Question

the company is Starbucks. Try to identify Indicators of Starbucks Competitive position. Does the company appears to have a competitive advantage? Use company data and figures to answer the question.

Answer 1

Starbucks Corporation is a coffeehouse chain and USA based company. The company is running coffee shops/stores and their competitive strategy is product differentiation, its international growth and expansion strategy. The differentiation strategy is for the products where company can make more profit by differentiating its products from its competitors. The product differentiation strategy is highly effective for the food products like coffee where customers want a different experience and ready to pay higher prices for quality products. There are many coffee chain shops in the market which are giving the consumers a different experience of coffee with more verities and more number of options. Purchasing coffee from grocery stores was completely different experience for customers than drinking coffee from these coffee shops where branding became more important. Strong market position and global brand recognition are strengths of Starbucks as they have more than 30% market share in the USA and has operations in more than 60 countries in the world. Therefore Starbucks by differentiating through the product their coffee shops are able to make a mark in its consumers mind and they are visible in crowd. They are also using technology in very effective manner which helps them to operate the stores more efficiently with coordinating with suppliers and maintaining customers. The customers details, their product’s preferences and feedbacks can be stored the data system and analyzed for future business strategy. Starbucks has competitive advantage by differentiated its product in the eyes of their loyal customer and they are trying to be continuously competitive in the indrustry.