REYNANCIA, MARIA BEATRICE N. ACTIVITY NO.

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AEC 304 JULY 16, 2022

1. Starbucks started with 3 passionate coffee drinking friends whose names are
Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl. They all studied at University of
San Francisco. Before Starbucks happened, their projects before were having
screenplays, radio broadcasts and documentary hits but they failed these
projects. One time when all of them were having lunch with a bad cup of coffee it
sparked the conversation of selling coffee beans, with this idea Starbucks was
born. At that time Starbucks only sold high quality coffee beans and roasting
equipment. In 1983 they hired Howard Schultz to be their marketing director.
Before that, Schultz's first job after college was selling office equipment in every
house. His first latte started and they called it Espresso Based Drinks, he also
added an idea of having an Espresso Bars however the founders are not
convinced with his idea. Soon Gordon Bowker sold his stakes to the company
and Schultz grabbed the opportunity to buy in. In 1987 Schultz took over and
bought the company from the original owners he started to build new outlets in
different places soon enough there were approximately 46 stores that earned
200M pounds of coffee a year. Few years later Starbucks expanded their stores
outside their country and conducted a worldwide operation in south Asian and
south America countries. From selling coffee beans in the 1970's to having over
$1Billion in net income was a great success indeed, Schultz’s contribution
significantly helped the growth of Starbucks to reach where it is today. In 2017,
Schultz decided to step down from his position and he was replaced by Kevin
Johnson who is now the CEO of Starbucks today. Howard Schultz was named
the 209th richest person in the Us according to Forbes with the value of about
$43 Billion as of October 2020.

2. Starbucks is different from other coffee shops because of their Values and
Corporate Culture. Howard Behar, the Starbucks ex-president for over 2
decades, believes that Starbucks is his greatest achievement in his life. He
 believes that “No workplace or job should define a person”. Behar in visions that
Starbucks is a vehicle to express his life work and his commitment to people and
values first in the business. The heart of the Starbucks model shows that they are
not in the coffee business serving people, we’re in the people business serving
coffee. They prioritize their own employees and staff and even their customers.
They also referred to staff members as their “partner” and provided their stock
options, health insurance and as well as invest in their employee’s tuition
reimbursement programs. Starbucks prioritize their employees as an extension of
their product. That is why Starbucks stands so far above of its competitors
because the customers buy the experiences not the products. They prioritize the
ambiance, smell and even the music when the customers went there and this is
what the ideal experience is. It can be a space for every customer to relax and
socialize with other people neither work nor home. They also provide a personal
service where the staffs interact with the customers for example misspelling their
name but still creates a memorable experience.

3. Starbucks has been effective in getting people to focus on the quality of the
experience and the wonderful memories that may be knitted together in its
locations rather than the price of its products by providing a pleasant and relaxing
customer experience. Starbucks strategy has developed throughout time to take
advantage of fresh and cutting-edge platforms for consumer involvement.
Customers may submit ideas for the firm to develop and improve its goods and
customer experience, better interaction with the community, and promote social
responsibility on the company's website, ideas.starbucks.com. This is
comparable to the burgeoning "crowd-sourcing" technique in the innovation
space. The brand has a big online and social media following that has recently
gotten more attention. This was motivated by the desire to increase consumer
engagement and visibility on websites where potential or current customers
frequent. They put a great deal of money into mobile marketing and is very
committed to it by creating and releasing a Starbucks app for paying for goods,
tipping baristas, and earning and redeeming rewards, it has embraced digital
innovation.