Biancka Jimenez
Dr. Philip Gonsher
MKT 324 – 11/9/10
The Emergence of Starbuck’s Vivanno

In 1971, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker opened the first Starbucks in Seattle Washington. The venture began as a single store selling high-quality coffee beans and coffee-making equipment. A few years later, Howard Schultz joined the company and introduced the concept of selling beverages along with selling coffee beans. Although this idea did not sit well with the original owners, today Starbucks Coffee is a well-known coffee shop with over 17,000 stores in 50 countries. Despite its original focus of selling coffee-beans, Starbucks has expanded its offerings to include pre-made coffee, tea, bakery goods and other grocery items.
A Starbucks customer was historically a busy professional seeking a premium coffee-based concoction made to their exact specifications. A standard “Cup of Joe” was replaced with the 30 second double-caramel skim half-caf macchiato. Patrons used a jargon that soon became synonymous with the Starbucks brand. Starbucks was not only selling what was listed on their menu: They were selling an atmosphere of taking part in the Starbucks experience and for some people a certain type of lifestyle.
Although this demographic still frequents Starbucks, the recent recession has pushed Starbucks to begin looking into expanding their customer base. Starbucks is trying to find a way to convince people to spend their hard earned money on a luxury item in a time when many Americans are struggling to make their mortgage payments. Some die-hard customers will never give up their morning cup of coffee, but how does Starbucks compete price wise when their brand is synonymous with high quality coffee?
The main competitors for Starbucks in the beverage/snack market are Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Baskin-Robbins and Jamba Juice: