with coffee exporters who were “very anxious to become Starbucks suppliers”, a fact that enabled the company to get better prices and reduce bean-sourcing costs. The activities that created superior value for Starbuck’s retail coffee-house business were: Procurement – purchased more high quality coffee than anyone else in the world. Technologi...