Swot Analysis

The Key to Starbucks Success

The Key to Starbucks Success

Getting out of bed each morning with the promise of morning coffee or an afternoon pick me-up are vital aspects of the day for many people, offering a reason to step outside, take a break, and rejuvenate while getting a coffee drink. Over the past decades Starbucks has made the impossible into possible, the unbelievable into believable, and the unusual into usual, by creating a loyalty base of customers who require their products to ease their caffeine cravings, at any price. The idea of coffee being an affordable luxury is thanks to the Starbucks aesthetic, execution, and increased mainstream acceptance of their products regardless of pricing. The attractiveness of Starbucks Italian style coffees and espresso beverages transformed Starbucks into one of the great retailing stories of recent history and the world’s biggest specialty coffee chain (Shah, et al., 2006). Starbucks displays a extraordinary growth story over the past decades, developed in consumer retail, this paper will evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats called a SWOT analysis to reveal the company continues to have a lot of promise in the long term future.

Starbucks evolved from a nine-store business in the Pacific Northwest into a multinational enterprise (Shah, et al., 2006). Cynics had mocked the idea of three-dollar coffee as a phase. Nonetheless, Starbucks management team has built a strong brand image that has become a global coffee brand constructed by a reputation for their quality products and services (Shah, et al., 2006). Starbucks success can be attributed to innovation, risk taking, and the ability to adapt their vision of who it was, what it did, and where it was headed. Since their IPO in 1992, Starbucks has continually focused on growth (Shah, et al., 2006). Originally, the growth was meant to provide Starbucks the chance to reach their goal of being the foremost retailer of...