Download Starbucks Advertising Campaign: Emphasizing Quality and Customer Experience and more Study notes Introduction to Business Management in PDF only on Docsity! Alex Lozowski Marketing BA 317 ARTICLES 2 AND 3 Starbucks is one of the most well‐known American chains, specializing in offering “premium” coffee along with great customer service. Although they pretty much dominate the overall US coffee market, other companies have begun to cross over and compete with Starbucks, such as Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s (who is planning on rolling out espresso machines to about 14,000 stores), who have begun to attack Starbucks with claims that their coffee is overpriced. Starbucks is running print ads in newspapers responding to these claims, choosing to stress the quality and “premium” positioning of their drinks. These ads start by getting a reader’s attention with large text on a canvas background, reminiscent of a bag of coffee. They use catchy phrases like “Beware of a cheaper cup of coffee. It comes with a price”, and all carry the tagline “It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks”. I feel like it’s good for catching attention, and while the ads are very text‐ reliant, they are having a test run in the New York Times, which has minimal graphics (unlike US News or a magazine like Time or Newsweek), so the consumers will still be drawn to the ads. The ads increase consumer interest by focusing on differentiation, how consumers come to have the “Starbucks Experience” of a friendly barista, and customized drinks made consistently nationwide, not just grab a cup of stale drip and go. The canvas background is a nice touch, serving to remind consumers of coffee. I feel like the simplicity of the ads doesn’t really work well towards the Interest stage in the AIDA model, rather, they work more towards desire. The experience of being inside a Starbucks is something they would like consumers to think of as special, and it is working. Lots of people I know go to Starbucks because they like the atmosphere. Desire is a big part of this campaign, focusing on differentiation. While they haven’t adopted a trial promotion for this, they have responded to McDonald’s’ attacks by lowering prices on some of their drinks, which I see as weak, more conceding to the point of the attacks as opposed to confronting them like the ads. There is a lot of evaluation in this campaign, as it is stressing its quality and status; along with the advertisements Starbucks is starting a long‐term “story‐telling” program, giving consumers the opportunity to share their version of the “Starbucks Experience”.” We still have to see how well this ad works at drawing customers. I don’t know whether they are targeting the right market for these ads, they have lost 7.6% in sales from 2008, and maybe it WOULD be better to lower prices rather than focus on premium positioning during a recession. This campaign only started this month, so maybe it will be just what Starbucks needs to gain those sales back.
