Ch.6 Consumer Decision Making

The "Consumer Decision-Making Process" is what every single customer goes through before trying out a new product or brand. It is quite essential to know how the customer comes to its final decision- buying or not buying.

Consumer Decision Making Process

This Exhibit shows the single steps of that process. Of course, not everybody will have the same need nor information.All these steps are depended on cultural, social, individual and psychological factors.

The effort- and time investment depends on what the customer wants to purchase. More time and effort will be invested on more expensive goods. Since Starbucks sells beverages and food, the decision making process is not as complex as it would be when buying a house or car. 

The first stage that would lead a costumer into a Starbucks store is the need recognition of coffee. Since Starbucks belongs to one of the top coffee brands, people will automatically think of the company when it comes to satisfy the need. 

Because Starbucks belongs to the low-involvement product purchases, the customer does not exactly know what kind of beverage the person might want until he/she gets into the store.Therefore, Information search takes place while being at the store. The coffee brand provides in store promotion by eye catching advertisement of popular or new products (drinks or food) or having programs such as "one free coffee day" / "happy hours" to promote their coffee.

After being in one of Starbucks coffee houses, the customer will quickly notice the unique ambient that the store offers. Starbucks comes out on top when it involves alternative evaluation most of the time because of their unique "experience". Starbucks is able to build up human contact through their employees. Those try to make the customer feel good about being at Starbucks. Not for nothing Starbucks is considered as a high prestige-brand.

The next stage is purchasing. Starbucks is a beverages company, it does not happens all to often that a customer walks in because of the desire of coffee, but walks out without a cup. In most cases, the customer already decided to purchase by the time he/she stepped into the store. 

Overall, most of Starbucks customers are retained. They know what they want and what they can expect from experience. That is one major reason why most of the customers are satisfied with the product after the purchase ( Purchase evaluation). Furthermore, because of Starbucks great amount of loyal customers, the Consumer Making process is irrelevant. It is basically reduced to two stages: need recognition and purchase.

Ch.5 Developing a Global Vision

" To create distinctive Starbucks experience in the face of rapid growth "

Starbucks is the worlds largest coffee retailer with 5,500 stores in 50 different countries in the world. 11,o68 stores are placed in the US - it leads to a total store number of almost 16 600 stores.
Throughout the whole world, Starbucks sticks with it common goals and company culture ( Global marketing standardization/"One product,One Message Marketing Mix"), while product offerings are modified to local taste. For instance, Starbucks in Germany does not offer the exact same breakfast items that are offered in the US simply because bagels or some other items are not typical for breakfast in Germany.
Starbucks enters the foreign market mostly through licensing arrangement's or joint ventures with local retailer. Some of the international coffee houses are also company owned or operated. The first international coffee house were launched in Japan with the help of a Japanese retailer SAZABY.INC in 1996.
The company is concerned about their international neighborhoods just the way they are in their own country. It is highly important for Starbucks to carry their "mission"- to be more than just a coffee house - out of the US.

“We remain highly respectful of the culture and traditions of the countries in which we do business. We recognize that our success is not an entitlement, and we must continue to earn the trust and respect of customers every day.” Howard Schultz

Additionally, the company committed themselves to support their international communities with "Starbucks- Shared Planet" .

"Starbucks is dedicated to supporting communities around the world – where we live, where we work and in the countries where our coffees are produced."

Overall, Starbucks as the world largest coffee house brand still earns the most of their revenues and positive feedback from their native costumers. One major point that hinders many consumers to buy at Starbucks  overseas is the high price that the company charges. For example in Germany people have to pay for a small Frappuccino  4 Euros which is almost 6 US Dollar. The same Frappuccino cost in the US 4 Dollar.

Ch.4 The marketing Enviornment

Starbucks severs a variety of people everyday. From toddlers who enjoys to eat a vanilla scone to an old lady who drinks her fresh brewed coffee - people of all different ages can be seen at Starbucks.

