Marketing in a Global Economy
Edward Walls
BUS 620 Managerial Marketing
Prof. Dr. Susan Sasiadek
October 7, 2013

Marketing in a Global Economy
Starbucks has grown from a specialty coffee roasting company based in Seattle, Washington to an international behemoth that buys, roasts and sells specialty Arabica coffee beans and coffee beverages these expensive Arabica coffee beans are the main ingredient in Starbucks American version of Italian coffee beverages like espresso, lattes and cappuccinos that many customers from other countries love. However, Italy remains to be an untapped market for Starbucks because of the likelihood of tarnishing the good name of the company while in the process of trying to satisfy the refined taste and preferences of coffee drinkers of Italy. Starbucks must definitely be mindful of the potential risk of ruining the company’s good name by trying to compete in an already flooded market in Italy that is home to 140,000 coffee cafes or bars as they are called in Italy. In Italian coffee bars the customers pays first then served and the bartenders who are dressed in white shirts and bow ties are called baristas serve up cups of espresso on a daily schedule to satisfy the local customer demand for local traditional coffee preferences over all other brands because Italy is the coffee culture capital of the world (Faris, 2012).
Italian tastes and preferences differ from the northern parts of the country to the southern parts of the country. According to Finch (2012) any firm that fails to understand its customers’ preferences will ultimately fail. I think this principle applies to Starbucks as it would all companies’ international as well as local companies.
The first task for Starbucks will be to determine if changing its product and using the cheaper robust local coffee beans from Italy to suit the taste and centuries old