Chapter 14 - Marketing Channels and Retailing

      Time utility means the increase in customer satisfaction gained by making a good or service available at the appropriate time.

        Starbucks put a lot efforts in customer service. They set their stores in very convenience place, you don’t need to cross 10 street to just grab a coffee. Starbucks provide people a clean and comfortable place to rest, work, study, chat with friends or just enjoy one’s free time. They provide free WIFI network, music in air. 

         In rush hours, such as in the morning, there will be someone come up to you to take your order while you are in the line, this will save customer’s time. Customers don’t need to wait in a long line and order their drinks until you move up to the cashier. Your coffee will be prepared while you waiting in the line move up to the cashier. 

         The baristas of Starbucks have very good attitude. If they make wrong drinks, they will apologize and remake it for customers immediately. Sometimes they will make you the drink you want and ask if you also want the wrong one. If the answer is Yes, they will give it to you for free. If they notice that a customer wait there for a long time (about 5-10 minutes), they will ask what you are waiting for and make it for you right away. Usually they will upgrade the drink, like if you order a grande drink, they will give you a venti one instead as their apology. 

Multiple Distribution

           Starbucks have multiple channels to distribute their products to their customer. They have their own store to sell coffee, coffee beans and other products. They also have bottle coffees to sell in supermarkets, Costco and some restaurants.

 Nonstore retailing

Starbucks Online Store

          Starbucks have their own online store to sell products that people can make Starbucks’ coffee at home by themselves. 

Chapter6 - Consumer Decision Making

          

          Nowadays there are many choices of everything. Various brand, different looks, different  price and qualities... There are so many factors influence customers' decision. 

        Cultural factor is one of the important factors influence people's choice. People in different countries have different culture and values. Starbucks have a drink : 'Americano'. There was no Americano before the Second World War. After the Second World War, Americans finished the war in Europe, many American armies came to south Europe, the soldiers can not get use to the espresso coffee in Europe, so they add water to the espresso to dilute the strength and taste of the espresso coffee. Because at that time, only American soldiers drink espresso coffee in this way, so people named this kind of coffee 'Americano'. Starbucks play an important role of Americano's popularization. Because the cultural difference, there came out a new American style coffee. 

           Individual factor is also a very important factor which influence people's choices. Everybody have different taste, habit, and so on. For example, Starbucks have customers of different ages and genders. When parents bring their kids to Starbucks, they want to buy juice or milk instead of coffees. Because coffee is not good for kids and they should drink coffee when they are so young. Another example, some people like to drink ice coffee, and others like to drink hot coffee. Some people like dark roast but some other people think that dark roast is too strong and bitter for them. In order to satisfy customers' tastes, Starbucks provide hot and cold drinks, blonde roast coffee, medium roast coffee, and dark roast coffee and so on. 

           Starbucks have customers from widely social levels. Americans prefer convenient things. Starbucks are so popular and its stores are all over the streets. People from no matter what social class can come in and grab a drink. I saw several times even homeless people went to Starbucks buy drinks after they get some money.    

 

            One factor that influencing the external information search is product experience. When consumers have had previous experience with a good or service, the level of involvement typically decreases. I like to spend my free time in Starbucks, when I enjoy my time in Starbucks, I saw several times that the worker in Starbucks would make some samples of their new drink in the one shot size cup, and give these samples to different customers, introduce them what is this new drink. Because consumers are familiar with the new drinks and know whether it will satisfy their needs, they become less involved in the purchase.

Chapter 5 - Developing a Global Vision

                                                          

 Starbucks in World-wide

            Today, having global vision means recognizing and reacting to international marketing opportunities, using effective global marketing strategies, and being aware of threats from foreign competitors in all markets. Starbucks company, as a coffee giant, it has already opened about 18000 stores in world-wide. 

           After Starbucks expansion in North America, it expand to world-wide. The first Starbucks location outside North America opened , in 1996 in Tokyo, Japan. Starbucks entered the U.K. market in 1998 with the $83 million acquisition of the then 65-outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company, re-branding all the stores as Starbucks. In September 2002, Starbucks opened its first store in Latin America, at Mexico. 

         Open business in the international market is difficult, a company who want to open the international market have to prepare to compete with native companies, do many social investigations about foreign countries’ culture, tradition, people’s habits, flavors and so on. To open a business in a foreign country, company have to adjust their products to cater to that country’s people’s taste. Starbucks Company does good job. According to different culture and tastes in different countries, Starbucks decorate different stores with different elements and designs. 

     Starbucks in Beijing

         Starbucks in Japan

Starbucks in Dubai

Starbucks in HongKong

Not only that, based on original Starbucks drinks, they also make special drinks in different countries. For example, in China, there are special drinks like “Espresso Con Panna”,”Mudan White Tea”, “Biluochun Green Tea” and so on. In addition, Starbucks also provide their official website in different languages which also contain not exactly the same drinks and products. 

