Starbucks Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy for Starbucks in 2002 was based on aggressive growth strategy to appeal to more customers in many places. The two biggest drivers for this growth strategy were retail expansion and product innovation. The coffee consumption on the rise in the United States, Starbucks ' strategy for expanding its retail business was to open stores in new markets while geographically clustering stores in existing markets, which later resulted in significant cannibalization. When it came to selecting new retail sites, Starbuck was strategic to set their retail stores. the company considered a number of criteria, including the extent to which the demographics of the area matched the profile of the typical Starbucks drinker, the level of coffee

Another driver for Starbuck growth strategy was product innovation, by launching new products on a regular basis. For instance, Starbucks introduced at least one new hot beverage every holiday season (YOUNGME, John 8). Additional to its growth strategy as marketing strategy, Starbuck invested in service innovation by continuing providing the Starbucks ' stored-value card (SVC) which was being used by customers to pay for transactions in any company-operated store in North America, which increased sales. This marketing strategy lacked the focus and understanding of some of the key components of a marketing strategic plan including, customer behavior and evolution, customer need and satisfaction, that Jeopardized Starbucks brand as a customer care pioneer. Going forward, Starbucks should incorporate customer behavior and needs in its marketing strategy and improve

The value proposition of Starbucks to its target customer focused on a brand strategy that was comprised of three components. The brand strategy was best captured by the phrase "live coffee." This phrase reflected the importance of keeping the national coffee culture alive. From a retail perspective, this meant creating an "experience" that people would want to include into their everyday lives. The first of three components to the branding strategy component was the quality of the coffee. Starbucks offered the highest-quality coffee in the world and controlled much of the supply chain as possible to help and maintain the assurance of high quality coffee. Starbucks sourced its coffee from the Africa, Central and South America, and Asia-Pacific regions and it controlled distribution to retail stores around the world. The second brand component was the customer service, or what was also referred to as "customer intimacy." This included simple things such as remembering customers ' name and knowing their drink or customize their drink just the way they like it. This helped Starbuck to build the customer loyalty based relationship. The third brand component was creating sense of community atmosphere. Starbucks stated that people came for the coffee but stayed for the atmosphere. Therefore it was important to provide a comfortable atmosphere that allowed a sense of community. It achieved this by creating encourage lounging and designed attractive layouts. All of these things