Strategic Management Of Starbucks Marketing Essay

Strategic Management Of Starbucks Marketing Essay The aim of this project report is to critically analyse the strategic issues being faced by an organization. The organization chosen for this task is the company Starbucks, which will be analysed using relevant concepts reviewed in the module using appropriate theory and models. The report structure would start with a brief introduction to the company Starbucks followed by the strategic issues faced by the firm. The issues are outlined before in the report based on the analysis which has been carried out using the above models. After discussing the current and recent issues facing Starbucks the company analysis would follow which would be supported with relevant theory and application of suitable models. After completing the industry analysis conclusion and recommendations would be provided for Starbucks to counter the strategic problems. The Starbucks Company was founded in Seattle in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Seigel with a vision to educate American consumers about the fine coffee drinking experience. In 1987 Howard Schultz took over the Starbucks Group, he wanted to create the Italian espresso bar experience in America by creating a personal relationship between the customers and their coffee. Just within a couple of years they grew from a small coffee business house to a multi-million dollar player in the industry by buying only the best coffee available and providing the people with an unmatched store experience. As standing, Starbucks is number one in the speciality coffee industry, with more than 12,000 shops in more than 35 countries. The Starbucks mission statement is To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time. Freshly brewed coffee is the main product offered by Starbucks along with other drinks which include cold and hot teas, cakes and pastries. The Starbucks coffee comes in a many varieties each possessing a different taste, aroma and flavour. In addition to its extensive product offerings, Starbucks has many brands including; Starbucks Hear Music, Tazo Tea, Starbucks Entertainment, , Ethos Water, Torrefazione Italia coffee and Seattles Best Coffee. The successful management of all of these brands pulled together constitutes the Starbucks portfolio. Starbucks is also one of the most globally conscious corporations in the world.  Ã‚  In 2006 Starbucks donated $36.1 million in cash and products, volunteered 383,000 hours in local communities, required growers to use strict environmental guidelines, used 20% renewable energy in stores, and actively recycled in almost 80% of stores in US and Canada. Starbucks has established itself as the coffee leader in the world and has done so on a socially and environmentally conscious platform.   STRATEGIC ISSUES FACING STARBUCKS The major challenge that Starbucks is dealing with is the current financial crisis in the world economy forcing them to call closures of many stores around the world. Another challenge that Starbucks is dealing with is competitors. There are numerous coffee shops all over the world and being able to stand out to generate customers is important. Their main competitors are Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and Nestle in the US and brands like Costa Coffee and Caffà ¨ Nero in the UK, the two major markets for Starbucks. It is important that for Starbucks to know their competitors and what they are currently doing. Also Starbuck coffees are priced higher than other market competitors because of Starbucks only purchasing the highest quality coffee beans for their product, thus increasing the price of the drink giving the competitors a cost advantage over Starbucks. Also Starbucks inadequate marketing strategy on advertising is a hindrance in the business growth opportunities. They prefer to build the brand by promoting the drinks cup-by-cup with customers. The advertisement ends until they drink the coffee, reducing the chances to attract valuable customers. Starbucks also does not emphasize on distributing their products to supermarket because of being concerned with the quality of the coffee; if the coffees were packaged into plastic bags. Also the rigorous expansion strategy followed by Starbucks can take a toll on the firms brand image. As corporations grow there can be a tendency to focus too heavily on increasing output and locations, and less focus on quality and brand image. Starbucks needs to stay with its values and ideals that have made it successful. Also Starbucks policy of not franchising can be a cause of concern for the firm. Advantages of Starbucks franchising would be to open hundreds of new stores with less risk to the company, and make profits in doing so. In addition Starbucks would have less research and development costs because the franchisee would have greater knowledge of the local market in terms of demographics, psychographics, geographic, and local/state/country regulations. Consumption of coffee is not dependent on the price of the product but also on the differentiation between each product and several value adding variables such as the quality of customer services, brand, brand recognition and image of the company. Hence, Starbucks is not majorly sensitive to movements of other firms in this segment. 2. THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS Starbuck is the world leader in its industry and has controlled access to distribution channels. Starbucks have exhibited this control over distribution channels by setting guidelines for their suppliers to follow. Starbucks is also constantly innovating and showing strong product differentiation to hamper the possibility of new entrants. However, the entry barrier for the industry is relatively low and any big firm where capital is not a problem could be a potential entrant. Some of the more current and on-going threats of new entrants include fast food chains such as McDonalds, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts which can become a major problem in the near future. 3. BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS A big threat to Starbucks is the absence of switching costs in the speciality coffee industry, customers face no switching costs in switching from Starbucks to Costa Coffee or Caffà © Nero for a cup of coffee. Another threat to Starbucks is that their customers have the ability to brew their own coffee. Starbucks has tried to counter this threat by offering Preferred Office Coffee Providers as well as directions on how to make the perfect cup of Starbucks coffee at home, called the Four Fundamentals of Coffee. The perfect cup of Starbucks Coffee includes, of course, Starbucks ingredients! Also with new entrants and competitors such as McDonalds who claim to offer premium roast coffee of reasonable quality for lower price, it is clear that Starbucks customers have some bargaining power in the industry. 4. BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS Coffee is the worlds second largest traded commodity. South and Central America produce the majority of coffee traded in the world. Starbucks depends upon both outside brokers and direct contact with exporters for the supply of premium coffee beans. The quality of coffee beans sought by Starbucks is very high, proving to be a potential threat to the company. Only suppliers who can meet Starbucks coffee standards will be able to supply the giant company. The supplying industry only has few firms which can deliver the quality giving them considerable bargaining powers. However, Starbucks counters this due to its massive size and being the primary buyer and also because of the importance of Starbucks business to any individual supplier as it would account for a large percentage of the total suppliers sales, thus reducing the bargaining power of suppliers. Starbucks has to effectively pursue a Focus-Based Strategy in conjunction with differentiation and a cost leadership based strategy. Being a lower cost store will increase the difference between Starbucks and provide it with a competitive edge. At present, Starbucks competitors are attempting to specialize in the coffee business, therefore Starbucks must pursue focus strategy to increase its strength. Starbucks must reduce their product price by producing a new product of coffee using cheaper beans or can come out with special discounts and promotions to reduce cost, thus increasing sales enabling Starbucks to enter new low cost markets and increase profitability. Also needs to focus on building alliances in new markets/countries to reduce management focus and benefit from the local and experience curves. Should focus on advertising the brand through internet services for users to access, do road shows, hand out brochures etc. so that consumers become more aware of the brands strong international presence and brand name. Market penetration and market development will help increase the sales. Access unexplored distribution channels like making available packaged Starbucks coffee for consumers by displaying it nationwide in various convenience and shopping stores and not only Starbucks stores. Starbucks must adopt twin policies of Product Development and Product-Market Diversification to counter the stiff competition in international markets. It is important to understand this in the product development phase as they would need to focus solely on making their existing products better. The company can demonstrate product and market diversification through research and development coupled with creativity and innovation. Product differentiation has proven an excellent defence against threats such as bargaining power of buyers. Developing new products will offset such potential risks. A strategy should be formulated to tackle the competition by entering into agreements, long-term contracts, with the food service companies that they are competing against. This way their coffee would be sold at these outlets and they would gain access to new markets and increase sales while decreasing competition. Starbucks should continue to be a first mover into markets with new products and ideas. Being a first mover of new products into new international markets will be an excellent way for Starbucks to build customer loyalty and uphold its image as an innovative company. Starbucks should continue to locate their operations in high traffic areas, high visibility areas. The company should continue to take excellent care in picking locations. It is extremely important that Starbucks international stores reflect uniqueness in their location and layout. Having locations in a variety of locations will ensure large market exposure.

