Executive summary video

Coffee Quote of the Day #7

“Coffee is far more than a beverage. It is an invitation to life, disguised as a cup of warm liquid. It’s a trumpet wakeup call or a gentle rousing hand on your shoulder … Coffee is an experience, an offer, a rite of passage, a good excuse to get together.” ~ Nichole Johnson

Marketing Blend - Brand, positioning, and the four Ps

Brand and positioning

The Starbucks brand brings three basic values to consumers: great coffee, customer intimacy, and a unique atmosphere. Their coffee is brewed from the best quality beans, and if you’re not happy with it you can always change your cup. The staff tries to remember your name, and it’s written on your cup as well. As the coffee is sold at a premium price, the emotional experience the customer gets when journeying between the office and home is where the additional value comes from. Therefore, their brand is positioned to give more value to customers than competitors like Picnic and Robert’s Coffee at a premium price.

The four Ps

After examining the marketing approach Starbucks should take, let’s take a look at the proposed marketing mix for Starbucks. We’ve used the four Ps; price, product, promotion and place; to examine the different marketing aspects Starbucks needs to take into account.

Marketing Blend - Approach

How should Starbucks approach Finland, take a traditional or an adaptive approach to marketing? The traditional approach is fundamentally linear, starting with a brief, then developing the marketing material, after which it is sent out. Then performance is measured and reflected if the campaign worked or not. The project ends and the data gathered is used for the next campaign. Nevertheless, as consumers have changed, and with the world at their fingertips, information sources on products are increasing and consumers are becoming immune to traditional advertising.

Adaptive marketing, on the other hand, takes an iterative approach. The measurement system is always ‘on’, and performance based on marketing creativity is measured constantly. The end goal is known, and a team works towards it till they get there. The marketing mix is not an end itself, it’s a means to an end, a predetermined goal.

Entry Objectives

This post is divided into two categories, non-financial and financial objectives. The non-financial objectives include Starbucks experience, customer satisfaction and loyalty objectives. Financial objectives concentrates on figures and benchmarks its forecasted success in Finland.

Customer analysis: Positioning & Value Proposition

This article presents the second part of the STPV -framework, positioning and value proposition. First we look at how Starbucks should be positioned in Finland considering all that we've learned about the Finnish market and our customer segments. Then the exact value provided is discussed in detail.

Customer analysis: Segmentation & Targeting

This post goes through the first part of the  STPV -framework - segmentation and targeting. First, we provide basic guidelines for analyzing and categorizing our customer. In addition, we present customer profiles for  Subsequenly we choose a particular segment that we want to target as our primary customer group.

Coffee quote of the Day #6

"Coffee is the solution, who cares what the question is"

Company analysis: Market Approach

We approached the standardization vs. adaptation challenge with the Ansoff Matrix. Here is our conclusion.

The Ansoff Matrix, also known as Ansoff Product-Market Growth Matrix, was first proposed by Igor Ansoff and published in HBR in 1957. The matrix helps marketers consider alternative ways to grow their business via existing/new products in existing/new markets. 

There are four possible product/market combinations. In this post, we’ll look at the four strategies of the matrix and see which one is appropriate for Starbuck’s entry to Finland.

Company analysis: Hypothesis

When taking into account the younger coffee drinking community and the increased online information about brands, we’ve formed a hypothesis about the Starbucks brand in Finland. As it’s an American company, and as Finns already know how to drink coffee, the reason they go to Starbuck’s is to get the ‘American experience’. Finnish consumers want a taste from abroad, and that’s the attitude Starbucks should take when entering Finland. They’re something special from abroad, an ‘exotic’ brand.

Having done field research in their first store, we noticed that the majority of customers are teenagers drinking specialty coffees. Furthermore, the fact that they had already ran out of some of their specialty coffees such as the Caramel frappuccino supports our hypothesis. Finns can drink plain coffee at home, just like they have for decades, but they can't get that specialty coffee 'drink' anywhere else than Starbucks.

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Coffee Quote of the Day #5