Proposal on "Starbucks Environmental Marketing Analysis"

Proposal 20 pages (5654 words) Sources: 14 Style: Turabian

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Over the past recent decades, global communities have suffered drastic changes that lead to numerous mutations. For instance, the manufacturing entities are no longer centered on the sole production operations, in the hope of selling to customers whatever they produce. Today, they first research the market to identify unsatisfied needs and then produce items to serve the identified needs. Also, in the field of technological appliances, those that simply do the work are no longer sufficient. Managers search for better alternatives, for those technologies which increase the operational and cost efficiencies. Then, the human resource is no longer the force operating the machines, but it has become the organizations' most valuable asset. But despite these mutations, the sole purpose of the business operations remains the desire to register significant profits. And in this desire, various strategic approaches are developed and implemented to sustain the company in delivering the right products to the audience, properly identifying the target market, training and retaining the staff members or achieving successful territorial expansion. A relevant example of an organization that has managed to successfully develop and implement strategies to ensure its positive outcome is Starbucks. Most of their success is based on their high skills and commitment to becoming the epitome of corporate success and achieving a global presence. To best understand the marketing approach of the coffee monolith, one could analyze the corporation as a whole, in terms of history, goals, mission statement or competitive advantages. Then, it is recommended that an analysis of the company from the lens of the surrounding environment be done. This could materialize in an analysis of Starbucks' collaborators, customers, competitors, the climate in which it operates (PEST analysis) and finally, a SWOT analysis. The marketing program could also be looked at, in terms of product, price, promotion, and place (distribution) strategies.

2. Company Description

Starbucks was established in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, and its main activity was centered on importing the finest coffee beans from across the world and selling them to the inhabitants of Seattle. The name was inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. A decade later, Howard Schultz joins the corporation and his visionary spirit helps establish Starbucks as the undisputed leader of the coffee based-beverages industry. His ideas came from a visit to Milan, during which he observed and liked the popularity of the famous espresso bars. "Impressed with their popularity and culture, he sees their potential in Seattle. He's right - after trying lattes and mochas, Seattle quickly becomes coffee-crazy." His ideas were rejected at first by the three founders, history teacher Zev Siegel, writer Gordon Bowker and English teacher Jerry Baldwin, who thought that coffee making and drinking was an activity to take place exclusively within the household. Motivated by strong determination and security over his plans, the marketing specialist went ahead with the idea of preparing and selling coffee-based beverages and the success of the company began to increase exponentially.

In the following decade, the coffee organization seizes opportunities to further expand its operations to new regions. The three founders sell the organization to Howard Schultz and his innovative thinking transforms Starbucks into an epitome of corporate success. They first penetrate the states in the U.S. and then move on to operate internationally. Also in the 1990s, they come up with the idea of motivating their human resource by offering them the possibility to purchase corporate stock options. This would ensure that the personnel is directly interested in the success of the organization and will as such increase their efforts in sustaining Starbucks reach their overall objectives. The measure also soon lead to the corporation's listing on NASDAQ, under the signature SBUX. "By 2002, Schultz had unequivocally established Starbucks as the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America. Sales had climbed at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% since the company had gone public, and net earnings had risen at a CAGR of 50%. The company was now serving 20 million unique customers in well over 5,000 stores around the globe and was opening on average three new stores a day." Today, the Starbucks stock is being traded at an average value of $15.06.

3. Strategic Focus and Plan

Mission Statement

Starbucks' mission statement is in fact composed from two statements: one relating to the actual mission of the organization, and the second one being the Starbucks environmental mission statement.

The organizational mission statement sets to "establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow." In doing this, they will be guided by six principles:

1. Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity
2. Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business
3. Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee
4. Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time
5. Contribute positively to our communities and our environment
6. Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success

Starbucks' environmental mission statement emphasizes the corporation's commitment to "a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our business." This desiderate will be accomplished with the aid of seven guiding principles:

1. Understanding of environmental issues and sharing information with our partners
2. Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change
3. Striving to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products
4. Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environmental future
5. Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value
6. Measuring and monitoring our progress for each project
7. Encouraging all partners to share in our mission

Goals

As established in the mission statement, the Starbucks Corporation is centered on consolidating its leading position within the coffee beverages industry across the globe.

