Business

Global Coffee consumption has increased steadily over time causing the coffee industry to become competitive because of the broad spectrum of brands. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is the oldest and privately held specialty coffee retailer in the United States. They were born and brewed in Brentwood California since 1963. Since there creation they been passionate about their products and maintaining loyal customers. Now Coffee Bean is faced with competitors such as Starbucks, Coca Cola and Red Bull that have built a loyal bond with consumers and maintain a large portion of market share. In order for Coffee Bean to remain competitive in a booming coffee industry they must increase their purchase rate, reevaluate their market strategy to further increase consumers, and reinvest in technology. Strategically Coffee Bean currently only supplies its products from retail stores in California and is looking to expand to Washington D.C., however with competitors such as Coca Cola and Starbucks that have invested in international markets the only logical step to maintain a competitive edge would be for Coffee Bean to expand its retail stores and products internationally. This paper will examine the research approach for a Strategic Plan for the international expansion of Coffee Bean, as well as examine the internal and external environmental analysis sources that will be used for this research proposal.

External Enviornmental Analysis

One of the factors that have to be taken into account in expanding an organization is the external environmental analysis. In researching the coffee industry gathering an Environmental analysis of the forces and trends in customer profiling provides sound knowledge of the demographics, personalities, and geographical areas , as well as, purchasing power and behaviors of customers, (Pearce & Robinson, 2011). By determining the competitive position of other coffee retailers within international markets will assists Coffee Bean in creating unique...