Customer Oriented Communication

Customer Oriented Communication

Introduction

Businesses strive towards success through bringing brand and customer loyalty to their products which ultimately results in long term customer relationships and increased profits. Today, most of the companies are focused towards customer retention and applies different strategies in order to retain the customer for its continued use of the particular company's product. Starbucks is one shop that uses its communication activities to retain a good loyal customer base. Communication activities play very important role in enhancing services and thereby increasing the sales of services/products. Marketing is also done through communication. It involves various types of communication strategies to satisfy the demands of a customer and promote the business. Starbucks employs customer oriented communication for both reasons, to attract more business using business communication and to win the hearts of the customers and thereby, win a good and loyal client base (Hennig, 2000). A customer wants to be dealt well and is valued through proper care given to him when he wants to purchase the product. In this paper we are going to discuss about the effects of proper customer oriented communication and how Starbucks gets benefited through customer oriented communication.

Discussion

Starbucks and its Working Domain

Starbucks was founded in Seattle in the year 1970. It all started with the sale of freshly ground coffee to local fans of the drink. In 1982, the CEO of Starbucks Howard Mark Schultz saw an unfilled niche cafe for coffee connoisseurs. Seizing this opportunity as a basis to strategy of market penetration, Starbucks has created a loyal customer base in Seattle. According to its strategy for the next stage of development of the market growth of Starbucks was to open stores throughout the Pacific coast of the United States, continuing with all of North America, and finally around the world with the ability to work with local companies. Next Starbucks set a target to increase revenue from the already existing customers. Product development strategy envisaged that related products, including CDs and lifestyle magazine “Joe”. Following this, Starbucks continued its strategy of diversification, coming to the shelves of supermarkets with their bottled coffee drink “Frappucino” and ice cream “Starbucks”, as well as buying firm Tazo Tea - tea retailer.

Figure 1: Photograph of a branch of Starbucks Coffee

Among its priorities, company cares for social responsibilities, such as assistance to small coffee producers in developing countries. First Vice President of Starbucks emphasizes that "corporate social responsibility increases the value of any company" - words that want to be heard by both customers and suppliers, and shareholders (Voteforus.com , 2012). Starbucks has a current position on the niche selling quality coffee roasted on site, with a very popular tasting environment. The design of the place is aesthetically appealing with a very soothing ambiance, so that guests feel comfortable and enjoy their time in shop. Today, they offer many choices between several types of coffees, in the selection of milk, type of presentation, toppings and methods of blending. Starbucks specializes in coffee, and is currently ...