Starbucks Case Study

Over the past decades, Starbucks was able to create and spread an extremely strong brand by following a two-fold strategy: Building a personalised customer experience around serving quality coffee, followed by a rigorous expansion strategy into emerging markets, as well as new sales channels.

If you ask me, Starbucks is not about coffee, it’s about the experience it brings to its customers and the lifestyle it conveys: Unhurried sociability paired with efficiency on-the-run. No matter if you want to have a quick espresso before work, treat yourself with a Frappuccino after an important meeting or catch up with friends, the décor of the stores (ranging from comfortable couches to working desks) and their strategic store recurrences in urban hubs make it possible to include a Starbucks treat in everyone’s daily routine.

To enhance customer loyalty and a personalised experience, Starbucks’ focus on retaining satisfied and customer-oriented employees: Baristas do not just serve coffee, they engage with customers – visiting a Starbucks anywhere in the world feels like coming home to your Starbucks family. In addition, Starbucks heavily leverages its personalisation engine that aims to tailor services to its individual customers. No matter where in the world you drink your coffee, your Starbucks barista will know when it is your birthday and sponsor a free beverage. Building on this personalised journey, Starbucks’ immense social conscience (e.g., depicted by its sustainable sourcing of coffee beans) is conveyed to the customers in a subtle way, which makes them feel as they do something good for their local communities by drinking one Starbucks coffee a day. In today’s busy world, drinking a Starbucks coffee feels almost the same as sending a cheque to charity.

Upon establishing the Starbucks brand in the US, Starbucks soon expanded to other geographical regions, with particular success in APAC and especially China. In these rather unsophisticated coffee markets, Starbucks leveraged their longing for the Western coffee experience and was thus able to weigh off stagnating revenue growth from the US.

Despite of Starbucks’ success to create one of the most recognised brands in the world, the company currently faces some internal and external challenges, which it needs to resolve to continue its impressive success story.

Starbucks’s strategy to generate