Developing A Marketing Plan For Starbucks To Increase Product Range For Kids And Teens

Organisational Objectives

The report is focused on developing a marketing plan for Starbucks in order to increase the different types of product range to the company. It can be said that the company is now targeting the kids below 18 years of age as their regular customer base. The company has noticed the fact that the children are coming to the stores at regular intervals in order to drink he regular drinks that are available for the adults. The case study depicts the fact that there are different products that are sold by the competitors of Starbucks like Barista. The marketing plan will not only focus on the promotion of the new genre of products but also it will promote the brand equity of Starbucks among their new target customers. The marketing plan of the company will focus on different types of activities such as organizational objectives, SWOT analysis, risk objectives, marketing opportunities, marketing strategies, resources and capabilities, marketing mix along with the action plan of the different resource capabilities of the company. The company is having many product lines that are being criticized into different types of food critic department that will have to be revised in the marketing plan.

Starbucks is a multinational organization that has its locations in many parts of the world. The company has many famous product lines and is considered under family venue or restaurant. The marketing plan of the company will induce the organizational objectives like

• Inclusion of the children of below 18 years of the age along with the inclusion of new drinks to the new target customers that will meet the demands of the teens or kids.
• The organization must improve the quality of the products along with the different types of the measurements regarding the reduced rate of carbohydrates and calorie to the company (Vásquez and Escamilla 2014).

Apart from that, the organization has many other organizational objectives that will be included within the new organizational objectives of the company. There is a fact that the company has to redefine their product lines along different types of age groups. The new marketing plan will adhere to these marketing goals and objectives in order to increase their sales of their products as well as the improved brand equity among the teens and the kids who are the new target segments of the company. The marketing strategies with their proper implementation plan will be discussed in details (Wirtz and Lovelock 2016).

It can be said that there will be potential risks that will be related to the organizational objectives. The risks will be evident as the new genre of products will be targeting the kids. Hence, the calories of the new drinks along with the components of the foods will be an aspect of risk in the different types of new drinks that will be launched by the company. The supervision of the children regarding their new products must be maintained in a proper way otherwise the reputation of the company will be at risk. The risks have to be put emphasis so that the success of the company in their new marketing plan will be successful (Yan and Yazdanifard 2014).

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analyses of Starbucks are defined below:

• Starbucks is known for its high quality products.
• Starbucks has new varieties of pastries, coffees and non-caffeinated beverages as well as personalization of perceptual innovations.
• The company has a well supply chain management system.
• The employees are well trained and have right ethical values.
• Most of the outlets are located in strategic location worldwide (Taecharungroj 2016).

• Starbucks sells products which are expensive as it is a premium coffee brand.
• Starbucks has high employee turnover.
• It is selling unhealthy products that are of high calorie oriented.
• The standardization of the products does not meet the cultural differences in its operational strategies.
• The quality of coffee is not as good as the reputation of the company (Strauss 2016).

• Starbucks will launch new products or make new alliance or co-branding with the other competitors.
• The company is constantly capturing new markets along with the new distribution channel.
• Starbucks has targeted teens and kids as their new target customers.
• It has a strong brand image and high brand equity among the new target customers (Schlegelmilch 2016).

• Growing competition of the new coffee brands along with the stiff competition among the prices of the same categories of products.
• Self cannibalism is another threat of the company.
• Dependency of the company towards the fluctuating coffee prices.
• Loss of sales due to the availability of the substitute products (Sheriff, Ismail, Bakar and Damain 2016).

It can be said that Starbucks is a multinational company that has its presence over 25,000 locations across the world. It can be also pointed out that amongst the presence of many competitors of the same sector Starbucks has managed to maintain its reputation and strong brand image among its target customers. The company has its stores and retail chains of its different brands such as Eths Water, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Teavana, Tazo, Hear Music, Torrefazione Italia, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange Bakery, etc. over different parts of the world (Taecharungroj 2016). However, it can be said that the company has adopted various entry modes depending on many factors such as firm specific factors, country specific factors, industry specific factors, etc. The modes of entry that Starbucks includes joint venture, licensing, majority owned and fully owned. In Australia, Thailand, etc. the company has majority owned retail outlets. Countries like South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Israel, Japan, Hong Kong, Greece, Germany, France, Austria, etc. have joint venture. Starbucks has adopted licensing in the countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Philippines, Middle East, etc (Turban, Strauss and Lai 2016).

The marketing strategies that will be used by the company in order to meet the above mentioned organizational objectives are the modification of the existing strategies of Starbucks as well as formulation of new strategies. The marketing strategies that the company will adopt in order to develop the marketing plan are discussed in the following.

• Starbucks can do competitor analysis in order to check the types of products that the rival companies are selling in order to develop new products for the kids and teens as their new target customers (Sheriff et al. 2016).
• It has to be also check the amount of calories and other criteria in order to formulate the new products for the kids and teens.
• The company will adopt promotional plans that will especially focus the teens and the kids in the target market.
• Promotional offers will be formulated so that they can attract more teens towards their stores (Steenkamp  2017).
• The company must have to adhere to the regulations of the food and health department that will help to increase the brand image as their other food products are highly calorie oriented.
• The company in the world market will influence all the kids and teens in order to taste their product so that they can earn more revenue as well as higher brand reputation (Strauss 2016).

The resource capabilities include different types of financial, physical and human resource capabilities of the company. The resources and capabilities of Starbucks include both the tangible and intangible assets of the company.  The intangible assets of the company include company reputation, higher employee retention, improved customer service, marketing strategy, customer loyalty, and strong relationships with the distributors along with the distributors and suppliers, stakeholders, etc (Qian and Xing 2016). The resource and capabilities of the different types of the resources and capabilities include location, channels of distribution, brand and reputation, etc. The budget that will be allocated to the marketing of the products of the company is $80,000. All the campaigns will be performed under the provided budget so that they can target the marketing goals and objectives (Schlegelmilch 2016).

The case study portrays the fact that the company is now targeting a new segment of customers that are focused on developing new drinks for the kids and the teens in order to attract them as their regular form of customer base. The company will develop its new product development department that will be focused to the new target customers along with the levels of calories (Magnusson et al. 2013). Following this consideration, the marketing mix of Starbucks will be formulated in order to fulfil the organizational objectives. However, the marketing mix of Starbucks is described below:

Marketing Strategies

It can be said that Starbucks has many food and beverage items under the range of Coffee, handcrafted beverages, fresh food items, Starbucks Ice Cream, Ready to Drink, consumer products, merchandise, along with many features, variety, standard quality, packaging, services, design, and variety.

The new products for the kids include various fruity flavoured frappuccinos, flavoured milk preparations, smoothies, hot chocolate beverages, etc. The products are for the kids and the teens (Palmer, Simmons and Mason 2014).

Pricing strategies of Starbucks include premium pricing that is taking advantage of the strategies that will be of capturing the behavioural tendency of the people of buying coffee from it. But however, Starbucks in this context can use competitive pricing so that the children can buy their products. The prices of the products must not be kept low so that they can feel that the quality is low and the products are cheap (Harrington et al. 2017).

The places of the availability of the products are cafes of Starbucks, in the online stores, websites, Starbucks applications, etc. The new products should be available in all the stores of the company as well as in the online websites.

Promotional campaigns of Starbucks include public relations, advertising, sales promotion, digital promotions, in store promotions, magazine advertisements, print ads, sponsorships, etc. in a way so that it can reach the target customers i.e. kids and teens (Davari and Strutton 2014).

The marketing strategy will be commenced within 10 months of time. The different activities of the promotional campaign will be completed within 10 months of time with different people associated with the company. People associated with the company in the promotional campaigns are digital marketers, marketing manager, different types of sales persons, advertisement managers, etc (Babin and Zikmund 2015). The action plan will be responsible for the different plans of the marketing. The table in the following will be describing the whole promotional campaign of Starbucks. The aim of the marketing campaign of the company is responsible for the increased sales of the company (Berman 2016).

Marketing campaigns	1st month	2nd month	3rd month	4th month	5th month	6th month	7th month	8th month	9th month	10th month
Television advertisements
Digital campaigns
Magazine ads
Sponsorships
In store promotion
Website promotion

Goals, targets and Action items
Objective 1: Increase sales
Objective 2: build brand awareness
Objective 3: Improve the stakeholder relationship
Objective 4: Enhance the customer relationship
Programs and initiatives	KPIs and Action items	Target Timeframes
Program :
Increase the marketing and review pricing strategy	·         Identify the top customers ·         Identify the top prospects ·         identify the top team members ·         Create plan of the attack ·         Generate publicity ·         Build the brand ·         Build the network ·         Refine the plan ·         Rewards the employees	2 to 4weeks
Initiative:
New client acquisition	·         Make new client acquisition ·         Make new opportunities	2 weeks
New opportunity acquisition	·         Provide the clients new opportunities	3 weeks
Increase profitability	·         Focus on sales ·         Focus on the customers ·         Focus on the needs of the customers	3-4 weeks

