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13 - Starbucks Strategic Alliances

Starbucks has strategic alliances with many companies to expand into different markets, segments, and improve brand value. Most of its alliances are Nonequity Alliances. It has alliances with consumer product companies such as  Kraft Food, PepsiCo, and Nestle. They help Starbucks in different packaged and take-home products. From these alliances Starbucks gets the Economies of Scale, which would be harder to achieve if it would be doing these operations in its own.


Apart from that, Starbucks has alliances with Target Stores, United Airlines, and Barnes & Noble for offering Starbucks brand coffee in the stores and on airplane. This helps Starbucks to be perceived as high-end brand.


It has alliances with under the Seattle Coffee Co. with Subway, Burger King, and AMC to offer low cost coffee and compete with McDonalds & Dunkin without affecting the its main top of line expensive Starbucks brand.


Starbucks has some international alliances to capture the markets such as it has alliance with Tata Coffee to expand business in India, and Alibaba in China and leverage its ecosystem for collaborative marketing, online presence, and payment processing. It partnered with Sequoia in China for investment capital it would need to expand in China. 


China market is not just huge, but also complex in terms of social complexities and diversities. It would not be possible to for Starbucks to expand without joint ventures or alliances in China. It collaborated with Beijing Mei Da coffee company in Northern China, Uni-President in Eastern China, and Maxim’s Caterers in Hong Kong for Southern China. 


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