Boxing Day Tsunami, 2004

Boxing Day Tsunami, 2004 Introduction First of all, the main objective of this academic report is to describe the third-biggest ever recorded tsunami, which is known as Boxing Day 2004. Moreover, this event was one of the biggest natural disasters in recent history. This report is mainly divided into four sections: the introduction where an outline regarding the objectives and the purpose of this report is presented, the methodology, the discussion, the conclusion and finally the bibliography. This sad event began at 7:59am local time on December 26, 2004, thus it was named as Boxing Day. The epicentre of the 9.1 magnitude quake was located in the Indian Ocean near the west coast of Sumatra. Waves of up to 30 metres were detected and hit first regions of Indonesia, then waves reached Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, and- more than seven hours after the initial quake, the tsunami was observed in Mauritius and along the east coast of Africa. As can be seen, the Boxing Day tsunami achieved many cities across the world, devastating native vegetation and cities near the coast. Methodology The present report is based on four articles, which will be cited in the bibliography section. After carefully reading those articles, the main findings are described throughout this academic report. Discussion The Boxing Day Tsunami was caused by a displacement of water. The convergence of other plates strains the area, and at the quakes epicenter, the India plate is now moving to the northeast at 5 centimeters per year relative to the Burma plate. The aftershocks were distributed along the plate boundary from the epicenter to near Andaman Island. With at least 168,000 people killed when walls of water smashed into Nias Island and Aceh province, Indonesia was the nation hardest hit by the tsunami. Followed by Sri Lanka (35,000 people), India (18,000), and Thailand (8,000) (Figure 1). Hundreds also died in Africa, while thousands of foreign travellers were killed in the disaster, including 26 Australians. The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 is believed to be the deadliest tsunami in history, killing more than 229,000 people (ABC, 2014). Figure 1. Deaths and damage caused by the Boxing Day Tsunami on December 26, 2004. Despite there being many hours between the earthquake and the impact of the tsunami, nearly all the victims were completely taken by surprise. With no adequate warning systems, there was no alert issued to people to seek safety. This is also the explanation why so many people were killed in this big tragedy. A few survivors included Tom and Arlette Stuip, who were holidaying in Khao Lak,Thailand. Said: We were having breakfast at the hotel on a terrace, overlooking the pool, the beach and the Andaman Sea. My husband Tom noticed the waiters were all pointing at the sea, which was receding rapidly. It was a fascinating sight. People got their cameras out and walked towards the dry seabed. The beach was full of sunbathing tourists. (Ryder and Dafedjaiye, 2014). (Figure 2) Figure 2. This is the image of the waves before Tom and Arlette fleeing the hotel. The waves stripped vegetation from mountain sides hundreds of metres inland, and threw boats into trees (Figure 3). A great arrangement of humanitarian aid was needed because of widespread damage of the infrastructure, shortages of food and water, and economic damage in the region. The estimated cost of the damage was around $10bn (BBC, 2014). Therefore, to help the people affected by the disaster more than $14 billion in aid was given by the international community (ABC, 2014). As a result, ten years later, many coastal towns and villages have rebuilt their communities and lives, and tried to forget the natural disaster that made so many people suffer. (Figure 4). Figure 3. A house standing amid devastation caused by tsunamis in the Galle district in the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, 27 December 2004. Figure 4. Before in August 2005 and after in December 2007 views of Calang, Aceh province. Conclusion This report described one of the biggest tragedy named Boxing Day Tsunami in 26th December 2004. This event resulted in the deaths of around 229,000 people. While this is the official number of deaths, it is estimated that this number can be even bigger. Although the tsunami happened almost 12 years ago, it is a topic of interest since many people were killed, and surprisingly no warning system was working in the regions to warn thousands of people. However, there are still questions over how safe the region is, since this is a natural catastrophe that can happen again. The Indian Ocean countries, including Australia, cannot ignore the potential dangers for future destructive earthquakes and tsunamis. The tragic events of Boxing Day 2004 make evident the need of establishing a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. Bibliography Cummins, P. (2005, March). The Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami. Retrieved March, 2005, fromhttp://www.ga.gov.au/webtemp/image_cache/GA5892.pdf Boxing Day tsunami: How the disaster unfolded 10 years ago. Retrieved Dec 24, 2014, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-24/boxing-day-tsunami-how-the-disaster-unfolded/5977568 Sherie, R. and Dafedjaiye. H. (2014, Dec). Tsunami stories: Your experiences. Retriever Dec 25, 2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/30462238 Chadha, R.K. (2014, Dec). What caused the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Retriever Dec 25, 2014, from http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/what-caused-the-massive-2004-indian-ocean-tsunami/article6723085.ece Figure 1. Boxing Day tsunami: How the disaster unfolded 10 years ago. Retrieved Dec 24, 2014, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-24/boxing-day-tsunami-how-the-disaster-unfolded/5977568 Figure 2. Sherie, R. and Dafedjaiye. H. (2014, Dec). Tsunami stories: Your experiences. Retriever Dec 25, 2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/30462238 Figure 3. Akkoc, R. (2014, Dec) 2004 Boxing Day tsunami facts. Retriever Dec 19, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/11303114/2004-Boxing-Day-tsunami-facts.html Figure 4. Akkoc, R. (2014, Dec) 2004 Boxing Day tsunami facts. Retriever Dec 19, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/11303114/2004-Boxing-Day-tsunami-facts.html

