Starbucks Marketing Management Case Study

Create a brief analysis of Starbucks focusing on its plans for international growth. Do you think

this strategy is a good one for the company? Why or why not?

Case - 2 Starbucks' Strategy: It is a Small World After All Marks- 10

If your strategy is growth, you might as well go for the whole cuppa joe. That's what Starbucks is

doing-expanding into international markets as if it were the most natural thing to do. To some experts, it

is the best plan for a company that has been called by Wall Street analysts "the last great growth story.;

Others are a bit more skeptical. Why, for instance, would an American coffee maker try to pitch its brew

against world-famous French dark espresso? "American coffee, it's only water. We call it jus des

CHAUSETTES," SNIFFS Bertrand Abadie, a documentary filmmaker. (In case you don't speak fluent

French, he called your favorite Starbucks flavor "sock juice.") Then there's China - a nation of about 1

billion tea drinkers. How does Starbucks intend to convert a nation whose favorite drink for the past 4,500

years has been tea? Other countries are in the picture as well, such as Japan and Spain. "We're taking the

long view that opportunities are so large and that these are the early days," explains Starbucks CEO

Howard Schultz.

Starbucks has a plan, Currently the company has about 6,500 stores worldwide, with about oneforth

of those located in 29 countries outside the U>S. and Canada. According to Schultz, in the next few

years, the Seattle-based firm intends to increase that number to 25,000 stores around the world, with

15,000 outside North America. "We're building a brand, not a fad," he explains. The Starbucks brand

includes everything from its special flavors to its logo-a mermaid on a green background-which is already

one of the most famous product image in the U.S.

Part of the company's strategy is to target younger consumers around the world. Austria's 20-

something coffee drinkers already view Starbucks as something new and tasty. "The coffeehouse in

Vienna is nice, but they are