Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Big Brother will take over...



Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20,891 stores in 62 countries, including 13,279 in the United States, 1,324 in Canada, 989 in Japan, 851 in the People's Republic of China, 806 in the United Kingdom, 556 in South Korea, 377 in Mexico, 291 in Taiwan, 206 in the Philippines, 179 in Turkey, 171 in Thailand, and 167 in Germany.

Whichever the country Starbucks enters, takes over the coffee business. That is what happened in all those 62 countries. For them it is not difficult to be in leading position.  They have knowledge, info-structure, marketing power, and of course name. It is estimated that the company is worth about 35 billion dollars as of September of 2012.
 
They have very homey decoration in their stores, and definitely consistency. When you order, you know what you will get in all those 62 countries and 20,891 stores. Their logistic system is working very well. And they train their employee.
I know there are as many Starbucks lover, as non-Starbucks lover. But will not be the point here in Colombia. Juan Valdez educated people in Colombia about coffee until now. And now big brother time, with their marketing tactics, charming stores, many different food selections, they will create big treat to Juan Valdez.


Starbucks locations serve hot and cold beverages, whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee, full-leaf teas, pastries, and snacks. Most stores also sell packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and items such as mugs and tumblers. Starbucks Evenings locations also offer a variety of beers, wines, and appetizers after 4pm. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company also markets books, music, and film. Many of the company's products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. 

Some of their marketing strategies are not nice especially for their competitions but this is a business world at the end. Starbucks has used to expand and maintain their dominant market position, including buying out competitors' leases, intentionally operating at a loss, and clustering several locations in a small geographical area, have been labeled anti-competitive by critics. For example, Starbucks fueled its initial expansion into the UK market with a buyout of Seattle Coffee Company, but then used its capital and influence to obtain prime locations, some of which operated at a financial loss. Critics claimed this was an unfair attempt to drive out small, independent competitors, who could not afford to pay inflated prices for premium real estate.

And let’s not forget; people just not know Starbucks, they are member of Starbucks. In the US market you can find customers who visit Starbucks several times a day. It is not same in out of the US but for example in Chile and Turkey you can find customers daily basses visit Starbucks.

Conclusion; accepting Starbucks to Colombia will end Juan Valdez lead in Coffee Market in Colombia. Basically Starbucks will take over the lead.



Some of the data has been collected from Wikipedia. Original Wikipedia article is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks