Starbucks

International Business Management

In 700 words, answer the following questions:

Read this blog:

http://www.thechinaexpat.com/starbucks-in-china-shanghai-branches/

What changes would you make to Starbucks to appeal to the Chinese?  If the Chinese drink tea, what does Starbucks have to appeal to Chinese tea drinkers?

Starbucks Coffee International (SCI) entered the Greater China market in 1998 with the opening of its first store in Taipei, Taiwan. The first Starbucks store located in mainland China was opened in Beijing in January 1999. Since then, the interest in and appreciation of high-quality arabica coffee, personalized handcrafted beverages and the unique Starbucks Experience offered in Starbucks locations in China has grown rapidly among Chinese consumers. As of the end of 2010, there are more than 750 Starbucks locations throughout Greater China, a region including the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Starbucks has been successful in introducing and developing a unique coffeehouse experience in Greater China. The company shares its coffee passion and expertise with customers in China by encouraging them to sample, savor and enjoy its premium coffee. The human connection has been and continues to be a hallmark of Starbucks, with partners (employees) working to strengthen that relationship within and outside Starbucks stores by participating in programs such as the Green Long March – China’s largest youth conservation movement.

Starbucks is betting that it can convert the Chinese into coffee drinkers: from leaves to beans. Banking on a new coffee culture in a traditionally tea drinking country, Starbucks plans to triple its stores in China by 2015. The coffee industry in China has huge potential. China has 5,000 years as a tea-drinking country, but they’ve created a new coffee culture.

The Chinese coffee drinking market is still relatively small and Chinese consumers have to drink a lot of coffee before they can catch up to...