STRATEGY, POSITIONING & MANAGEMENT

Strategy, Positioning and Management



Strategy, Positioning and Management

Introduction

The business world of the modern day is ferociously competitive in nature. The success of a company depends upon its ability to outwit its competing firms. That's why the role of a company's management team is essential to its performance. Not only does it define the scope of its routine operations and work, but also the responsibilities binding on those people, who perform these (Parayani, 2010, 7). The most important task of management is to devise effective and efficient plans and strategies that help organizations achieve its mission and objectives. It is the job of the manager to run their department or unit in lines with the organization's overall approach. Proper and careful planning allows managers to set their own targets, and formulate programmes and guidelines for achieving them. These targets are actually derived from the organizational goals and hence, contribute to the overall performance of the company. A good organizational scheme ensures that the company enjoys considerable profit advantage over its rivals (Robbins &Stephen, 2004, 45). This is achieved through competitive marketing strategies aimed at increasing the firm's market share for its existing, as well as, new products, and constant growth of its customer base. Every industry adopts a different and unique business strategy to pursue its mission and goals, and to survive and develop in the competitive, global markets.

Costa Coffee is a worldwide chain of coffee based in Dunstable, UK. It is the one of the largest coffeehouse companies in the world, with about 1175 outlets in UK alone. The company entered the UK coffee shop market in 1971, and has been expanding as well as developing its expertise ever since. Being the market leader for the coffee shop industry, Costa has to continuously review its marketing strategy to stay on top of the market in the UK. The business continually needs to establish its evolving objectives and targets, as well as, define new directions to adjust to future trends and meet the ever-changing demands of its customers.

This report aims at presenting an outline of the strategies and action plans that Costa Coffee may adopt in order to avail any existing opportunities whilst avoiding any possible threats, identified in the previous report. The paper discusses the relevant theories and strategic choices, recommended for meeting the future challenges with efficiency and effectiveness.

Performance History of Costa Coffee

As mentioned earlier, Costa Coffee is the largest coffee shop chain in the UK. It serves one of the biggest clientele for any private firm in the world with millions of customers. Costa's sales figures too are one of the most impressive amongst the major global organizations, and the second highest in its respective industry after Starbucks (www.FoodBev.com). Costa Coffee has, over the years, pursued a strategy that attempts to offer value to the customer through quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. This has greatly benefitted the company for achieving high performance targets. Despite its success and ranking as one of the best coffeehouses ...