Having to Write with Whipped Cream :: Food Writing Nature Writers Essays

Having to Write with Whipped Cream Our assignment was to write twenty words without using any kind of writing utensil that we would normally use such as pencils, markers, etc. When Professor Krause first gave this assignment I thought to myself â€Å"is he insane? How are we going to do this?† The more and more I thought about it ideas kept popping up in my head. I tried to think about all the readings we had done in class, hoping that they would kind of guide me in the proper direction for this paper. Some did while others completely through me off track. Throughout this paper I will explain my technology that I invented and describe what some of the authors we read in class showed me throughout their pieces of work. I finally came up with the idea of using whipped cream to write my words. I came about this because I work at a day care center with three and four year old children. One day we were playing with shaving cream as a sensory activity for them and I thought this would be really good for my project. Shaving cream is very easy to write with and you would be able to read the lettering for the words I decided to use. When I went to the grocery store to purchase my shaving cream, I thought about it a little more and decided to use Ready Whip, a refrigerated cream product used mainly for desserts, because it has a smaller tube that the cream comes out of, so it would be a little easier to write with. When it came to what I was going to put the whipped cream on, that became a little tricky, because I didn’t want put it on a t-shirt or something like that because you wouldn’t be able to read it. I was at my parents home for the weekend. In our backyard we have individual medium size bricks so I figured this would work because I’d be able to fit at least one word on each brick. I was able to do this successfully, except that my dog kept trying to lick the whipped cream off the ground! This project made me realize how I take pens and pencils for granted because if something ever happened and we didn’t have them I think most people would be extremely lost without them.

Policing Worldwide Essay -- Law Enforcement Police

Policing Worldwide The world of policing is one of constant change. As far back as the early days of Peelian police philosophy the missions and goals of police departments have constantly been altered. In our diverse communities and cites worldwide we see police departments engaged in very different forms of policing. Even across the many jurisdictions that operate within our nation we see departments that run at the very opposite ends of the policing spectrum, with some acing in extreme public service roles and others involved in aggressive crime fighting ideologies. These different approaches are all based of what the police identifies as the needs of the community. As constant research is conducted in the field of policing, departments adopt new policies and programs. As new technologies arise they too are incorporated into law enforcement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The New York City Police Department like any other department in the world is constantly changing and adapting its policies to conform to that of new technologies and trends in law enforcement. One of these policies that has been put into use in recent years has been that of a community policing initiative. Finding its roots in police-community relations policies of the 50’s and 60’s, community policing is a philosophy that seeks to form a partnership between the police and the community. Through this bond the community can fully identify its needs and work together with the police to battle crime as well as many other services that do not fall within the traditional roles of policing. All of this is aimed at taking a proactive approach to crime. Its basis is simply trying to work with the community to identify its problems and fixing them before they escalate or lead to crime. Community policing is far different than any other philosophy seen in pol icing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although throughout history, â€Å"there have been sporadic variations in the underpinnings of American law enforcement, its substantively has remained a legal-bureaucratic organization focusing on professional law enforcement (Gaines and Kappeler, 2003 p. 476)†. This legal-bureaucratic set up of the American police department has it as an agency concerned with statistic and numbers. The outputs of policing that include number of arrests, volume of recovered property, number of citations issued, response times and the other stats of policing play a more i... ...mmander is then praised for his success in lower crime. However, I feel that this alienates the police from a community. If the police implement aggressive tactic in an area, the public often perceives this in almost a military sweep. The cops are seen as the bad guys that only come in to arrest the criminals and then go on their way to other high crime areas. If CompStat identified the high crime areas and then used community policing tactics to permanently rid the underlying problems of crime in that  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However the hierarchy of the New York City Police Department chooses to deal with these two new tactics in policing will change the course of our city. I feel that while both valuable tactics, the NYPD should stress its role in community policing. If the police continue to adopt aggressive styles of policing and continue to alienate themselves from the community, they might find themselves being hated by the city they protect. I think that CompStat has been a val uable tool for New York to lower its crime rate, however I think it fosters reactive and aggressive tactics. Unless it is changed or abandoned, the police will continue to widen the gap between themselves and the public.

Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions :: English Literature

Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions From 'Search For My Tongue' Tatamkhulu Afrika, Maqabane (1994) When you read this poem, bear in mind that language and the use of the mother tongue (our own language, the one we were brought up speaking) are very important to any individual. We all take it for granted that we can use our language if we live where we were born. We don't even have to think about it. But when you go to live in another country you have to learn another language, and it can be very confusing. The use of another language, one that is not your own, often functions on an emotional level. Also, after a while you start mixing the two languages. This is the problem faced by the speaker in this excerpt. Those of you who were not originally English speaking will recognise the dilemma expressed in this excerpt! Read the poem once or twice. Go through it slowly after that, in your mind relating the use of language (tongue) to the physical tongue. Some of you will, of course, recognise and understand the Gujerati in the centre of the extract. For some of you this will be your mother tongue! But most of you will be unable to decode it. So there will be many different reactions to reading this poem. I wish I were present to hear these reactions! Point of view Here we have a first-person speaker addressing 'you'. There appears to be a conversation going on, as the 'you' has just asked the question that prompts the rest of the poem. A conversation is appropriate for a poem on language and communication. Grasping the dilemma Imagine you had two physical tongues in your mouth. That's how Bhatt asks the listener to perceive the problem. We unconsciously relate language to the tongue. How often have we said to people, 'Have you lost your tongue?' when they fail to give us an answer or when they remain silent? That's because the tongue is one of the crucial organs we use when speaking. The speaker here has taken a new slant on the question and has said her tongue has indeed been lost, but she means her mother language has been lost, not her physical tongue. The extended metaphor Notice as you read and study the poem that the whole extract builds on an extended metaphor - the physical tongue as a metaphor for language. The idea of having two actual tongues (of course the speaker means languages) in your mouth provides a strong physical equivalent of the discomfort felt by someone operating in a foreign language environment. The nature of this discomfort if elaborated in lines 5-6.

