Achieving Global Integration and Local Responsiveness

投稿類別：英文寫作類

篇名：

Achieving Global Integration and Local Responsiveness—

A Case Study of Starbucks

作者：

傅芸。國立新竹女子高級中學。二年一班

胡芷昀。國立新竹女子高級中學。二年一班

指導老師：

何信昌老師

Achieving Global Integration and Local Responsiveness—A Case Study of Starbucks

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I. Introduction

1. Motivation

Nowadays, coffee has become an essential part of many people’s lives. More and

more brands have joined the competitive market to share the huge amount of benefits

in the coffee industry. However, Starbucks’s booming performances have stood out, as

it has opened numerous branches throughout the world (Starbucks, 2013).

“Without people, we have nothing. But with people, we have something even

bigger than coffee.” (Behar & Goldstein, 2009) As we can see, Starbucks

emphasizes the importance of the relationship between customers and its staff. Its

characteristic corporate culture and global expansion have aroused our curiosity to

explore the secrets behind Starbucks’s success—specifically how the company has

successfully achieved global integration and local responsiveness simultaneously

when opening stores in different countries and tailoring its own style to satisfy

different needs of various cultures and customers all over the world.

The present study aims to deal with the following three research questions:

(1) How does Starbucks implement their marketing strategies around the world?

(2) What efforts has Starbucks put into achieving local responsiveness in Taiwan?

(3) What are people’s viewpoints on Starbuck’s services in Taiwan?

2. Methods

This study was based on the literature review of relevant studies, books, and

website data, in conjunction with our survey, which was conducted in the form of the

questionnaire, as shown in the Section V. Our participants were recruited from 27

students in a senior high school and 24 adults in a company with no connection with

Starbucks in northern Taiwan. Our copies of the questionnaire were distributed at

random. The average age of our participants was 24.8. About 29% of them went to

Starbucks every week, 18% every other week, 22% every month, and 31% seldom.

II. Thesis

This thesis is organized as follows. Part 1 introduces the background of

Starbucks. Part 2 is concerned with its global marketing strategies, while Part 3 with

its local responsiveness in Taiwan. The results of our survey are analyzed in Part 4.


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1. Background of Starbucks

1.1 Founding

The world-famous American coffee house company, Starbucks Coffee, was first

founded in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Washington in 1971. At that time, Starbucks

was a roaster and retailer of whole bean and ground coffee, tea, and spices with a

single store. The name “Starbucks” was named after the first mate in Herman

Melville’s Moby Dick, and its logo was inspired by a twin-tailed siren in Greek

mythology (Starbucks, 2012).

In 1982, Howard Schultz joined Starbucks as the director of retail operations and

marketing (Schultz & Gordon, 2011). Then, Starbucks started providing coffee to fine

restaurants and espresso bars. The next year, Howard travelled to Italy and was

impressed by the popularity of espresso bars in Milan. He saw how potential the

concept of developing a similar coffee house in Seattle could be. It was not until 1984

that he convinced the founders of Starbucks to test the concept of a coffee house in

downtown Seattle. The test turned out to be a great success. From then on, Starbucks

gradually expanded and had 677 stores in North America by 1995 (Starbucks, 2012).

1.2 Overseas Expansion

Staring in 1996, Starbucks opened its first store outside North America in Japan

and continued to expand its business abroad for consecutive years. Until July, 2012, it

has opened 17,651 stores worldwide (Starbucks, 2013).

2. Marketing Strategies

As “the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world”

(Michelli, 2006), Starbucks has become the synonym of the word “coffee” in many

customers’ cognition over the years. To keep creating the extraordinary “Starbucks

experience” for customers, Starbucks has set what is called the “third place” for its

customers, where they can enjoy the unique warmth different from the first two places

in most people’s lives: home and work (ibid.). Besides, Starbucks focuses not only on

the high-quality coffee but on humanity; i.e. coffee and people occupy the same status

in Starbucks. These conceptions are the core values of Starbucks. Based on the book

The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli (2006), the five major principles of

Starbucks’ global marketing are discussed below.


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2.1 Principle 1: Make It Your Own

Starbucks encourages its working partners to integrate their personal traits into

the regularization of their customer experience and expects its partners to enhance

their creativity. There are “Five Ways of Being” used to inspire them to create a

legendary experience for customers: (1) Be Welcoming, (2) Be Genuine, (3) Be

Considerate, (4) Be Knowledgeable, and (5) Be Involved (Michelli, 2006). This

principle gives its partners a clear idea of how to interact with people.

2.2 Principle 2: Everything Matters

As Howard Schultz said, “Retail is detail.” (Schultz & Gordon, 2011)

Starbucks emphasizes both the “below-deck” (unseen aspects) and “above-deck”

(customer-facing) constituents of the customer experience (Michelli, 2006). This

principle values the day-to-day operation of the processes and procedures. It consists

of five elements: (1) Felt Sense, (2) Environment, (3) Quality of Its Products, (4)

Training of Its Partners, and (5) A Playful Corporate Culture (ibid.).