On a less satisfactory note, the company has registered a decrease in sales throughout the American stores. This was generally due to the decreasing numbers of American customers. CEO Howard Schultz mentioned the saddening fact within the company's latest annual report and stated the goal of resolving the matter. "Despite the strength of this performance, beginning in 2007, we started to see customer traffic slow in our U.S. stores. This is disappointing and unacceptable, but I assure you that we are taking dramatic steps to address this and transform our business to ensure that Starbucks continues to be the "third place" that our customers make part of their daily lives." The CEO also mentioned that in their immense desire to consolidate their position of an international leader, they began to lose focus of their primary goal: the satisfaction of the customer. Measures have already been taken to repair the damage and new strategic approaches will be developed and implemented to ensure the full satisfaction of the customers' needs and wants.

All in all, the goals forwarded by the coffee giant are to maintain their leading position, register profits and offer increased customer satisfaction. The main objectives of Starbucks are to develop and execute "initiatives that will ensure that our customers are proud to visit our stores and that we deliver long-term, sustainable value for our shareholders."

Core Competencies and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

The Starbucks Corporation has proven its core competencies along its nearly four decades of existence. Probably the most important ones are the innovative spirit that guides both management as well as operational personnel. And the positive results of their innovative thinking have materialized over the years in tremendous successes. The most relevant example in this sense is given by the switch realized in the company's main operations; when Starbucks decided to sell coffee-based beverages instead of simply coffee beans, they encountered numerous impediments and negative feedback from people emphasizing that the American population would not consume coffee and foremost, they would not consume it on the street or in coffee shops. Without becoming influenced by these opinions, Schultz went ahead and created a coffee empire. In all, their ability to analyze the market from an objective standpoint, identify and satisfy the new needs of customers even before they are aware of their existence constitutes Starbucks' primary competitive advantage.

4. Situation Analysis

Starbucks' situation analysis revolves around five major Cs: Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Climate. The company component refers to features such as technologies possessed, expertise in the industry where they operate, product line, perception in the market, established objectives or corporate culture. The collaborators part includes references to the distributors and suppliers as well as the existence of any alliances. The customers component of the situation analysis revolves around the features of the market served, the needs customers have and the benefits that are offered through the consumption of Starbuck's products or the motivation behind the purchase. The competitors part refers to the succinct presentation of the actual and potential competitors within the industry in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the… READ MORE

How to Reference "Starbucks Environmental Marketing Analysis" Proposal in a Bibliography

Related Proposals:

Marketing Plan for a Company Marketing Plan

Marketing Plan

This marketing plan is for Starbucks, to guide the company to its revenue and growth objectives. The plan focuses on the cash cow market on the United States… read more

Marketing Plan 15 pages (4494 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

Mochalicious Marketing Plan Marketing Strategy Research Paper

Mochalicious Marketing Plan

Marketing Strategy Mochalicious

The Company Profile

Mochalicious Coffee is based in Owasso City, Oklahoma, United States. It has successfully developed its brand image in the local market… read more

Research Paper 3 pages (914 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

Starbucks Corporation Competing in a Global Market Term Paper

Starbuck's Case Study

Briefly describe the history and evolution of Starbucks.

Seattle entrepreneurs Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, Gordon Bowker founded Starbucks in 1971, locating their coffee importing business in Seattle's… read more

Term Paper 14 pages (3967 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

Starbucks in India Term Paper

Starbucks in India

Identification of foreign market and the reason(s) for its selection.

Provide here a brief and clear summary of your rationale for the selection of this foreign market… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1160 words) Sources: 6 Style: MLA Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

How Starbucks Handled the 2008 Recession Thesis

S&P 500 company analysis and recommendations: How Starbucks has coped with the 2008 recession



Firm analysis



Even firms not directly involved in the real… read more

Thesis 9 pages (3266 words) Sources: 20 Style: APA Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>