Starbucks, the coffee shop retail chain, started out from a single shop back in 1971 and has now grown to a market leading 15,000 outlets in over 52 countries. As the years have gone by Starbucks has always considered more innovative methods of marketing to improve its profits and global market standing.
It has broadened its choice of food and drink products on offer and even started selling CDs. In many countries they have made Wi-Fi available for wishing to sup coffee and surf online at the same time.
The headquarters are based in Seattle and it is from here the company began and few would have thought that 41 years on from its humble beginnings the company would offer a free app for users to download so they can pay for the goods and products purchased in its outlets.
Recently the company began offering larger helpings of its popular espresso coffee, all of which was done so without raising the price consumers pay. It had also relaunched its latte to include extra espresso. The thinking behind this strategy was that if consumers spoke about the “measly portions of espresso or latte” when drinking in a Starbucks chain it may drive customers to try out other competition.
An advertising campaign was also launched to pre-empt the strategy including launching a social media page on Facebook and separating an idea of having several Twitter accounts allowing the many media outlets to advertise for free. Special bonus offers even encouraged users to sample the latte for free in a hope that once they tried out the coffee and enjoyed its surroundings they would be encouraged to buy some of the products whilst in store.
The company were also keen not to upset its regular lovers of the ordinary latte by continuing to offer this product in addition to the new espresso laced version.
There are bold plans for Starbucks to increase its marketing strategy in Europe. Recently a meeting of over 360 high ranking managers met a conference in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam. It was agreed that they would increase the outlets in the United Kingdom from the existing 700 to around 1,100 within five years.
The boldest marketing move the coffee shop has implemented is the selling of beer and wine in some of its US-based outlets. The move is thought to be a consideration for UK outlets as pubs are closing at the rate of seven per week in the UK.