Introduction and Product Description
This marketing plan for the Starbucks Corporation focuses on the introduction of a new product for the company. The Starbucks Corporation classifies its business activities in two principal groupings - Retail Products and Specialty Products. Retail Products reflect sales of the Company's products through its retail stores. Specialty Products include products developed solely by the Company and products developed by the Company in conjunction with partner companies. Specialty Products, however, are sold through retail outlets other than the Company's own retail stores, e.g., supermarkets, department stores, on airliners, and so forth (Starbucks Corporation, 2005).
The new product on which this marketing plan focuses has characteristics of both Retail Products and Specialty Products. The product will be developed solely by Starbucks Corporation, but it will not be sold through the Company's retail stores. Neither, however, will the new product be sold through retail outlets of the Company's retail partners. Rather, the new product will be sold through a Mobile Coffee Service owned and operated by Starbucks Corporation.
A few years back Starbucks Corporation began marketing coffee beans through supermarkets and later marketed canned and bottled coffee beverages through retail outlets other than the Company's retail stores. The underlying concept was to take Starbucks into the home to target those coffee consumers (a) who had few opportunities to patronize the Company's retail stores and (b) those coffee consumers who desire Starbucks coffee before they leave home (for work, school, or whatever) or after they return home (Starbucks Corporation, 2005).
While the Company has enjoyed some success with the take Starbucks home approach, the effort has satisfied all consumer wants in this area. Some people would prefer to have coffee products freshly prepared by Starbucks in their hom...