Table 1: Marketing performance review strategy

(Source: Shields et al. 2015)

Starbucks targets to the children of the age below 12 as the children like the products of Starbucks. However, most of the children spend their money on Starbucks. The caffeine products and tea is not good for the health of the children.  Wei, Samiee and Lee (2014) mentioned that Sawbucks is the premium quality coffee provider. They provide the adult people a place in between their homes and workplace where they can relax. Starbucks tries to meet the ethical and legal requirements of the business ethics. Starbucks maintain the Ethics and Compliances, as it is the backbone of the financial status of Starbucks. Starbucks maintain the local and international legal and ethical requirements. They operate within the legal framework of the respective countries. With this, they try to maintain the international norms and standards, which help them in their progress. In case of the marketing planning for the children, they are vulnerable, therefore Starbucks need to be more careful about their services and products (Leonidou et al. 2013). As the children and adolescents spend much amount of money in the foods and beverages industry, it is necessary to maintain the legal and ethical requirements minutely. Therefore, Starbucks does not have any ethical and legal issues.

Resource Capabilities

The main potential stakeholders of the Starbucks are employees, customers, suppliers, environment, investors, and governments. Starbucks gives priority to the employees so that they can provide their important view in the marketing plan. This helps to develop the corporate responsibility of the organization. Customers are other important stakeholders (Baker 2014). The customers show their interest in the quality of the services and products. Customers are important as their high response towards the company helped to gain more profit and reputation. Moreover, the cust6omers help the organization to develop the marketing plan of Starbucks. They help to develop the CSR of the company. Another important stakeholder for the marketing plan is the suppliers. They have the responsibility of the wholesale supply firms as well as the coffee farmers. For the growing demand of the Starbucks, the suppliers have the key role. Hence, they are the important stakeholders for the marketing plan. Starbucks need to address the investors as they provide the high financial performance of Starbucks (Zeriti et al. 2014). They need to address the government so that they can avoid the ethical and legal issues.

Various steps are there to develop and manage the budget to meet the organizational objectives. The steps are as follows:

1. Strategic plan: Starbucks need to make a strong strategic plan to apply the changes of the budget. It is necessary to ensure that the organizational resources can support the plans and improve the organization (Koo, Kim and Kim, 2016).
2. Business goal: Starbucks need to develop business goals. However, it is the responsibly of the management team to develop the business goal. The increase of the budget can help in such context to make the strong business goal.
3. Revenue projection: The revenue projection is based on the historical financial performance. With the growth of the income, the revenue projection also increases.
4. Fixed cost projection: This domain helps to check the predictable cost of every month to fix the expense, utility cost, and insurance cost (Bharadwaj 2015).
5. Variable cost projection: This helps to check the fluctuation of the cost in every month. Hence, it helps control the budget.
6. Annual goal expenses: Starbucks needs to make an annual goal expense that will help to meet the goals and objective of the organization.
7. Board approval: The governing board helps to monitor the budget performance as well as helps to introduce the expenditures.
8. Budget review: The budget review committee helps to meet performance on monthly basis. This will help to correct the negative effects on the budget outcomes (Terho et al. 2015).
9. Dealing with Budget variances: Budget variance helps to review the responsibilities of department managers.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that earlier Starbucks has targeted the customers who are more than 18 years of age irrespective of gender. Nowadays, the company has observed the fact that due to their higher brand reputation, the school students are visiting the stores of Starbucks frequently and order various types of caffeinated beverages along with non-caffeinated beverages. It can be said that the students are ordering Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, flavoured iced tea, chocolate mochas, fruit juices, etc. These are the normal products that are available for all. However, Starbucks will develop new drinks for the teens and kids that are nutritious as well as tasty. Promotional events are to be selected in a way so that the students get awareness regarding the newly launched products of them. Hence, the company can earn higher revenue from the target markets as well as different types of the newly launched products. Starbucks initially has targeted as a place for the people as a third place between home and workplace. Challenges will be faced by the company as a place that will entertain kids and teens as well so that they can chill and hangout with their friends in the stores of Starbucks.

Marketing Mix

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