Starbucks In India

In the 2010s, Starbucks was keen on entering the Indian market. The company wanted to
capitalize on the rise of coffee culture by targeting the niche upper-class segment in India. In
2007, it announced its entry in India but withdrew without any explanation. It was in 2011 that
Starbucks finally made a grand entry into the market.
When the world’s biggest bistro chain wanted to enter the Indian market, they entered into a
50-50 joint venture with Asia’s largest coffee grower, Tata Consumer Products Limited.
After successfully launching their brand, the next important step in ensuring they were here to
stay, was to nail their target audience.
Starbucks Target Market
Starbucks is a premium coffee brand; its customers are mainly from the upper economic
segment or the upper middle class and upper class. The brand targets people who want a
peaceful space to drink coffee and lose stress. These are mostly the higher wage-earning
professionals, business owners, or other higher-end customers in the 22-50 age group. People
with a fast-moving lifestyle want good quality coffee and some space to relax after a hectic
day. Starbucks offers all these privileges in a single place. The target audience of Starbucks
includes both male and female customers, and a large bunch of these customers are mainly in
the 25-45 age group. Mainly the urban, health-conscious, and class-conscious consumers. The
truth is, the company has done so well by knowing exactly who its target audience is at any
point in time and going all-out to cater to those set of people.
So summed up, their target audience is-
• High-income spenders
• Urban-ish, on the go
• Technology early adopters
• Health-conscious professionals
• Flexible to change
• Reaching Beyond the storefront
Now that we understand their foundation and business, let’s finally begin to uncover the
marketing strategies that have led to Starbucks becoming the giant it is today.
Marketing Strategies of Starbucks
Initially, Starbucks’ marketing mix in India was segmenting consumer markets on a socio-
economic basis. Concentrating on working professionals and their need for a soothing
workspace. Starbucks also segments its market on a geographic and demographic basis by
setting up the stores where they can find their target audience mentioned above. Most
companies enter a new market by focusing on a single segment, and if they happen to achieve
some success, branch out into more segments. Starbucks did the same and now caters to
teenagers and young adults as well, by developing its product range and social media marketing
presence.
Starbucks’ marketing mix has helped the brand develop a unique market position for its
products, where it’s about the brand’s overall differentiated experience. They have positioned
themselves as a highly reputed brand.
The company’s marketing mix, to target the modern, tech-savvy generation, has also grown the
use of digital technology as well as social media for promotions and customer engagement.
Digital Expansion
One of Starbucks’ key priorities is to expand its digital interactions with customers. To do so,
it is implementing new ways to attract digitally registered customers beyond the rewards
program. For example, the coffee chain is offering mobile order services and leveraging Wi-Fi
sign-ins at its brick-and-mortar stores.
Starbucks Social Media Strategy
Most people are familiar with Starbucks on social media. The company’s many social media
accounts are known for their distinctive branding, interactive posts, and visually pleasing
content. The diverse range of content includes recipes, photography, articles and features. But
there’s more than meets the eye. The stream of content can be broken down into a series of
campaigns geared at creating a greater sense of brand awareness and community.
Starbucks Product-based Marketing Campaigns
Starbucks focuses on promoting unique and fan-favorite beverages. The brand knows how
popular their flagship items are, but more importantly, they know their audience craves this
kind of content. They’ve even created social accounts for customers’ favourites -Pumpkin
Spiced Latte and Frappuccino- where they push relevant and relatable memes to their die-hard
audience. This is also where user-generated content (UGC) comes in. Consumer images of the
more Instagrammable products, such as the Unicorn Frappuccino, are often selected to be re-
shared via the official channels and also used in influencer campaigns.
Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility-based campaign
Starbucks uses social change as a marketing tool, positioning itself as open-minded and
inclusive. One example is the #ExtraShotOfPride campaign that supports the LGBT+
community.
Community-based campaigns
#RedCupArt campaign
Another facet of Starbucks’ digital strategy is its emphasis on highlighting individuals and
communities. Take a look at the #RedCupArt campaign, which not only increases engagement
but also provides them with a library of UGC content. They use storytelling to show acts of
courage and kindness in American communities, localizing the content. Starbucks puts in
conscious efforts to humanize the company by sharing stories on their account which highlights
the employees who play an essential role especially when consumers are distrustful of big
brands. This sense of community also makes online coffee content social, very similar to how
they practically invented the modern coffeehouse culture back in the day.
