Starbucks #1

Starbucks can sustain growth by continuing the development of the Starbucks brand image and by increasing its presence in different markets. Starbucks is growing very rapidly and is consistently evaluating new opportunities in its domestic and international retail markets, new specialty sales partners, penetration in the grocery channel and the future potential of its mail order business. As a result, Starbucks should leverage its resources and capabilities and exploit both cost advantages and differentiation advantages …

…role of social and psychological factors allows Starbucks to delve into customers' underlying motivations. Conversely, on the supply-side, Starbucks can use its complimentary services as a means of differentiation. Additionally, Starbucks adds supply-side differentiation by focusing on the quality of its inputs through extracting three different samples of coffee from every shipment of 250 bags. Finally, rather than franchising store locations, Starbucks adds differentiation by owning all of its retail outlets other than host licensing arrangements.