Marketing Strategies
A good marketing strategy should achieve immense competitive advantages using the minimum amount of resources. Before a new product is introduced into the market, a business should adopt a marketing strategy that would not only be beneficial in the short term, but the one that will ensure that the product withstands the test of time. This means that a thorough analysis of the market has to be done, and the product designed in a manner that suits the market demands. However, some aspects of strategic marketing are unplanned and need prompt response whenever they come up. Coffee has tremendously become popular recently, especially among women. As people realize the health hazards that are associated with carbonated drinks, they turn to beverages as they are relatively healthier. It should be noted that their antioxidant property particularly makes them of great medical significance. In this regard, it would be relatively easy to introduce Starbucks Coffee into the market. This paper presents an array of strategies that would suit this product (Aaker & McLoughlin 2010).
Create Market Awareness
The market would not know about the health benefits of Starbucks Coffee if the public awareness was not done. Although it is extremely expensive, market awareness is important as it enables the product to make a forceful entry into the market. It basically involves an expensive campaign involving adverts in the print media, buzzing the airwaves with the name of the product as well as other media of advertisement. The use of the print media is particularly important because it creates a lasting impression in the market. For instance, an advert that appears in a newspaper will be visible to whoever gets the newspaper to read. Indeed, it has the potential of penetrating deep into the market considering that newspapers nearly get to every part of the world. The fact that even those who do not read the newspaper could still be attracted by the color of the advert which makes print media particularly important. In addition, billboards also create a lasting impression wherever they are placed. A whole community that uses the road near the billboard would definitely see the billboard and get to know about the product. An awareness campaign can also be rolled out through a series of road shows that seek to meet people and sensitize them about the product. The best avenue to conduct road shows and campaigns would be colleges and schools considering that they also have a lot of influence on their families. In most cases, the marketing teams would sponsor an event and use the occasion to reach as many people as possible. It has been noted that this strategy is quite effective because it helps to create a good rapport with potential buyers besides creating awareness. What happens is that when everyone has settled for the event, the marketing team is given time to educate the audience on the potential benefits of the product. In order to reap maximum benefits, the marketers may consider giving free samples to all the participants (Crowe 2010).
Pricing Strategy
Aware of other similar products in the market, pricing strategy would definitely come in handy. In this strategy, the price of the commodity is based on the prices of similar products in the market. In most cases, marketers price their products slightly lower than similar products in the market. For example, the recommended price of $6 would have to be revised based on price of competing products. However, the prices should not be too low to the extent that the business makes extreme losses. These losses may cause the business to collapse altogether and thus should be avoided. It must be noted that lots of money is spent in the design and packaging of the products and the business should seek to raise this money. In addition, a business could be implementing more than one strategy at the same time. For example, media campaigns take relatively lots of money and may make it impossible for businesses to make their prices lower than their competitors. It usually complicates matters for most marketers when more than one marketing strategy has to be applied (Brakus 2009).
Niche Marketing
There is also niche marketing where the marketers target specific target groups and ensure that they come onto the fold. In this case, having realized that women have lately become the greatest consumers of coffee, Starbucks Coffee would have to be packaged in a manner that appeals to women. In addition, it should be noted that things which appeal to women are likely to appeal to young people, especially young ladies. This implies that marketing would have to go overboard and try to reach out to young people to become consumers of Starbucks Coffee. It will particularly involve focusing on Lifetime television network because it is mostly watched by women of all ages. However, the health benefits associated with Starbucks Coffee would make it appealing to professionals, especially health professionals. This is because they have a better understanding of the health issues and would quickly buy the idea if it looks real. The fact that health professionals regularly encounter the general public on the course of their duties also makes them an ideal target group. Once they become loyal consumers of Starbucks Coffee, they would definitely influence quite a number of their clients to consume the product as well. They will create a network through which the product would penetrate the market. Although niche marketing may take long to popularize a product, the effects are always long lasting once the product is well established in the market (Brakus 2009).