2.3 Principle 3: Surprise and Delight

The psychologists studying “happiness” often stress that happiness is a

combination of predictability (i.e. a sense of security) and some small surprises. Given

this, Starbucks leadership teams unite these two elements to delight customers: (1)

Create Predictability in Products and (2) Surprises—Planned Surprises,

Unconventional Surprises, and Delight Customers through Mistakes (ibid.).

2.4 Principle 4: Embrace Resistance

The core value of this principle is to respect others’ viewpoints. Partners are

expected to open their minds to listen to customers’ needs and opinions rather than

doing everything correctly for them. This principle is based on two concepts: (1)

Respond to Resistance and (2) Looking to the Future (ibid.).

2.5 Principle 5: Leave Your Mark

Steve Priest, the founder of Ethical Leadership Group, shares his interpretation of

this principle, as follows. “A company is socially responsible if it takes seriously its

obligations to all of its stakeholders. It’s not about whether a company sponsors


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local events or environmental programs, or has a foundation that gives money to

charitable causes.” He further explains, “It’s about developing a reputation of

integrity so there is trust with employees, investors, customers, suppliers, and

their communities.” (as cited in Michelli, 2006)

Many leaders believe that the key point to their business success is closely

related to the positive and powerful impact that they have on their communities.

Aware of this, Starbucks highly values the importance of social involvement and

corporate social responsibility. It focuses on taking care of its employees,

volunteerism within neighborhoods, product providers’ living conditions, economic

transparency through the supply chain, donating money to national and non-profit

organizations, environmental preservation efforts, and planning sustainability for

future generations. Through the involvement, the Starbucks experience spreads to

most places of the world.

As we can see, Starbucks leadership teams lead employees to consider the

welfare of the neighborhood, pay attention to their social missions, and realize that

they have the power to make a difference to the world.

3. Local Responsiveness

Local responsiveness plays a vital role in Starbucks’s success. There are many

successful examples of the application of Starbucks’ local responsiveness in different

countries (e.g. Huang, 2012; Michelli, 2006). As the case of Taiwan is the main

concern of this study, our focus is devoted to Starbucks’ local responsiveness in the

country here.

3.1 Founding in Taiwan

“President Starbucks Taiwan” was established in 1998 under cooperation links

with Uni-President Enterprise Corporation, a leading food enterprise in Taiwan

(FOCUS Taiwan news channel, 2013). Since then, 285 coffee outlets have been

opened throughout Taiwan.

3.2 Local Responsiveness in Taiwan

Starbucks’s local responsiveness can be exhibited in the following four

examples.


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3.2.1 The First Vegetarian Outlets

To cater to the vegetarian culture of the Tzu Chi Buddhist Hospital in New

Taipei City, Starbucks opened its first vegetarian store in the world there in 2005

(Starbucks, 2012). Many customers said that there were not so many differences

between the coffee tastes. To many vegetarians, it is good news since the meat and

animal oil are replaced with jam and vegetarian ingredients so that they can favor a

whole new and different taste of Starbucks. Making a little change to their products,

Starbuck has created a new trend of vegetarian-style meals.

3.2.2 Uniquely-Designed Restaurants

Located in Keelung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, 15 Starbucks

stores are renowned for their unique design, which cannot be found outside of Taiwan.

They come in the form of green design, traveling, modern art, an old school, or a

bookstore, providing customers with a brand-new atmosphere when entering the store.

3.2.3 Local Tea Drinks and Local-Flavor Desserts

In addition to its typical coffee, Starbucks serves local tea drinks in Taiwan, such

as Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea, Bi Luo Chun Green Tea, and Mt. Ali Oolong Tea. To

make these drinks, Starbucks strictly selects local tea leaves from their birth places,

insisting on bringing Taiwanese people the freshest and high-quality local tea

beverages. As for local-flavor desserts, Taro Cream Cake with Pudding is a popular

example. The main ingredient, taro, comes from Tachia, Taichung, which makes this

cake a unique product in Taiwan.

3.2.4 Local Peripheral Products

Starbucks has local peripheral products, and its mugs care a typical example. On

the mugs are the local design of a specific city and its name. This kind of

local-featured mugs and products are launched not only in Taipei but in other cities

around the world. These products have become the best souvenirs for people to buy

when they travel to different cities.

According to Porter (1998, as cited in Larson 2008), there are three basic

strategies that a company can use in an industry; they are “cost leadership,”

“differentiation” and “focus.” Porter explains, “Differentiation strategy entails the


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creation of unique products or services, with the consumers perceiving such

products/services to be unique and adding value to it, thereby allowing the firm

to put premium prices on its products/services.” (as cited in Larson 2008) As we

can see, Starbucks’s local responsiveness corresponds to Porter’s differentiation

strategy.

