Starbucks Corporation is a multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves based in America. The first store was opened along the cobblestone streets of Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971 by Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Zev Siegl. Later, Howard Schultz bought the company and converted the store into a coffee shop (Edward et al., 2022). Howard Shultz is currently serving as the interim CEO until Laxman Narasimhan takes over in April 2023.
The Starbucks center is the world headquarters of the company based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Starbucks is a global enterprise that operates over 32,000 retail stores in 80 countries (Wang, 2021, p.1-5). Countries that have Starbucks include the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, and Brazil, among many others (Alwaleed et al., 2019). Starbucks employs over 380,000 people, which is higher than the cyclical consumer sector (Gozdan and Sudolska, 2019, p.29-47). The main market areas for Starbucks are the United States and China. The countries have the highest number of stores worldwide; china has 6000 stores and the United States has 15,733 stores (Kumar, Bhardwaj, and Chu, 2020). Other countries that are steadily growing their markets are Japan and Canada.
Starbucks offers a wide range of products, such as lattes, mochas, and Frappuccino drinks. The coffee cup sizes are Demi (3 oz), Short (8oz), Tall (12 oz), Grande (16 oz), Venti (20 oz), and Trenta (30 oz). The company is also known for its tea products, such as passion tango tea, chai tea lattes, and green tea lattes (Areiza-Padilla, Cervera-Taulet, and Manzi Puertas, 2020, p.164). In addition to the tea products, the company has food products like egg bites, sandwiches, and protein boxes. Starbucks offers home deliveries through Uber Eats, coffee-making services like handcrafting, and excellent customer service. (Santos, 2020). Starbucks caters to customers who order at the counter, online, and pick up in stores.
The main competitors of Starbucks that show high rivalry rates are Mcdonald’s and Costa Coffee (Kee et al., 2021, p.34-43). MacDonald’s is the primary competitor for Starbucks because of the number of stores opened and the ability to leverage its existing restaurant to serve coffee. Costa coffee is the only competitor that deals with and promotes its coffee through advertising. The main customer segment for Starbucks is urban and suburban centers targeting males and females (22-60 years) (Kamaruzzaman, 2022). The target market also includes people from an upper to lower class.
Reference List
Alwaleed, N., Al Huwail, N.H., Singh, S. and AlMejhem, A., 2019. A case study on Starbucks. Journal of the Community Development in Asia (JCDA), 2(2). Web.
Areiza-Padilla, J.A., Cervera-Taulet, A. and Manzi Puertas, M.A., 2020. Ethnocentrism at the coffee shop industry: a study of Starbucks in developing countries. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 6(4), p.164. Web.
Edward, E.I., Pudin, C.S.J., Tobi, B. and Shak, P., 2022. The Opportunities You Have—The Success You Get: Leaderless Discussion Prep. Web.
Gozdan, E. and Sudolska, A., 2019. Exploring Company’s Activities in the Field of CSR: The Case of Starbucks. Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership, 6(2), pp.29-47. Web.
Kamaruzzaman, Z.A., 2022. Customer profiling and segmentation of Starbucks Malaysia: Empirical investigation during CMCO 2.0. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2472, No. 1, p. 050014). AIP Publishing LLC. Web.
Kee, D.M.H., Hidayah, N., Syamilah, H., Nasuhah, N.N., Syasya, N.H. and Norathirah, W., 2021. How Starbucks Maintain Its Competitive Edge?–The Secret of Its Success. Journal of the Community Development in Asia (JCDA), 4(2), pp.34-43. Web.
Kumar, N., Bhardwaj, S. and Chu, S.E., 2020. Starbucks in China: An undisputed leader? Web.
Santos, L.A., 2020. Starbucks’ digital strategy pays off as the industry evolves (Doctoral dissertation). Web.
Wang, S., 2021. Different Marketing Strategies Between Starbucks and Luckin Coffee and the Impact of the Epidemic. In 2021 International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2021) (pp. 1-5). Atlantis Press. Web.