   Even though Starbucks have to face many threats by opening business in the international market, global business do bring much business profit to the company. In the USA or other countries in North America, Starbucks probably more civil, but in some countries, it is more genteel. In New York, Starbucks is like in every where, But in China, most Starbucks store opened in big shopping mall, and it’s a deluxe place to go for most people. Starbucks grande size green tea frappuccino is about 30 Yuan, it’s about 6 times expensive than in the USA.  That’s just only one example . In this way, Starbucks earn a lot of profits in the international markets. 

           In the future, Starbucks is still planing to open more stores(about 1300 stores) world-wide. The company is planning for China to be the second largest market by 2014, about 600 more stores will be opened in China. Because according to the first fiscal quarter of 2013 the China/Asia Pacific segment alone achieved sales of $214.3 Million. The potential for future growth in China is very important for Starbucks. 

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Target market.

The first big group of Starbucks target customers are adults aged 25-40. they account for about half of Starbucks customer, most of them are mid-income levels, and majority of these customers have high level education experience. Most of them are business men and women who have professional careers.

The next big throng of Starbucks target customers are young adults aged 18-24, who account for about 40% of Starbucks customers. College students like to stay at Starbucks do their homework, papers, projects while enjoy having coffee and listening to music. They also stay there to chat with their friends or just enjoy a relax time. 

Also, there are a small group of kids and teens aged 13-17 are Starbucks customers, too. Starbucks offer kids drinks and milk and fruit juice for them. 

Various food and beverages

Starbucks coffee, started as a coffee house, which just provide whole bean coffees at beginning, along with the develop and expansion, now provides various kinds of coffee, coffee beans, beverages, sandwiches, bagels,Tazo teas, cups and so on, to satisfy different needs of their customers. For example, if a college student is busy doing his/hers project or term-paper at Starbucks for a long time, he/she maybe hungry, he can simply buy a bagel or sandwich at the Starbucks store instead of goes to somewhere else to get food. This actually saves times for the student and also increase the Starbucks profits. Also, customers can buy Starbucks cups for themselves and friends or relatives as gifts. 

Competitive factor

Starbucks’ founders realized that people need a place with good environment to enjoy high quality of coffee and communicate with their friends. So Starbucks coffee house opened. Starbucks now serve people with extensive menu include drinks, breakfast, lunch and so on. They also offering organic soy milk, and other different kinds of milks for their customers. Wifi is available at Starbucks retail stores. They also play CDs and iTunes music in their stores to give people a relax environment. All of these makes Starbucks a great place to stay.

Value influence buyers’ habit. People are prefer high quality of goods at lower price. Starbucks provides high quality coffees and other products to their customers. In order to provide high quality coffees, they helps farmers and teach them how to plant coffee in an efficient way and increase the quality of the supply of coffee beans. They take care of their coffee from raw materials to finished products. 

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Starbucks, as a company who has 18000 stores in more than 60 countries,  believes that conducting business ethically and striving to do the right thing are vital to the success of the company.

Business Ethics and Compliance is a program that supports Starbucks Mission and helps protect Starbucks culture and their reputation by providing resources that help partners make ethical decisions at work.

Starbucks Coffee  Company puts efforts in environmental impact. In 2004, Starbucks began reducing the size of their paper napkins and garbage bags. And their polypropylene cups use 15% less plastic and create 45% carbon emissions than a cup made from PET. In 2009, the Starbucks implemented a new water saving solution,they changed dipper wells with push button metered faucets for rinsing. According to the report, this new technology saves up to 150 gal of water per day in every store.They also put efforts in recycle. In 1999, Starbucks started a program called"Grounds for your Garden". That means Starbucks recycles used coffee grounds and use them as compost  in the garden.Now they use corrugated sleeves made from 60% post-consumer recycled fiber. and customers can get 10 cents discount if they bring their own reusable cups.That's is a method to remind people to bring their own cup and reduce the usage of the paper cups. Also, they use electric hand dryers instead of paper towels in their restrooms, which is friendly to the environment and reduce wastes of trees.

Starbucks provides community services. Every year, during the Starbucks’ Global Month of Service, Through their relationships with local nonprofit organizations, they are helping support neighborhood revitalization efforts to improve community education, employment, health, housing and safety.

Starbucks helps farmers with grow plants in an efficient way. Starbucks has established Farmer Support Centers in Costa Rica and Rwanda to provide local farmers with the resources and expertise that help lower the cost of production, reduce fungus infections, improve coffee quality and increase the yield of premium coffees.