Starbucks Marketing and Distribution Strategy Overview

New Events Impacting Company

One of the greatest challenges of the company is climate change. It is important to know that almost a half of the coffee in the whole world is produced in accordance to the sustainability standard though on only 12 percent of the world coffee is sold in the market as a sustainable.

Therefore, there is a need that the coffee company should have its definition of sustainability. However, for this to be established, there is a need that the company should be committed to facilitating the increasing demand for sustainability. Moreover, the company will be required to come up with improved measures on how it can attain sustainability as well as the far that it would want to go with it.

When the company does not come up with a given sustainability framework, it will confine itself together with conversation partners. This challenge may arise when all the major coffee producing regions in the whole world is facing the impacts that come as a result of climate change. During this moment, the demand for coffee will increase while coffee production is being affected by the warming temperatures together with changing weather patterns.

Business Portfolio

Starbucks company is known for supplying delicious coffee and tea products. In addition to this, they also sell different applications from different manufacturers, for instance, Bunn and Krupp. Moreover, the company has Drinkware for their consumers as well as several gifts being sold. Apart from just selling coffee, tea and different types of equipment for home consumption, the company also sells their products to the office as well. Furthermore, it is important to know that the Starbucks Company has physical stores where you can buy their products.

Brand Audit

It is believed that the reputation of the brand of the product has been recovering though it has a long way to go. The tagline of the brand is “Monday can be great.” According to BrandIndex, the Buzz score of Starbucks has equal negative and positive things that people have heard about the brand. However, there is a great chance that the brand is still suffering from negative reputation since its Buzz score has been decreasing day by day.

One of the ways the Starbucks Company communicates to its consumer is through the media. Moreover, the company does several advertisement campaigns to market their products. Some of the social media networks that the company uses include Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Linkedin among many other social network platforms.

Competition

The major competitors for Starbucks are Dunkin’ Donuts together with McDonald. These three companies have been fighting for the top position in the coffee industry. Starbucks is one of the best and recognized coffee company in the whole world. Some of the things that have made it possible for Starbuck to prevail in the industry, despite the fact that it is surrounded by many competitors is the fact that it is in a favorable physical location and has expanded menu that makes it possible for it to reach and at the same time offer the best services to their clients. Moreover, this also plays a great role of drawing consumers from their competitors, hence, making it possible for the company to thrive even when other companies cannot grow.

Sourcing

It is believed that the main source of coffee for this company comes from Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa though Asia-Pacific region is where the signature coffee blend is found. Moreover, the company has many suppliers. When it comes to payment terms, they are net 45 days from the day that the company received goods from the suppliers. The suppliers get their payment after 45 days.

Operation

The company buys coffee from the suppliers after which they manufacture to come up with different coffee brands. Moreover, the company has some guidelines that are very important for everyone who supplies them with the coffee. The guidelines help in ensuring that the coffee is planted in a way that it will be in a position of producing a quality coffee product is of the high standard.

This company’s coffee production is focused on standardization to ensure the goods are of high quality. In addition, the coffee chain has always striven to ensure standardization of their operation. Despite of this, over the last three years the company has made it possible to improve the operating procedures. It has come up with a “lean team” that is responsible for standardizing their products and services.

Going to Market

The marketing strategy of Starbucks is unique. One of the ways the company reaches its consumers is through billboards, posters, newspapers and ad space. Moreover, the company has partnered with different retailers and wholesalers to ensure that their clients get their products. Through this, the company has managed to reach their target customers without difficulties. One of the intermediary partners of Starbucks is Kraft Foods, Inc. the two other companies that have partnered with the Starbucks are Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc. and Pepsi-Cola Company. The partners play a great role in ensuring that the products of Starbucks reach the consumers without any problem. This company has also been known for one thing when it comes to partnership; the company knows how to come up with the strategic partnership. This kind of partnership plays a great role as far as growing the business is concerned (Vote for Us, n.d).

Distribution

One of the ways the company manages to distribute its products through office coffee distributors. The company also considers to expand the retail business by raising its market share; this is in its current markets together with starting stores in fresh markets where they can get the opportunity. This is one of the ways that they will find it easier to reach their target consumers.

The following image shows the channel of distribution.

There are three main modes of transport used by the Starbucks Company: air; motor and; water. Each transport mode has its advantages, and this is the reason the company prefers using them. The air transport is recommended by the company since it is very fast, and the motor allows the company to transport the products anywhere on the land. This allows them to transport the products and services to all cities. On the other hand, the water transport is cheap, but it carries bulky products. Moreover, for the company to reach its targeted consumers, it employs third party logistics to do the work for them. With this, many consumers are in a position of getting the products.

Reference

• Vote for Us. (N.d). Starbucks Marketing Strategy Unconventionally Effective. Retrieved from https://www.voteforus.com/starbucksmarketingstrategy.html