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7 - What's Different in Starbucks

To evaluate how Starbucks is different from others, we can ask a questions, Why would a customer wants to go to Starbucks when Dunkin is nearby too?

Lets think of this questions from different personas. 

Coffee Lovers: Since Starbucks sells coffee, so it might attract lot of Coffee Lover too. Since Starbucks never compromise on beans quality and always use best breed of beans, Arabica, it make sense for coffee enthusiast to go to Starbucks, as he or she might not get same taste somewhere else. Here quality of beans is the differentiator. 

Convenience: Some people don't care too much about fine quality, they look for convenience. Since Starbucks has 15,243 stores in USA covering all major cities, it is very easy to find the Starbucks near-by. Apart from that, Starbucks also has mobile app for advance ordering, make it super fast for customers to pick the coffee. 

Habits: Building and shifting taste for Coffee is not easy. Starbucks is selling coffee ssice1983, and with such vast presence so we can assume that all coffee drinkers have either developed taste or expectations for Starbucks Coffee. Most of Starbucks morning customers stand in line to pick the coffee on the way to Office. Apart from coffee tastes, Starbucks is becoming a hang-out and meeting place for friends too. 

Experience: In 1983, Howard Schultz traveled to Italy and returned the USA with the idea of having coffee bars. If he relied only on selling the coffee, it would have been failed since there were no culture of drinking coffee outside houses in those times. But he experimented with serving coffee with full experience for value realization and perception of feel-goo-factor. He did that by listening to customers, acting fast to customize the coffee brewing and roasting, training baristas and staff regularly, setting the appealing ambiance of stores, and serving coffee with a smile. He also introduced many non-coffee drinks, so they have something for everyone who steps into the store. Even in my personal experience, if I am visiting Starbucks and if anyone in group is not interested in coffee at that moment, he or she can select from other menu options.

Consistency: If we are travelling outside the city, we don't know about quality of any local coffee shop. In such cases, we prefer to make a stop at Starbucks, because we know we will get similar quality and taste wherever we go. 


If we think about Starbucks in its core business, it is just selling brewed coffee which is not very complex skill. But replicating it such large scale and providing consistent quality and customer service across all stores in US and in other countries is really remarkable.



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