Coupons Marketing
Coupon Marketing is as old as marketing itself is. The success of the Coca Cola brand of beverages is associated with the use of coupons. This is a financial document that one can use to obtain a discount from a particular seller or a distributor. In some cases, a business may opt to give free products for a number of similar products bought. This has the benefit of stimulating customer loyalty among buyers so that they continue to consume the product. According to statistics, consumers love free things and they would do anything to get them. In fact, nine out of ten consumers, would likely buy a product where he or she gets something free. This reality has been used by several businesses to penetrate markets that initially looked non-penetrable. It starts by a customer using a product simply to get something free. With time, however, consumers would start buying the product because of its quality that they have come to realize. In the case of Starbucks Coffee, the use of coupons would be significant because the business will not make any losses by giving them. This is especially so considering that coffee products can be packed in small quantities and given to several people (Roby 2011).
Cause Marketing
Cause marketing has become the most current strategy for the new products. This basically involves picking an issue of social concern and associating the product with it. For example, in a society that faces the challenge of paying for healthcare, a new product can pick a few loyal customers and award them a hefty insurance package. Although it would only involve a few customers, the strategy would certainly reach many people who would wish they got a similar cover. In other instances, the product may associate with environmental concern by choosing to support environmental conservation efforts. This would certainly give the product a competitive advantage over similar products because most people like identifying with a cause of humanity. As for Starbucks Coffee, choosing to identify with breast cancer would be of particular advantage because breast cancer is an issue that concerns women. In addition, the product can be sold as an adjunct therapy for cancers due to its antioxidant properties. When women get to know about these health benefits, they would definitely become loyal consumers of the product in order to reduce their chances of getting breast cancers or any other cancers (Bruzelius & Johansson 2012).
Monitoring and Control Metrics
This enables the marketing teams to assess the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and make necessary adjustments to the strategies. In particular, they are used to justify the expenditure on coupons and pricing strategies. These strategies would only be continued if they pose significant results on the product popularity. However, some may have to be done away with if the product remains unpopular even after lots of money has been spent to market it. The best metric for Starbucks Coffee would be customer buying frequency considering that it can be realistically measured. The business marketers would have to develop a mechanism of recording the number of sales per outlet and the overall tally done at the end of a given period. Indeed, this analysis can be based on regions that record low sales and can be focused on for rigorous marketing. However, areas that recorded high sales should also be considered as hotspots. In this regard, specific strategies should be adopted to capitalize on the gains made so far. The strategies should not be too expensive given that the most important part of penetrating the market has already been achieved (Paryani 2011).
The rate of the growth of a business as compared to its competitors is also used to assess the effectiveness of its marketing strategies. The target of business promotion is to get the business doing better than its competitors. If competitors are doing relatively better, then it means they would be able to afford better marketing strategies and eventually become the market leader in the market. However, it must be noted that rigorous media campaigns can adversely affect the performance of a business. Thus, in comparing a business with its competitors, several factors should be considered so that its competitors are not overrated. As for Starbucks Coffee, comparison with its competitors would be quite deceptive given that most of them are well established in the market and thus do not need to be marketed any more. In some cases, products are diversified to the extent that it is almost impossible to determine the performance of a single product based on the overall performance of the business. This makes the volume of sales the ideal method of assessing the effectiveness of marketing strategies for Starbucks Coffee (Tewell et al 2006).
In conclusion, an effective marketing strategy should achieve immense competitive advantages using a minimum amount of resources. This could either be aimed at creating market awareness or engaging in price wars until a product gains considerable popularity in the market. However, analysis of the strategies should be done to enable the marketing teams to assess the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and make necessary adjustments to the strategies. In particular, they are used to justify the expenditure on coupons and pricing strategies. The rate of the growth of a business as compared to its competitors is also used to assess the effectiveness of its marketing strategies. The target of business promotion is to get the business doing better than its competitors.
