Marketing Research- Starbucks vs. Coffee Beans Essay

Market segmentation is topical anestheticised as the bidding of dividing a market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting integrity or more segments to orchestrate with a distinct market mixing (Schiffman, Bednall, Cowley, OCass, Watson and Kanuk, 2001). Different companies have antithetic abilities that enable them to serve their target market better, which is why some companies choose to focus much of their precaution to specific segments. Starbucks primarily chooses to focus on the demographics, psychographics and lifestyle of their customers. It is with the learning self-possessed regarding these segments that Starbucks can better serve its customers.Demographics argon things such as age, sex, marital status, education, occupation and income. Starbucks targets two males and females, mainly 18-30 year olds, but really does ply for all(prenominal)bodys needs. And because young children dont usually drinking coffee, Sta rbucks offers a range of non-coffee beverages to cater for the whole family. Hanging out in Starbucks gives the photo of being very with it and roughly of the people you expect sitting in the stores exude a certain coolness and give off the examine of having some sort of social status, with lots of money to spare. Starbucks customers are mainly in their final years of high school, in university or meet starting to work. But whatever it is, they all have had a sincere education, and if they do have a job, it almost certainly includes a sizable income as sound.Demographics help to locate a target market and this information is often the most accessible and cost trenchant panache to make out a target market (Schiffman et al, 2001). Even though factors such as personality and behaviour are often first used to define a market segment, the consumers demographic characteristics must be cognize in order to assess the size of the target market and to feed it efficiently (Schiffm an et al, 2001).Psychographics are based on the consumers activities, interests and opinions, so its basically how they spend their time, what their preferences and priorities are and how they feel about events and issues. Psychographic explore is most related to psychological research, andespecially when it comes to personality and attitude measurement. This form of use consumer research has proved to be a valuable marketing spear that helps identify consumer segments that are likely to be responsive to specific marketing messages (Schiffman et al, 2001).Starbucks is very heavily involved in charity and the arts, and is making hearty efforts to be a socially and surroundingsally responsible company. For example, Starbucks actively participates in AIDS clears, and for every city that has a store, Starbucks sets up at to the lowest degree one shelter for the underprivileged children and donates money as well. By dynamic in various different positive causes and events, Starbuck s gains a lot of gilded exposure. Starbucks has sponsored the Special Olympics, the hip Lilith Fair music festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the global Film Festival in Washington DC and the Museum of Contemporary ruse in LA.Just by looking at these examples, we can see that Starbucks aims to target and r individually people who are generous and charitable, as well as people who like to have fun and enjoy the seminal and entertaining side of life. Starbucks also has a strong commitment to the environment and the companys policy to recycle and conserve wherever realistic is exemplified by the 10% discount it provides to customers who reduce waste by exploitation their own mugs or refillable coffee bags. Starbucks offers these discounts to help stimulate environmental debt instrument amongst its customers. As Starbucks grows and reaches new markets, the company has made a commitment to go by to be a strong supporter of non-profit organisations and events in all communities.C onsumer research has found evidence that within each of the social classes there is a constellation of specific lifestyle factors (shared beliefs, attitudes, activities and behaviours) that tend to distinguish the members of each class from the members of each class from the members of all some other social classes (Schiffman et al, 2001).Starbucks sells a lifestyle, to both customers and employees, and has followed the successful examples of other big corporations such as Coke, Nike and Sony by linking its sucker with all things cool and in. Starbucks has created a style and ambience that has infused a certain newchic and appeal into coffee, an age-old beverage, making it the hippest drink of today.Starbucks chooses to associate itself with all things bustling, active and vigourous. That is why locations of all the stores are cautiously selected for convenience and Starbucks specifically targets places that are heavy with pedestrian street traffic. nearly of the places that you would find a Starbucks, either in the form of a rangy store or a just a small booth (both ideal for just popping in for a quick canvass away coffee or for a nice lighten eat break) would be at shopping centres, airport terminals and supermarket foyers, which are all places that are always hectic and filled to the brim with people who have supple lifestyles and are always on the go.Starbucks competes directly against forcefulness coffees sold at retail through supermarkets, specialty retails, and a growing number of other specialty coffee stores. In addition, Starbucks competes for whole bean coffee sales with franchise operators and independent specialty coffee stores. In virtually every major metropolitan area were Starbucks operates and expects to expand there are local or regional competitors with substantial market presence in the specialty coffee business. But Starbucks biggest competitor in the coffee industry is the java bonce. burnt umber Bean was started by Herbe rt B. Hyman in 1963 in California and became the pioneers in retailing whole bean coffee and loose tea leaves. hot chocolate Bean are the oldest importers, roasters and multi retailers of specialty coffee and tea in the fall in States. Like Starbucks, umber Bean offers a diverse range of original coffee, ice blends and roast styles as well as four varieties of routine brews including steped pre-ground coffee. A nonher similarity with Starbucks is that Coffee Bean also has a walloping offering of food and beverages that appeal to all age groups from all walks of life.In terms of needs, motivation and personality, Coffee Bean is all about twist meaningful and respectful relationships with customers by finding or concocting a flavour for them. Coffee Bean will also toast your bagels, heat your pastries and individualize and custom make the drink or blend justthe way you would like it. With perception, Coffee Bean is a big believer in teamwork (just like Starbucks) as they feel that success is achieved by working together. Coffee Bean staff are friendly, and maintain amicable relationships between customers and each other. The employees have respect for each others values, opinions and individual personalities and are honest and truthful to themselves and each other.Another similarity with Starbucks is that Coffee Bean is actively involved with helping communities and make it their mission to develop the most complete community based programs around. As well as donating move over baskets, gift certificates, coupons, coffees and teas, Coffee Bean will gladly consider a donation to any organisation for various charitable events that directly benefit local community programs and local schools.Due to the phenomenal growth of the global coffee market, Coffee Bean has decided to solely concentrate on international franchises at the moment. Unlike Starbucks, who have a target bay window market being the United States, most of the Coffee Bean outlets are in Asi a (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan etc.) and the Middle East (Israel, United Arab Emirates, Dubai etc.)Unlike Coffee Bean, Starbucks does not personalise their coffees or have different products to suit different countries tastes. Coffee Bean offers more food meals (pastas, soups,) and not only light meals (sandwiches, pastries, desserts) like Starbucks. Starbucks allows other distributors to sell its coffee, but Coffee Bean does not and Starbucks is affiliated with things such as the Herald Sun Newspaper and percolate Music. And the main advantage that Starbucks has over Coffee Bean is its effective use of celebrity appeal, which is a form of reference group