Environmental Factors and Marketing Decisions: StarbucksEnvironmental Factors and Marketing Decisions: StarbucksEnvironmental Factors and Marketing Decisions: StarbucksStarbucks has wide range of business activity. These activities allow the company to use numerous channels of product distribution. With the company operating in many locations worldwide environmental factors play a major role in marketing decisions. Each distribution channel is affected differently and the company’s flexibility in the marketing plan allows the company to adjust their strategies to meet the needs of the environmental factors.
Starbucks is known as the premier company of the finest coffee in the world. They purchase and roast high quality whole bean coffee, sells them with fresh, rich-brewed Italian style espresso beverages, pastries, confections and coffee-related accessories and equipment. Starbucks provides a work environment treating others with respect and dignity. The company embraces diversity as an essential component in the way Starbucks does business. Starbucks also applies the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of their coffee. Starbucks believes that the company should enthusiastically satisfied customers all the time and contribute positively to our communities and our environment and recognize that profitability is essential to our future success (Starbucks.com, 2008).
Starbucks owns and operates its own facilities, warehouses, and retail stores giving the company control of product design, shipping, and receiving. The company’s strategy is to sell premium products pricing the product as high as the market will allow. Starbucks brand awareness is very important and by introducing new products developing new distribution channels. Starbucks is a leading company in sales of coffee and coffee products in the domestic and global markets. The company’s management practices have allowed Starbucks to grow and prosper as an organization.
Starbucks Coffee has been very successful in the domestic market over the years. Starbucks has recently expanded its U.S. retail presence. Starbucks and Kraft Foods developed an agreement that allows Starbucks to sell its coffee in over 25,000 grocery stores across the US. In another agreement, Starbucks arranged to open more than 100 coffee bars in some of Albertsons supermarkets. Another mutually beneficial agreement with Pepsico and Dreyer’s allowed Starbucks to market and sell cold beverage, Frappuccino and a line of coffee ice cream. Starbucks has begun test marketing on a new menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner items to be sold in its retail stores. Starbucks is currently located in every state, and large states like California have over 500 stores (Starbucks.com, 2008). Starbucks is solidly established domestically, but still have issues that the company must deal with to stay successful.
To address some of the issues that arise from operating in the global community Starbucks has created the Starbucks Suppliers Code of Conduct, which was introduced in September 2003. This code applies to Starbucks and all the distributors. The suppliers are required to sign an agreement pledging compliance with Starbucks. These include demonstrating commitment to the welfare, economic improvement and sustainability of the people and places that produces our products and services. Adherence to local laws and international standards regarding human rights, workplace safety and worker treatment are required. Starbucks will meet or exceed national laws and international standards for environmental protection and minimizing negative environmental operations, Commitment to measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of compliance to this code and Pursuing continuous improvement of these social and environmental principles (Starbucks.com, 2008).
Entering into the global market the organization needs good research that reflects how the international market will accept the product that is being sold. The company must have a sound marketing plan that applies to the company’s assets, experience and products. Starbucks must develop and maintain marketing strategies on a global scale with the flexibility to accommodate the environmental factors that will be experienced at each location of the business. Starbucks is expanding their international retail presence, primarily through company-operated retail stores. The company has recently moved into China as part of its plan to operate 500 stores in both Asia and Europe. In 1998, Starbucks acquired a London-based Seattle Coffee
and a Seattle coffee-based Minneapolis-based Minneapolis-based Dixie. The deal raised new venture capital investments in various locations, including the Seattle, Seattle, Portland and Austin marketplaces. Despite these successes, a variety of Starbucks organizations in the area will look to China, with Starbucks announcing its plan in September to expand its business in China. In September of this year, Starbucks announced in its Shanghai headquarters that it would open a second retail presence in Japan and Japan, with plans to expand the Starbucks Global operations by at least 10 percent by 2020. In December 2013, Starbucks’s Singapore-based stores experienced the first of a number of significant expansions at new locations in Singapore, providing new opportunities in the region for potential brands. Starbucks now operates in a number of more Asian and Middle Eastern locations, including in China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia and Malaysia-owned resorts. Starbucks’s new, more established stores in Japan will attract a variety of businesses and will also contribute to a greater ability to manage customer base and customer experience.
As you may have noticed, Starbucks has been one of the top 5 employers for some time. Despite being a company on a mission to bring employees closer to their potential, and also attracting talent from around the world, Starbucks is facing a growing segment of consumers who may not be particularly familiar with Starbucks.
To address the following key challenges, Starbucks is building a team of internal and external advisors and an internal advisory team focused on the design and implementation of the best workplace environments that reflect the business’ global vision.
1. Starbucks is moving into new and more competitive markets. Starbucks is entering New Zealand’s most heavily-customers and has already invested heavily in the international markets. Starbucks is also launching its first store in Australia, for which it can expand across most markets in which it serves. Although the global Starbucks retail business is at a nascent stage, the company has already invested in many locations in the U.S. market. Starbucks has also begun working with retail groups around the world for international retailers such as Sears Holdings, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Johnson & Johnson to expand its business. Starbucks is also making substantial investments in infrastructure to support its new coffee operations, which it expects to reach 50,000 units by 2018.
Additionally, its expansion into New Zealand is also expanding its focus and needs to be met by international competitors. Starbucks currently works with multiple international coffee associations, including the Italian Coffee Association, the Indonesian Coffee Association, the Thai Federation of Coffee, the Vietnamese Federal Coffee Association as well as local national associations such as the Korean Federation of Coffeesers. The Starbucks business has grown in many ways throughout the last three quarters of 2012, contributing to the expansion of its international operations. Starbucks has been building a significant portfolio of international chains in recent years, moving from established coffee brands such as Jamaican Star