MARKETING

Marketing



Marketing

Every organziation markets its products and set a competitive positioning for them in order to attain the economies of scale. Marketing a product or service refers to the process of creating a product, planning and education pricing, promotion and product placement, and promotion of its purchase, where the buyer and seller receive some benefit. The main aim of marketing is to perform the necessary sales efforts with a purpose of learning and understanding the customer so that the product or service closely match their requirements and sell them.

This paper will highlight and elaborate upon many aspects of marketing for the Starbucks coffee. It aims upon discussing the customer value, application of marketing processes, the marketing mix and other elements of the marketing process on the product.

Starbucks Coffee

Starbucks Corporation is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. It is one of the largest coffeehouse company across the globe, and has 19,972 stores functioning in over 60 countries, which include 1,273 in Canada, 12,937 in the United States, 790 in Great Britain, 971 in Japan, 453 in South Korea, 657 in China, 276 in Taiwan and 356 in Mexico (Starbucks, 2010). The company produces and sells espresso-based hot drinks, drip brewed coffee, coffee beans, other cold and hot drinks, snacks, cold and hot panini and sandwiches, sweet pastries, salads, and items such as tumblers and mugs (Starbucks, 2010). Not only this, but with the help of the Hear Music brand and Starbucks Entertainment division, the other segments of the company being marketed include the music, books and film. The company sells many of its products that are seasonal or particular to the location of any of its store. A large number of grocery stores also offer the Starbucks-brand coffee and ice cream.

The Company has witnessed a quick growth from the founding of Starbucks in other shapes in Seattle as a local retailer and coffee bean roaster. The first store of the Starbucks was opened up in the United States in 1990, and other stores outside Canada or US opened up later during the mid-1990s.

Customer Value

Before targeting any potential customers, it is essential for the companies to understand and correctly interpret the values that its customers are looking for. For this purpose, there are four utilities which are used to build up the customer values for any product. They include the functionality, time, place and ease of possession. Starbucks fulfill these four functionalities in order to create the customer value in the following manner:

Functionality

The products of Starbucks satisfy the customer's requirements and needs on all the tangible aspects of such as its aesthetics, comfort, durability, and atmosphere of the place. At the coffeehouses, it provides the customers music, and entertainment along with the menu cards to enable them the ease of choosing the products of their own selection. In order to keep a good ambiance, the coffeehouses make use of the loft-like, bright, light-filled spaces disrupted with the furniture that is regionally inspired and made up of ...