The Starbucks experience

I’m currently sat in a Starbucks coffee shop enjoying a nice coffee and making use of their wifi. It’s got me thinking about the Starbucks phenomena and what strategy they have adopted in terms of growing their business.

It’s an interesting approach and whilst it undoubtedly has been very successful there are commentators that would argue that Starbucks is caught between various approaches.

There are numerous areas of the syllabus which we can link with Starbucks.

To the man on the street, when Starbucks first opened it was different and arguably felt like a very “differentiated approach” (Porter’s generic strategies) to drinking coffee. It served great coffee in a relaxed atmosphere. Good music was played and it felt like a special treat to drink coffee in a select coffee shop.

Their growth plans largely involved a classic market expansion whereby they expanded an existing product into new markets. There are now over 15,000 stores in nearly 50 countries.

They have however had some problems. Last year, they announced that they would close 300 underperforming stores in addition to the 600 closures they announced the year before.

Some people have argued that the expansion of Starbucks resulted in it feeling less “special” and as a result consumers were less willing to pay a premium price for what many felt was a standard product. Was it a case of over-expansion? One memorable headline in the US magazine “The Onion” joked that “New Starbucks Opens in Rest Room of Existing Starbucks”!

Whatever the outcome of their strategy, one thing for sure is that their coffee is nice but not quite as nice as their muffins!