Verified Document

Starbucks And The United Parcel Service Case Study

Strengths The number and location of stores is a tremendous strength, and the same-stores strategy has worked effectively for years as a means of expanding market share ("Growth strategy," 2002).

Starbucks offers a wide variety of products which are sold in its coffee shops, in grocery stores, in other retail outlets, and through its Website ("Schultz return," 2008).

Loyal customers visit Starbucks stores an average of 18 times per month, illustrating the strong loyalty and affinity experienced by the brand ("Schultz return," 2008).

Starbucks introduced The Third Place to its public -- a place for gathering that is not work and is not home, yet plays a prominent place in customers' lives, or especially in their work lives (Mitchelli, 2010).

The fiscal crisis in 2009 resulted in reduced in-store sales so a less expensive Starbucks coffee product was needed. The home-brewed, thermos toting practices of the newly frugal were eroding market share. Starbucks introduced Via® on February 17, 2009, instant coffee in tubes which has been described as indistinguishable from the drip brew in the Starbucks' stores. In an exceptional stroke of distributive genius, the instant coffee is also sold in retail operations like Office Depot and REI, a Seattle-based recreational equipment outlet. Via® was being sold on supermarket shelves, right along with bags of Starbucks beans ("Schultz return," 2008).

Starbucks makes excellent use of market research and has a number of social...

This emphasis on deep-listening should help the company implement its plans to "shift its emphasis back on customer-facing initiatives" ("Schultz return," 2008).
Starbucks is a strong and active innovator. It introduced a music store to the coffee shops and to the Website. The company made use of technology in its stores, as a means for ordering drinks, and was one of the first businesses to invite local, local customers into stores through check-in applications like Four-Square.

The company has been a leader in the provision of benefits to its employees and in participation in philanthropic contributions and activities.

Starbucks has a strong commitment to ensuring its transactions in global coffee markets are ethical, and actively participates and promotes the growth and distribution of Fair Trade coffee beans.

Weaknesses

The public tends to fall on either side of the fence, really liking the brand or really disliking the brand. Starbucks tends to underestimate the number of people who would just as soon see the company fail (Mitchelli, 2010).

Market saturation, though Starbucks management denies this is a dynamic, Schwartz corrected for it in 2009 when he returned to the company as CEO. Schwartz argued that Starbucks had "invested ahead of the growth curve" ("Schultz return," 2008).

The company has had to jettison several hundred stores in order to help "bring its back-end costs in line with the business…

Sources used in this document:
References

Coffee is hot: Green Mountain goes to moon on Starbucks partnership. (2011, March 3) Forbes.com. Retrieved http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/10/starbucks-green-mountain-partner-on-kcups-marketnewsvideo.html

Mitchelli, J. (2007). The Starbucks experience: Five principles for turning ordinary into extraordinary. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Mitchelli, J. (2010, May 14). The Starbucks Experience. Podbean. Retrieved http://drjosephm.podbean.com/2010/05/14/how-to-be-an-innovator/

Starbucks' growth strategy: Locations, locations, locations. (2002, September 3). Washington Post. Retrieved http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/03/
Starbucks Chairman Schultz returning as CEO. (2008, January 8). [Webpage] MSN.com. Retrieved http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22544023/ns/business-consumer_news/t/starbucks-chairman-schultz-returning-ceo/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

United Parcel Service UPS Strategic Alignment Model
Words: 6817 Length: 22 Document Type: Research Paper

United Parcel Service (UPS) Strategic Alignment Model Business Strategy United Parcel Service (UPS) is one of the leading shipment and logistic company admired for its cargo and package delivery services around the globe. The company has remained as one of the top-package delivery service providers because of the diversity of its services to the public. The company has enjoyed high profits because of the good brand image that it has attained in

United Parcel Service Competes Globally
Words: 727 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Paper

UPS has a culture that sizes intelligence and attempts to transform it into a service, which is one of the primary factors in their profitable performance despite a global economic recession. More and more manufacturers are turning to outsourcing to alleviate the higher costs of running supply chains, and UPS has been able to quickly benefit from this trend. Lessons learned in air freight optimization at UPS have also made

UPS United Parcel Service Porter's Five Forces
Words: 985 Length: 3 Document Type: SWOT

UPS (United Parcel Service) Porter's five forces Rivalry: there is intense competition within the courier industry. The stiff competition stems from the low number of firms in the industry. The major two competitors control almost sixty percent of the market share with the remaining minor competitors controlling the remaining percentage. Buyer power: the bargaining power of consumers in this industry is low. Producers have a tendency of threatening companies through forward integration. Producers

Fed Ex and United Parcel
Words: 2461 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

One global business mentioned in the report as a technology leader with high brand equity was at&T. Customer equity is that value of future business purchased by the customer based on brand equity, which in turn means consumer acceptance of the product, customer relationships and customer perception of the value. The postal service would encounter both retention and value problems and would be viewed as difficult to do business

Federal Express and United Parcel
Words: 552 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

There is a separate page for tracking shipments, packages, and delivery services through a "Log in" link. Apart from ensuring security, this feature also allows FedEx to keep track of its return customers and patrons, who usually use FedEx's services. The lack of security measures within the web site is a disadvantage for UPS. Not only do they compromise the confidentiality and security of important information that customers may

United States Steel Corp V.
Words: 2304 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Therefore, it meets the threshold requirement for limited safe haven. Moreover, the provision of medical services appears to fall under the qualifications of the SCM that services be a controlled service transaction or a group of transactions. This provision of services is not one of the prohibited services including manufacturing, production, extraction of mineral resources, construction, reselling, research and development, engineering, financial, or insurance. In United Parcel Service of America,

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now