Festive Marketing
Starbucks has also initiated a new seasonal whole-bean coffee, #StarbucksDiwaliBlend, for
their consumers across the country and select global markets. The latest exquisite blend is hand-
picked and sourced from Tata Estates in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Starbucks Diwali Blend
is intended as a tribute to the region’s rich and cultural coffee heritage and expertise.
It launched the #SketchTheBlend campaign where customers have to share their creativity on
the Diwali Blend cup and sleeve and could win 5 free beverages.
We now thoroughly understand the various strategies that comprehensively contribute to their
top-notch marketing. Let’s dive deeper and analyse their overall digital presence.
Starbucks Digital Marketing Presence
Starbucks knows its audience is technologically advanced, which makes it imperative for them
to have a strong digital marketing strategy. It’s clear how Starbucks prefers marketing on
platforms where they have two-way communication instead of platforms like print and
television which is more of one-way communication.
• Instagram – 248K+ followers
• Facebook – 1.1M+ likes
• Twitter – 161K+ followers
• Starbucks posts daily on its social media handles and comes up with challenges and games
to engage its customers and increase its fan base
• The posts and engagement are consistent through all platforms and believe in creating an
experience as compared to just a promotion channel
The recent Flipkart Starbucks twitter battle was an example of how active and fun a brand like
Starbucks is and shows exactly why the brand is sought after with its target audience, especially
the millennials. Outside of campaigns, they show numerous images on their platforms of
friends and family enjoying drinks of Starbucks coffee together, interspersed with high-quality
content that promotes seasonal products. By doing this, Starbucks has integrated itself into
consumers’ social life.
Marketing During Covid-19
We are all aware of how suddenly the Covid-19 pandemic took over the world. All businesses,
globally, were hit overnight. And had to figure out how to sustain themselves in these
unprecedented times. The pandemic definitely impacted the Indian market heavily but
Starbucks constantly improvised to mitigate the economic impact. A case study in itself, these
were the steps taken by the coffee giant during the pandemic which proves why it’s the most
valued –
Expansion
CEO Navin Gurnaney announced that they are launching drive-thrus to encourage people to
engage with them, and home delivery to make sure they are connected with their customers
during the pandemic. The first drive-thru was at Ambala Chandigarh Expressway in Zirakpur.
They have also launched their app – Starbucks India App so that customers can easily navigate
and purchase their offerings.
Starbucks Social Media Campaigns
#ReconnectWithStarbucks campaign
Starbucks launched its social media campaign in 2 phases. The first phase was where they
asked their customers to share their ways of reconnecting amidst the pandemic and share their
favourite Starbucks memory on their personal Instagram handles with the hashtag
#ReconnectWithStarbucks.
In the second phase- “Half Cup Full”- they asked their customers to comment on their favourite
beverage on the post. They then sent these customers voice notes of baristas hollering the
customers’ names along with their favourite beverage to remind them of the famous in-store
experience.
This was a great campaign as it not only reminded the people of all the good memories with
Starbucks but also made them feel important and valued.
#StarbucksAtHome and #StarbucksDance
Starbucks launched 1 litre of freshly brewed beverages that could be bought via take-away or
ordering through Swiggy and Zomato. 7 flavours were launched at the price of Rs.550 per
bottle.
To promote the same, Starbucks launched the #StarbucksDance challenge where it asked its
customers to shoot a dance video with the drink and upload them on their personal stories. They
promised a year of free Starbucks for the winner.
Strategic Alliances to enhance the experience and reach
Signature Merchandise launch with Flipkart
The pandemic caused a great shift in how people shop and also encouraged people to shop for
home-grown products as compared to imported or foreign-based products. Starbucks used this
shift to partner with Flipkart, to launch Starbucks Signature Merchandise on the online
platform. The product range included custom mugs, tumblers, cold cups, and more. Customers
can also soon order coffee brewing equipment from the comfort of their own homes. Starbucks
operated in 12 cities only and hence, this was a strategic move to reach out to customers pan
India at their homes during the pandemic while taking advantage of the growing dependence
on E-Commerce
Standup Comedy Festival
Starbucks recently announced the #StarbucksComedyFestival where few lucky customers can
win a free invitation to the comedy festival. The lucky codes would be present on the
customer’s invoice. With a popular line-up of hosts like Sapan Verma, Azeem Banatwalla and
Rahul Subramanian, customers will now be enthusiastic to shop more at Starbucks and stand a
chance