4. Results and Discussion

The results of our survey are presented and analyzed in the following six parts.

4.1 Why Do People Choose Starbucks?

As exhibited in Figure 1, Starbucks’ top three characteristics attracting our

participants were its “high-quality service,” “brand,” and “environment.” It was worth

noting that “high-quality coffee” was not ranked among the top three appealing

features, suggesting that many of our participants visited a Starbucks store not

because of its coffee. However, Starbucks’s efforts still paid off since most of the

participants were attracted by its high-quality service, the brand itself, and the

environment. As for “high accessibility” and “different kinds of desserts,” they were

not the main appealing features. Also, some student participants mentioned that they

went to Starbucks because it was a good place for them to study, while some adult

participants said that they bought Starbucks coffee for social activities and meetings.

21%

11%

5%

24%

19%

2%

18%its brand

high-huality coffee

different kinds of desserts

high-quality sevice

environment

high accessibility

promotional activities

Figure 1: Appealing features of Starbucks that attract customers


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4.2 Unique and Local Products

It was found that there was a great difference between our student and adult

participants as to whether they noticed that Starbucks launched local products. About

67% of the adults noted the local products, while 33% of them had no idea. In contrast,

only 30% of the students noticed the local products. It was suggested that Starbucks

could make efforts to promote their products to the student groups.

As for the impressive local products, they included Asian Dolce Latte, Hojicha

Tea Latte, Iced Hojicha Earl Grey Jelly Tea Latte, Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea, Bi

Luo Chun Green Tea, Ruby Black Tea, Taro Cream Cake with Pudding, and City

Mugs. It was also shown that these local products helped raise our participants’

loyalty to Starbucks. In this regard, our student and adult participants showed a

similar tendency (6.6 and 6.5 points, respectively; the higher the point was, the more

our participants were satisfied with the product).

4.3 What Can Starbucks Do More?

Regarding what Starbucks could do more, it was found that 35% of our

participants expected Starbucks to add more local-flavor coffees, 27% of them

expected Starbucks to add more local teas, and 61% of them expected Starbucks to

add more peripheral products and promotional activities. It was clear that peripheral

products and promotional activities were mostly desired, suggesting that Starbucks

could focus on developing such products and promoting its products so as to satisfy

people’s expectations.

4.4 Corporate Social Responsibility

As for the issue of Starbucks’s corporate social responsibility, the average point

was 9, showing that the efforts Starbucks made for local communities had a positive

influence on its corporate image. It was also implied that our participants highly

expected the company to continue to devote itself to the local community and society.

4.5 Marketing Strategies

In the previous section, we discussed the five principles that successfully turned

the Starbucks experience from ordinary to extraordinary. Here, we presented the

findings of our survey with regard to the effect of the five principles in Taiwan’s


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Starbucks stores. The average points of the five principles were 7.5 for “Principle 1:

Make It Your Own,” 8.0 for “Principle 2: Everything Matters,” 7.1 for “Principle 3:

Surprise and Delight,” 6.7 for “Principle 4: Embrace Resistance,” and 7.6 for

“Principle 5: Leave Your Mark.” (The higher the point was, the better our participants

agreed that the principle under investigation took effect.)

As shown above, the highest point was 8.0 for Principle 2, which showed that

our participants could strongly feel that Starbucks leaders focused on every detail,

including the environment in the store, the quality of products, training, the interesting

corporate culture, and their attention to social issues. As for Principle 1, 3, and 5, their

effects were found to be similar. On the contrary, the lowest point was 6.7 for

Principle 4. However, it did not indicate that Principle 4 was ineffective or that

Starbucks did not make efforts to implement it. Instead, it just meant that it had a less

direct influence on the participants, as this principle was concerned with Starbucks’

working staff’s response to resistance and customers’ opinions, which might not

appear in every Starbucks experience.

4.6 Customers’ Overall Satisfaction with Starbucks

For the customers’ overall satisfaction with Starbucks, the average point of was

8.11. Apparently, Starbucks’s marketing strategies were approved of by our

participants, which could help account for the great popularity of Starbucks in Taiwan.

III. Conclusion

1. Summary and Implications

In this study, we discussed Starbucks’s history and background, global marketing

strategies, local responsiveness, and people’s viewpoints on Starbucks’s services in

Taiwan. By focusing on every detail, creating a one-on-one relationship with

customers, responding to resistance, and being responsible for the local society,

Starbucks has successfully opened numerous branches around the world. As for

Taiwan, it also implemented local marketing strategies, tailoring its services to suit

Taiwanese culture. The results of our survey also attested to Starbuck’s success in

achieving global integration and local responsiveness in Taiwan.

