Introduction to Starbucks and its competitive position:
Starbucks is one of the American coffee and a leading coffee house chain that have over 30,000 locations in different parts of the world (Profile of Starbucks, 2018). It is one of the leading brands in terms of providing quality of coffee that is made on lighter toast. In addition, the business used advanced technological machines to deliver quick services to millions of customers (Schultz, 2012). It products mainly include hot and cold beverages, tea products, juices, snacks and other evening drinks such as beer, wines, etc (About Starbucks, 2018).
In terms of competitive advantage it is leading in terms of providing quality services and offering differentiated products. In addition, it aims to deliver effective customer experience through the well designed stores with offering good ambience and support of well trained staff. Starbucks operate with estimated revenue of $25 billion in 2018 (Profile of Starbucks, 2018). Also, it has support of around 291,000 employees. It also markets its products and licenses its trademarks through portfolio brands such as Teavana, Best coffee, Starbucks, etc. This has led to enhance the brand value in the current competitive market (Elliott, 2014). The key competitors of Starbucks mainly include Costa coffee, Barista coffee, Tullys, etc. According to the CNBC report 2018, Starbucks generated record third quarter revenue and profits because of increase in the spending of the customers. The coffee chain is being focussed to boost its sales through loyalty programme (CNBC report, 2018).
Starbucks also have corporate responsibility in terms of managing profitability along with social conscience. Personal relationships are being formed to build a global network and adopting appropriate method of producing coffee (Table, 2014). The new methods would be sustainable, transparent and effective for the planet. In addition, Starbucks follows the legal policies and procedures concerned with employment. Starbucks is effectively dedicated to work effectively with the partners by paying equity and investing in the success. Starbucks has always maintained the competitive advantage by being the leader in product innovation. It promotes brand name and also cares about health conscious consumers (About Starbucks, 2018).
Starbucks have become exclusive owner of the quality beans that provides a massive competitive advantage. Also it has maintained clear relationships with its partners in terms of having clear tradeoffs and believes treating partners with dignity and respect (Schultz, 2012). In addition, clear plans and policies for the future enable Starbucks to achieve sustainability in near future. From the below image it can be assessed that Starbucks have stronger operations in terms of store sales and excessive revenues is generated from different countries (Alex Eule, 2017). Though, it faces some of the fluctuations in sales and revenue but have strong brand positioning in the market that enables to sustain on the competitive edge.
Communication strategy:
For having effective communication with the stakeholders, it is necessary for Starbucks to focus on regular advertising and promotion strategies that will attract consumers towards stores. In addition, employees must be effectively trained to offer politeness and quality service to the customers and meet with their timely needs. Moreover, regular Thank you can be sent to the current customers for visiting the store. Also emails and messages can be sent to the customers regarding any of the festive or seasonal or any other menu discounts (Taecharungroj, 2017).
References:
Books and Journals:
Aakhus, M. and Bzdak, M., 2015. Stakeholder engagement as communication design practice. Journal of Public Affairs, 15(2), pp.188-200.
Abdel-Basset, M., Mohamed, M. and Smarandache, F., 2018. An extension of neutrosophic AHP–SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-making. Symmetry, 10(4), p.116.
Banks, M.A., Vera, D., Pathak, S. and Ballard, K., 2016. Stakeholder management as a source of competitive advantage. Organizational dynamics, 45(1), pp.18-27.
Bressler, M.S., 2012. How small businesses master the art of competition through superior competitive advantage. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 11(1), pp.1-12.
Brooks, B.W., 2012. Starbucks: maintaining a clear position. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 18(3), p.39.
Duke, D., 2018. Porter’s Five Forces and the Coffee Industry. Management Teaching Review, 3(3), pp.241-251.
Elliott, C., 2014. Consuming caffeine: The discourse of Starbucks and coffee. In Brands (pp. 356-367). Routledge.
Frynas, J.G., 2015. Strategic CSR, value creation and competitive advantage. The Routledge companion to non-market strategy, pp.245-262.
Garthwaite, C., Busse, M., Brown, J. and Merkley, G., 2017. Starbucks: A story of growth. Kellogg School of Management Cases, pp.1-20.
Here, at archlite assignment help, we provide various academic assignment assistance including Do my essay| Electrical engineering assignment help & many more.