Starbucks Marketing Mix

Essay by michacartUniversity, Bachelor'sA, January 2011

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Starbucks Marketing Mix

Successful organizations understand the importance of a strong marketing strategy to satisfy customers and sustain growth. Making the right decisions depends on several variables. The purpose of this paper is to describe the four elements of marketing mix and share how Starbucks has implemented an effective and powerful marketing strategy to become the world's largest coffeehouse chain.

Marketing Mix Defined

A marketing mix helps an organization simplify the process and help marketing managers make decisions. The marketing mix is composed of four elements: product, place, promotion, and price (also known as the four Ps). The purpose of the marketing mix is to build a marketing strategy around a target group, and focus the strategy to create a campaign that will persuade, influence and motivate the identified customer (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2009).

The first 'P' of the marketing mix is the product.

Product, in this case, refers to both physical products and intangible services. Forethought and research is important to create the right product or service that the target audience desires at the appropriate time (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2009).

The second component is place. This is the location where the product is delivered and can be purchased by a consumer. A business must determine the most effective way to distribute its product by developing a supply chain management system that includes recognizing the best channel partners, warehousing, inventory management, order processing, and transportation (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2009).

The third element is promotion. Promoting products is the effort of the marketer to inform and persuade potential customers to purchase the product or service. The organization can choose to use advertisement through different forms of media, sales promotions and salespeople to promote the specific product to the target...