Chapter 18 – Sales and Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion has spread widely with Starbucks throughout United States and other nations with hopes of motivating more customers to purchase, especially in times of economical hardships where people are less likely to purchase. The coffee company uses all kinds of different sales promotion. Coming in to Spring for example, Starbucks offered half-price frappuccinos from 3:00-5:00 pm, during Frappuccino Happy Hour  “No coupon is necessary. Just enjoy Frappuccino Happy Hour at all participating Starbucks! If you’d like daily reminders about this deal so you don’t miss a day, text HAPPY to 697289” Coming into the end of Summer Starbucks brought in the Treat Receipt purchasing a Starbucks drink before 2pm and come back the same day and get any handcrafted cold Grande (16 fl. oz.) beverage for $2.00. The coffee company gave away free coffee or samples of their new petites. Coupons or " Buy one and get one FREE" are frequently used strategies at Starbucks as well.

With the awareness of each customers "coffee habits" and each specifically chosen sales promotion, Starbucks shows its major customer related concern which is typical for the company. Starbucks simply knows its customers. This relationship is also reflected in personal selling. The staff at Starbucks is not only well trained in providing advice and information about the products, but they also know how to build good customer rapport with each individual. CEO Howard Schultz stated that the company does not believe that brand sustainability can be achieved only through advertising and sales promotion. How Starbucks builds its personal relationship to each customer is the company’s key, which makes thousands of them so loyal.

Free App cards at the counter of any Starbucks

Starbucks designed "My Rewards Cards" of welcome, green and gold especially for their loyal customers in order to make them even more loyal by benefiting them (Loyalty Marketing Program). The card is the use of a re-loadable Starbucks card with which a customer can collect stars. Once gold status is obtained after 30 stars, every 12 stars are collected; from there they can be converted food or beverage product in the store.

More info can be found at 

http://www.starbucks.com/card/rewards

If you vote, coffee is on them

Added for Chapter 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

Chapter 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

Ben Stiller in Meet the Fockers

Advertising is a key element of Marketing/Business. A new business needs to elevate itself in order to be noticed. Otherwise, it would pass sooner or later because of the lack of brand awareness. Advertisement attracts attention and brand recognition; more importantly it affects customers everyday by informing them about certain products, which affects their beliefs and attitudes towards the company. However, advertisement is quite important in the way we perceive a business. After a business established its clientele, not every business stresses importance of having a large advertisement budget.

Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality

Starbucks is one of those companies that do not follow aggressive advertisement strategies. Today, the coffee company mostly promotes itself through their logo and cups that have a high recognition value and are seen everywhere in NYC and all around the world. Moreover, the brand appearances not only in every day life but also in the Media and in association with celebrities, promotes the company subconsciously and free of charge.

Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail

Starbucks uses in store advertisement mainly for their products. They also have a seasonal media schedule where the company advertises a specific beverage that is more likely to be purchased during that specific season of the year, for example the "Pumpkin Spice Latte" which is highly marketed at the moment. Nonetheless, Starbucks is more concerned about institutional advertisement, to point out what Starbucks is about the experience.

Chapter 15 - Retailing

Starbucks is essentially a chain store as all the coffeehouses are owned and manage by the company. They have over 170 stores in NYC. Starbucks locates It’s stores at highly observable places or central points close to Bus or Subway Stations. The company also cooperates with other retail stores such as Macy’s to create brand recognition and sell their coffee. Starbucks licenses their brand for other drink and food companies to help build as they are a specialty retailer. Their mission statement involving customer service: “When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection.” Reflects a high level of the stores overall atmosphere and customer service.

I visited a Starbucks on 51 Astor Place. Located near 8^th Street  right outside the downtown 6 train (St Mark’s Place) the area has housed two Starbucks coffee shops until one closed recently. Students and late twenty to early thirty-something comprise the main clientele for this Starbucks. Nearby institutions such as The Cooper Union, NYU, and The New School provide a various mix of students, who use the coffee shop as a modified library. I ordered a standard medium roast coffee; the staff seemed genuinely friendly in taking my order as their coffee is already brewed so I did not have to wait on the other side of the counter. This Starbucks is especially large, by boasting lots of tables and few cushy armchairs. Although the building is old, it has been modified to include sunrooms on two sides.

While Starbucks’ corporate headquarters are in Seattle, NYC feels like the coffee chain’s second home, as there seemed to coffeehouses on every corer. There are lots of unique Starbucks throughout the five boroughs of New York.

Chapter 6 - Consumer Making Decision

The Consumer Decision Making Process is what most customers go through before endeavoring into new product or brand. For marketers it is key to note how the customer comes to its final decision- buying or not buying. The diagram below shows the single steps of that process. The depth of information gathered will vary from consumer to consumer. All these steps are depended on individual, social, cultural 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 intricate as it would be when buying a house or car. 

Values are an important factor when engaging the decision making process for example Americans place high value on convenience. As Starbucks is almost on every block in Manhattan and is among 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 no what kind of beverage the person might want until the customer 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 or having deals such as “buy before 2:00pm get $2 in the afternoon” and  "happy hours" to promote their coffee. The next stage is purchasing. Starbucks is a beverages company; it does not often happen where 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 or she stepped into the store. 

 

Overall, most of Starbucks customers are routine purchases. They know what they want and what they can expect from experience. That is a vital reason why most of the customers are satisfied with the product after the purchase.

Chapter 5 - Developing a Global Vision

The world’s largest coffee retailer, Starbucks has approximately 19,972 stores in 60 countries with just over 12,000 of those stores in the United States. Across the world, Starbuck sticks with its marketing plan and integration of global marketing standardization where globally standardized products to be sold the same way all over the world. This uniform production enables Starbucks to lower production and marketing costs and increase profits. Although some products may vary to adjust to local taste, in places for instance Asia, Middle East and parts of Europe there cafiteria food is more culturalizd. But in general Starbucks coffee is the same here as it is in any other country.

Starbucks enters the foreign market mainly through licensing arrangement’s or joint ventures with local retailers. Few of the international coffee houses are also owned or operated. The first international coffee house was launched in Japan with assistance of SAZABY Inc. in 1996. The company stays passionate about their relationships with the foreign market as they way they are in their own country. It is essential for Starbucks to carry their mission to be more than just a coffee house in the United States.

“Starbucks is dedicated to supporting communities around the world, where we live, where we work and in the countries where coffees are produced”

On a whole Starbucks as the worlds largest coffee house brand still accumulates most of their revenue from their national customers.