This essay is an analysis of corporate social responsibility of Starbucks Coffee company. Starbucks company, which operates retail shops to offer coffee and cups, was founded in 1971 in Seattle, United States. Nowadays, Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) can increase sales volume and brand awareness and image to lead companies to succeed in business. Therefore, CSR is important for many organizations and public. Starbucks has success to operate in CSR.
Executive Summary Starbucks is an American coffee chain that began operating on the 31st of March 1971. Since then they have grown and expanded to over 24 000 outlets globally. Starbucks has a extensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. They are committed to Ethically and Sustainably 1Sourcing their Tea, Coffee and Manufactured Goods. This means that they hope to reach their goal of 100% ethically sourced cocoa, 65% ethically sourced tea and manufactured products by 2020.
The Industry demand has changed due to a shift in consumers’ attitudes towards healthier products. This placed Starbucks’ coffee culture at risk and threatened the company’s future. Starbucks has tailored their menu to include more organic and healthy product mixes, venturing into tea, bread and fresh juice products (Geereddy, n.d). Starbucks’ cornerstone product differentiation strategies and Human Resource Management are the main impacts to strategy formulation. Starbucks’ is a premium valued brand; costly to imitate.
However, such short-term financial growth is in sacrifice of brand positioning and equity in the long term. When confronting the financial crisis and intense competition, Starbucks becomes inevitably vulnerable. As a result, it needs both internal and external brand revitalization to regain its competitive
Customers appreciate its ethical sourcing of raw materials and are happy to pay more for Starbucks products. Even though the company does not hold the first place in the UK market, which is held by Costa Coffee, they have acquired a strong customer base of students, as well as their normal target group of working class. Based on the findings from the Marketing Mix, Starbucks has successfully created value for their customers. (Shubber, 2015) They have succeeded in growing their cafes into experience and a place for people to meet to spend their time. In the recent years Starbucks has expanded their sales channels from cafes to smaller pop-up units inside shopping areas, bookstores, college campus and airports.
However, Starbucks does not have any franchise yet that it doesn't completely own. It has full ownership of every outlet. There are 45 franchisees in the UK and just 9 franchisers have the privilege to work with Starbucks. (How To Buy A Starbucks Franchise) Starbucks In Japan In October 1995, Starbucks entered into a joint venture with Sazaby originating from Tokyo. This joint venture amounted to approximately $2.5 million.
Background + Category Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company. It falls under the restaurant category. It operates as a marketer, roaster, coffeehouse chain and it is the world’s leading specialty coffee retailer. It retail products includes more than 30 types of the world’s top coffee beans, handmade espresso coffee, a variety of hot and cold beverages, fresh food and delicious pastries, coffee machines, coffee mugs and other merchandise. The first Starbucks was founded in 1971; it was a single store in Seattle, Washington.
Starbucks Coffee Company, founded in 1971, has grown to an international brand. As the world’s biggest coffeehouse company, Starbucks continues to lead the industry in sustainable business and innovation. Such success is attributed to the firm’s ability to address the external PESTEL/PESTLE factors. The PESTEL/PESTLE analysis framework indicates the most significant influences on Starbucks based on characteristics of the remote or macro-environment. Despite its current industry leadership, Starbucks must continue monitoring its remote or macro-environment.
Strong brand identification or high capital requirements can minimize the threat for competitors. As a brand Starbucks holds very strong reputation in the market. For people Starbucks is like second home as when they get tired of being home or workplace they can sip a coffee there and feel relaxed, which can relate in a bad manner for the new entrants. For Starbucks the threat of new entrants is modest as they have their own standards that are very high to compete with by the other firm. Locally there are many other coffee shops that are developing.
Do companies have a social responsibility? Should companies use their money to benefit their consumers and society or please the shareholders? These are the main questions asked in the debate of corporate social responsibilities in “Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business” in the Reason published in October 2005. This issue is something which Starbucks should be interested in because of how our company can benefit from the business strategies argued in this article. More importantly, I will discuss the different perspectives from the article and determine the proper stance on corporate social responsibility that is best for Starbucks in order to thrive in the food and beverage industry.