The company primarily tried to target men and women in the age of 25 - 40 who are well educated, affluent and hip in order to symbolize Starbucks' status of being a high quality brand. Over the years Starbucks realized though that the actual target market is younger and less educated as foreseen. Starbucks consumer are to 45 % adults in the age of 25 - 50 years with relatively high income and professional careers. The coffee house attracts those by their modern design and high class image. 40 % of the customers are young adults in the age of 18 - 25 who are primarily students who use the place to hang out, study, serve online or just gather. Starbucks appeals to young people mostly because of their young and cool visualization that they create through the right promotion such as concentrating on social network and new technologies. Kids and teens are the rest of Starbucks main customers who takes over approximately 15% of the target segment. These customers are mainly attracted to Starbucks milk shakes and pastries. They usually come with their parents or use Starbucks to study or hang out.

Overall, Starbucks represents a diversity of customers whose lifestyle and origin can hardly be classified since the profession does not longer delimit it.

Ch.3 Ethics & Social Responsibility

Ethics defines what is right or wrong. Business ethics relates to an individual's or company's decisions that society defines as right or wrong. Regarding to Starbucks, the mission statement shows that the company's work and business ethnics is based on " respect and dignity" not only to their stakeholder, partners and employee's but also to the community.


"At Starbucks, we have always aspired to be known as much for our commitment to social responsibility as we are for the quality of our coffee."


Starbucks set a high value on being a good neighbor to the community which also can be clearly seen in the Starbuck's mission statement ("Every store is part of a community, and we take our responsibility to be good neighbors seriously."). According to Starbucks, being a good neighbor considers "Bringing people together, inspiring change and making a difference in people's lives". For more than 10 years now, the company is greatly involved in a variety of environmental and community beneficial work all around the world, it became a part of the so called " responsible business practice". Starbucks started their journey towards their social responsibility by developing ways to reduce environmental impact of their stores. Since that time, the coffee brand has been doing important moves regarding their social responsibility. With " Starbucks - Shared Planet" the coffee company committed to dedicate their business to ways that are beneficial to the world - shareholders, farmers, workers, customers,neighbors and mother nature- by identifying three specific areas of improvement:  

• ethical sourcing -> responsible growing practice read more
• environmental stewardship -> reducing environmental impact and read more
• community involvement -> community service programs read more

[Recent updates to the "responsible business practice" can be viewed at http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility]

Furthermore, Starbucks announced to embed these values throughout their entire business, which includes company strategy, business practice and operation. They also try to involve the community by requesting their ideas and opinions ( Co Creation).

Ch.2 Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Starbucks wants to distinguish themselves from other coffee houses presenting  their unique selling point which is the rich "experience" that goes beyond a cup of good coffee. Starbucks clearly positions themselves as an upsale brand that offers way more than just coffee. As the mission statement denoted, Starbucks is about the human connection. It targets students, workers, neighbors and all kinds of social classes to gather and have a cup of high quality coffee in a cozy and relaxing environment. Starbucks has left their business competitors way behind by identifying themselves as unique and valuable ( Product/service differentiation competitive advantage).

To provide the rich "experience" the marketing plan involves offering a place where customers like to get together other than their homes. Starbucks is taking care of that by supplying a inviting and comfortable ambiance with their comfortable furniture, relaxing music and other features such as free access to wireless internet, handicapped access, free books, etc. 

Additionally, Starbucks concentrates on strategy alternatives. The coffee house is always up to date by constantly creating seasonal custom-made beverages. It promotes prepaid and member cards called Duetto card and Gold card. They enlarge their line by selling their products to other grocery stores or restaurants. Also, the fact that Starbucks is the biggest coffee brand in the international market, benefits the company already in terms of competition.

The company has been able to convince their customers that Starbucks is more
than just coffee. Since the coffee house maintains a unique venue plus high quality products, it allows them to charge more for their products than their competitor such as Dunkin Donuts, MC Donald's, etc. for the same product. Therefore, Starbucks is known as a luxury coffee brand that gives many costumers a feeling of extravagance by simply holding a Starbucks cup.