Research Paper On Starbucks

Starbucks

Many people wonder what the logo of Starbucks is and what is represents, but many people don’t question how Starbucks got its name. “Starbucks is named after the first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, [and the infamous white and green] logo is also inspired by the sea- featuring a twin-tailed siren from Greek mythology” (Starbucks, 2014).

Starbucks started in 1971 as merely a single coffee shop, but has grown over the last forty-three years into a multinational company with over 19,000 stores in over sixty countries (Starbucks, 2014). Only two years after opening their first drive-thru store, they opened their “first international coffeehouse in Tokyo back in 1996” (Starbucks, 2014).

While Starbucks continues to receive outstanding recognitions, such as being one of ‘The Best 100 Companies to Work For’ and one of the ‘World’s Most 50 Innovative Companies’, what many people do not know is just how many companies are owned by Starbucks Corporation (Starbucks, 2014). Throughout the years, Starbucks has acquired Tazo Tea, Hear Music, Seattle Coffee Company, Ethos Water, Coffee Equipment Company, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange, and most recently Teavana (Starbucks

The specialty coffee market developed. Many other quick service restaurants (QSR) and coffee shops entered the coffee industry to compete with Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. Now competing in a mature industry with significant saturation, they invest most of their efforts into research and development and marketing through contributions made by the franchisees. Dunkin’ continues to innovate and provide the high value, low cost brand their customers have come to expect. This has contributed to them having the second highest share of breakfast sandwich servings in the QSR industry and the highest share of regular, decaffeinated, and flavored hot coffee servings in 2013 as stated by Dunkin’ Donuts from research performed by The NPD Group /CREST