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Starbucks, Case Study

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Starbucks, Case Study
December 3, 2012
December 3, 2012
Andrei Gavriluta
Strategic management
Birkbeck, University of London
Andrei Gavriluta
Strategic management
Birkbeck, University of London
Starbucks in the us: too much coffee spilling all over?
Coursework - Essay
Starbucks in the us: too much coffee spilling all over?
Coursework - Essay

Table of Contents

I. SUMMARY1 II. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1 i. STRATEGIC POSITIONING AND MARKETING MIX1 ii. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES2 iii. SWOT ANALYSIS3 iv. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES – PEST ANALYSIS3 III. CONCLUSIONS4 IV. REFERENCES5

I. II. SUMMARY
Starbucks dates back from 1971 and is based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded by Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl and it started as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer. Since its birth, Strabucks has experienced a rapid growth and by 1987 the company reached a total of 17 stores (Starbucks 2012).
Around 1987 the company was sold to Howard Schultz. He merged Starbucks with Giornale, thus creating Starbucks Corporation. Nowadays, the company runs worldwide and has passed the 18,000 store mark, distributing their products on all continents in over 60 countries (Starbucks 2012).
The company has gained its brand reputation by offering a wide and innovative range of products, such as: hot and cold drinks, coffee beans, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, sweet pastries, snacks, but also items like mugs and tumblers (Starbucks 2012).

III. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Based on the curriculum studied throughout the module and the undertaken research on Starbucks, this essay will analyse, examine and assess the competitive strategies pursued by Starbucks over time and how it has achieved (or not) aligning its competitive strategy with its corporate growth ambition of market penetration in the US.

i. STRATEGIC POSITIONING AND MARKETING MIX
The consumer defines the position of a product on the basis of numerous criteria, such as price, competitor, quality,



References: 1. Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S. (2000) Principles of Marketing. Harlow: Prentice Hall. 2. Darlymple, D. and Parsons, L. (1986) Marketing Management: Strategy and Cases. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 3. Drucker, P. (1954) The Practice of Management. New York: Harper and Row. 4. Fiscal Annual Report (2009) Starbucks Corporation [online] available from <http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/99/99518/SBUX_AR.pdf> [1 December 2012] 5 6. InfoKits (2008) PESTLE and SWOT analyses [online] available from <http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/pestle-swot/> [1 December 2012]. 7 8. Kotler, P. (1986) ‘Megamarketing’ [online] 117 – 125.available from < http://hbr.org/1986/03/megamarketing/ar/1 > [30 November 2012] 9 10. Larson, R. (2008) Starbucks a Strategic Analysis: Past Decisions Future Options. Providence: Brown University Economics Department. 11. Management Study Guide (2012) SWOT Analysis [online] available from <http://www.managementstudyguide.com/swot-analysis.htm> [30 November 2012] 12 13. Porter, M. (1998) On Competition. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing 14 15. Starbucks (2012) Our Starbucks Mission Statement [online] available from <http://starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement> [1 December 2012] 16

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