Project (Starbucks corporation) final Assignment

Project (Starbucks corporation) final - Assignment Example From the year 1971 to 1976, Starbucks was at Western Avenue. After the company moved to 1912 Pike Place there has been no relocations. The company used to sell roasted Coffee. In the initial days the company was not selling any brew coffee. During the mid 1980s the company cashed in the opportunity to purchase Peets. However, during this time the company sales begun to fall. At that point of time, Starbucks was bought by Howard Schultz who had the vision of making Starbucks a real global brand. Howard Schultz decided to rebrand Giornale coffee chains as Starbucks. Since then there has been no turning for the company. Today the company has become the largest coffeehouse in the world. The company has 20, 891 stores on a global basis in over sixty countries. This includes over ten thousand stores in USA, over thousand stores in Canada, and over five hundred stores in UK, Japan, China, Mexico, turkey, Thailand, Germany and India. As on 2012 the total revenue of the company was US$13.29 b illion (Keller, 2012). II. Significance and Objective of the Project Research objective One of the major reasons for success of the company has been the branding and marketing strategy of the company. Unlike some of the other major firms Starbucks does not invest heavily in advertising and hence the marketing and branding strategy of the company is unique. The objective of the study: To critically analyze the key brand elements of the company To analyze the overall brand management strategy of the company To provide some recommendation that would help the company in gaining competitive advantage over the competitors. Management problems Starbucks Corporation is a US based global coffeehouse chain headquartered in Washington. It is the largest coffee house organization around the globe. The organization is operating in 62 countries with its 20,891 outlets. Unique organizational value helped Starbucks to increase their core competencies. Earlier the organization’s value was to provide high quality coffee to its customers. Moreover, they committed to provide effective customer service and a good coffee experience to its customers. When Mr. Schultz became the CEO of Starbucks they drifted away from the original organizational value. Lack of effective customer service is affecting the brand image of Starbucks in global market (Roger, 2010). Inadequate pricing strategy is reducing the customer preference. Due to fluctuating economic, political and weather condition in several countries, people are trying to reduce the coffee consumption from Starbucks. Moreover, it has been identified that in some place the quality of Starbucks’ coffee is decreasing. The management of Starbucks is worried about it. It is important for the organization to provide high quality coffee in order to maintain the leading position within the competitive global market place. The organization is lacking effective customer relationship. Several labor issues and internal organizat ional conflicts are reducing the motivation and self confidence level of customers. These issues are decreasing effective customer service activities. Marketing Research problems Starbucks