Brand research

Chosen brand:

 Logo meaning

In 1971, Starbucks (then a mere fledging coffee shop on the Seattle waterfront) was looking for a logo, something that would embody the seafaring history of its home city. The three founders hired a consultant named Terry Heckler.[...] Heckler “pored over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old 16th-century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid.”

The mermaid was exotic. She was also topless. At first, and despite some complaints, Starbucks just rolled with it. As Schultz later explained, “Bare breasted and Rubenesque, [the mermaid] was supposed to be as seductive as the coffee itself.” The logo has since changed to the one above.

Taken from:http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-topless-mermaid-made-starbucks-cup-icon-160396

Company profile:

The first starbucks store opened in 1971.

Back then, the company was a single store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. From just a narrow storefront, Starbucks offered some of the world’s finest fresh-roasted whole bean coffees. In 1981, Howard Schultz (Starbucks chairman and chief executive officer) had first walked into a Starbucks store. From his first cup of Sumatra,

Howard was drawn into Starbucks and joined a year later.

In 1983, Howard traveled to Italy and became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition back to the United States. A place for conversation and a sense of community. A third place between work and home. He left Starbucks for a short period of time to start his own Il Giornale coffeehouses and returned in August 1987 to purchase Starbucks with the help of local investors.

The mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Currently, Starbucks has a total of 22,519 stores (as of June 28 2015)

https://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information

Target audience segmentation:

Adults

Starbucks’ primary target market is men and women aged 25 to 40. They account for almost half (49 percent) of its total business. Starbucks’ appeal to this consumer age group through hip, contemporary design that is consistent in its advertising and decor, and working to keep its products current as status symbols. Customers tend to be urbanites with relatively high income, professional careers and a focus on social welfare. This target audience grows at a rate of 3 percent annually.

Young Adults

Young adults, aged 18 to 24, total 40 percent of Starbucks’ sales. Starbucks positions itself as a place college students can hang out, study, write term papers and meet people. Starbucks appeals to this consumer directly through introducing technology as soon as it comes available, focusing on social networking and actively cultivating a “cool” image. The young adult audience grows 4.6 percent each year.

Taken from : http://smallbusiness.chron.com/starbucks-target-audience-10553.html

Company ethics:

Starbucks claim:

Starbucks believes that conducting business ethically and striving to do the right thing are vital to the success of the company.

Business Ethics and Compliance is a program that supports Our Starbucks Mission and helps protect our culture and our reputation by providing resources that help partners make ethical decisions at work.

The program develops and distributes awareness materials, including the Standards of Business Conduct; facilitates legal compliance and ethics training; investigates sensitive issues such as potential conflicts of interest; and provides additional channels for partners to voice concerns. Partners are encouraged to report all types of issues or concerns to the program through their choice of the offered communication channels


External source:

The "Starbucks Business Ethics and Compliance: Standards of Business Conduct" document lays an ethical framework for the company's mission "to inspire and nurture the human spirit -- one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time." This document outlines Starbucks' rigorous policies regulating workplace environment and diversity, sustainable business practices, and community involvement. A commitment to environmental responsibility has been a core company value since its founding, and each individual Starbucks employee and partner is held to a specific environmental mission statement. For its dedication to corporate social and environmental responsibility, Starbucks has been ranked as one of Corporate Responsibility Magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizens 2013" and as Ethisphere's "World's Most Ethical Companies 2013."

2016 World’s Most Ethical Company®

For the 10th year in a row, the Ethisphere Institute has named Starbucks to the list.

Taken from : https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/starbucks-business-ethics-and-compliance-standards-of-business-conduct

Some of starbucks notable historical campaign :

Making use of "being green" to grow its brand

At this time not a few companies that have switched to choose green marketing campaign to promote they products, but not all companies are quite serious in the campaign, the seriousness of doing green marketing campaign can be judged from the campaign conducted continuously and sustainably. In this case, my value of Starbucks is quite serious in implementing green marketing campaign, not just trying to lure consumers alone but he really did to save the planet. Various strategies have been carried out by Starbucks in making green marketing campaign become interesting, that’s why I interesting to discuss Starbucks in this article.

http://ibrandstudio.com/articles/starbucks-green-marketing-campaign

Advertising campaigns of recent:

Starbucks forgo the tradition media

Short Answer:  They haven’t needed it. Word of mouth drove the business.
AND…most of the ads you’ve seen featuring Starbucks have been done by partners like Kraft and Pepsi promoting Starbucks ice cream, bottled Frappuccino, whole beans, not ads for the stores.
CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz always said, “our stores are our billboard.”



Taken from: http://observer.com/2015/10/why-starbucks-chose-to-forego-traditional-advertising-for-so-long/

However, many people do not know about Starbucks being "green" rather people know them for their coffee. Perhaps an advert could bring about Starbucks efforts.

Study taken from : https://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=8206