12 Angry Men and To Kill A Mockingbird

Brain Storming†¦ Compare and contrast the two trials of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men. * Similarities: * In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus defends Tom Robinson even though there was little chance he could win the trial. He did all he could to help Tom, and put 100% effort into the trial. In Twelve Angry Men, juror number 8 defends the boy, even though everyone else believes he’s guilty. They both did not give up and in it till the end. * They are dealing with prejudice in both.In To Kill a Mockingbird, the prejudice is seen because Tom is a black man going against a white man’s word, and the jury is all white and prejudice. In Twelve Angry Men, prejudice is seen because the boy in trial is from the slums; he is criticized because of where he lives. * Juror # 8 and Atticus both use evidence and facts to prove their point. They use logos. * In both the book and the play, a life is at stake. The defendant would be put in the chair if prove n guilty. * You never find out if the defendant is truly innocent or guilty. You only find out what the jury decides. The words of witnesses are doubtful. * Differences: * Atticus lost the trial, but juror # 8 convinced the rest of the jury to vote â€Å"not guilty†. * Atticus is a lawyer, so he was defending Tom in court. Juror # 8 was part of the jury and was defending the boy against the rest of the jury, trying to get them to vote â€Å"not guilty† * Tom is accused of rape; the boy is accused of murder. * In Twelve Angry Men, there is more physical evidence of the crime then in To Kill a Mockingbird. In To Kill a Mockingbird there is mostly just the word of witnesses for evidence.

Resposability for Wide Spread Illeteracy

Illiteracy is known to be wide spread in different degrees. Some people have almost no ability to read or to write, while others can read or write some but not very well. Therefore, illiteracy sometimes may not be recognized if a person can read or write a little but not very much. Not all illiterate people are completely incapable of reading and writing. While some would like to find out who to blame, there is enough blame to share among many people. Even teachers are not free of blame for the spread of illiteracy.There are three reasons that teachers should take some responsibility for wide spread illiteracy. The first reason is that teachers are responsible to teach at their school, because that is the first place that people go to learn. As part of their job, teachers need to help students to improve their skills, such as reading, writing and comprehension. In other words, teachers have responsibility to help people to improve their knowledge because that is part of their job. If the teachers don’t apply themselves in their jobs, and make constant efforts to teach, the students will not learn.Teachers should have the support necessary to make students strengthen their literacy skills, but they still have the responsibility of trying to improve their students. The second reason is students and parents expect teachers to combat illiteracy because no one else has so much time with the students in a place where they can study, away from television, games, and other distractions. Teachers play an important role in the life of the students, because teachers help them to meet various challenges.For example if a student have problem understanding complex context, parents can help them, but teachers have better strategies to help them. In short, teachers are part of everyone’s community and they are better equipped than other people to teach students to read and write. Just as police officers are relied upon to do their jobs and to help their community by enforcing laws and catching criminals, teachers are relied upon to accept responsibility for teaching children, and helping them to learn to read and write.A third reason relates to teachers’ sharing responsibility with other people. In other words, it is not only teachers who are responsible for illiteracy. Even if teachers do their jobs and truly try to improve their community by fighting illiteracy, other people must do their part. For example, the students themselves must accept responsibility if they do not learn. Many students prefer to be entertained and to do fun things rather than to learn to read and write. While they will try to blame others for their failure, they must also accept blame. Parents also take some responsibility.They should not be satisfied with a child who cannot read or write, and part of their parental responsibilities includes educating their children even if they do not want to be educated and attempt to avoid education. In conclusion, for th at reasons mentioned teacher should take some responsibility for wide spread illiteracy. Teachers help students to improve their ability to read and understand. As teachers they need to bring the support that people need to master their goal in life. Helping the students and encouraging them to become better thinkers, that is the responsibility for the teachers and parents as a community.