Overall Starbucks has maintained a competitive advantage by bringing quality of a premium coffee, bistro-style coffee choices to the masses. In order to stay in the market place, they will need to focus its core competencies and improving their business models. To avoid giant competitors such as McDonalds and other coffee chains, they will need to create new value innovation by enhancing the customer experience by investing in online content in align with technology advancement.
Starbucks biggest growth is in its International segment. The emerging markets of Brazil, India, China, South Africa and Mexico with a growing middle-class population continue to offer significant opportunities to add new stores and serve more customers. Starbucks has already made significant inroads into the Chinese market but there still is a lot of untapped potential growth in these markets. Starbucks should grow in these emerging markets by winning locally Starbucks must remain relevant to the customer in order to grow in these markets, and its management teams should have the freedom to operate within their overall framework to tailor store format, introduce local product mix and price points to the needs, lifestyles and tastes of each individual market/community.
Rather than focusing and creating more new products, the most important thing is enhancing the connection to their loyal customers, and that will make them separate themselves from McDonalds and others.