Being the “third place”, Starbucks offers customers the extraordinary “Starbucks

experience” by implementing the aforesaid five principles and adjusting itself to fit


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different cultures around the world. Despite the success, the findings of our survey

have pointed out two parts on which Starbucks could focus in the future market of

Taiwan. It is implied that Starbucks could make efforts to increase the awareness of its

local products among students and that customers expect Starbucks to add more

peripheral products and promotional activities in Taiwan.

2. Limitations and Further Research

Due to the limit of time and space, our survey was restricted to only one region

of Taiwan, and our sample was limited to 51 participants. There are two directions for

our further research. First, we are interested in investigating any differences on

people’s opinions of Starbucks’s services in different parts of Taiwan. Second, we are

also curious about the obstacles that Starbucks has been confronted with during its

global integration.

IV. References

Behar, H., & Goldstein, J. (2009). It’s Not about the Coffee: Lessons on Putting

People First from a Life at Starbucks. New York: Portfolio.

Focus Taiwan News Channel. Retrieved March 19, 2013, from http://focus-taiwan-

news-channel.rsspump.com/

Larson, R. (2008). Starbucks a Strategic Analysis: Past Decisions and Future Options.

Retrieved March 17, 2013, from http://paydirect-essay.weebly.com/uploads/3/4

3/9/3439069/sample_2.pdf

Michelli, J. A. (2006). The Starbucks Experience: Five Principles for Turning

Ordinary into Extraordinary. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Schultz, H., & Gordon, J. (2011). Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without

Losing Its Soul. New York: Rodale.

Starbucks. Retrieved December, 04, 2012, from http://www.starbucks.com

Starbucks. Retrieved February 18, 2013, from http://globalassets.starbucks.com

assets/9a6616b98dc64271ac8c910fbee47994.pdf

Studymode. Starbucks: A Strategic Change and Management Perspective. Retrieved

February 18, 2013, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Starbucks-A-

Strategic-Change-And-Management-1004618.html

Wang, H. H. (2012). Five Things Starbucks Did to Get China Right. Retrieved August

10, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-

starbucks-did-do-get-china-right/

http://focus-taiwan-/

http://paydirect-essay.weebly.com/uploads/3/4

http://www.starbucks.com/

http://globalassets.starbucks.com/

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Starbucks-A-

http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-


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V. Appendix: The Questionnaire

Dear participants,

This is a survey questionnaire about Starbucks. The information that you offer will only be

analyzed for academic purposes. There is no risk of the leakage of your information. Please

finish the following questions. Thanks a lot for your time and patience!

Sincerely,

Student Investigators

Personal Background:

□ high school student □ adult Age: __________

Survey Questions: (9 Qs in total)

1. How often do you go to Starbucks?

□ Everyday □ Once a week □ Every two weeks □ Every month □ Seldom

2. Why do you choose Starbucks? (More than one choice is allowed.)

□ its brand □ high-quality coffee □ different kinds of desserts

□ high-quality service □ environment □ high accessibility

□ promotional activities (e.g. buy one for one free) □ others:______________________

3. Are you aware that Starbucks has its own unique local products?

□Yes (Please answer Question No.4.) □ No (Please jump to Question No.6.)

4. Among these local products, which impress you the most?

(1) coffee: _____________________________________________________________

(2) tea: _________________________________________________________________

(3) peripheral products: ____________________________________________________

(4) others: _______________________________________________________________

5. Do you think these products can increase the degree of your loyalty to Starbucks?

Please choose from1 to 10 (0: extremely disagree; 10: extremely agree).

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6. If Starbucks launches more local related products, what would you prefer?

□ Taiwanese coffee □ Taiwanese tea

□ Taiwanese featured products or promotional activities (e.g. buy one for one free)

□ others: _______________________________________________________________

7. Starbucks has been devoted to the welfare of the local communities.

Do you think this can enhance Starbucks’s positive corporate image?

Please choose from1 to 10 (0: extremely disagree; 10: extremely agree).

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8. How effective do you think the following marketing strategies of Starbucks are?

Please choose from 1 to 10 (0: extremely negative; 10: extremely positive)

(1) _____ Make It Your Own: Be Welcoming, Be Genuine, Be Considerate, Be Knowledgeable,

Be Involved

(2) _____ Everything Matters: Environment, Quality of Its Products, Training of Its Partners,

Playful Corporate Culture, the Importance of Devoting to Local

Communities

(3) _____ Surprise and Delight: Create Predictability in Products and Surprises

(4) _____ Embrace Resistance: Respond to Resistance and Correct Mistakes

(5) _____ Leave Your Mark: Social Involvement and Corporate Social Responsibility

9. Starbucks overall satisfaction.

Please choose from 1 to 10 (0: extremely dissatisfied; 10: extremely satisfied).

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Achieving Global Integration and Local Responsiveness

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