Severely Underfollowed

Starbucks has one of the most unique cultural characteristics out of all the firms, which influences the performance of the business and employees. The corporation’s organizational culture ties in with the company’s tactics for successful brand development and global expansion. The mission statement of Starbucks is, “Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”  Opportunity: I believe that an opportunity exists for Starbucks to enhance their advertising and social media marketing methods. This belief comes from the experience of frequently visiting the Starbucks stores located on campus because the coffeehouse’s main advertising medium is the store itself. The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz has stated that “Our stores are our billboard,” meaning that the Starbucks experience and the physical stores provide more advertising in comparison to those that are posted through radio, mobile, and television. The unmet ...

1. Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. The exit strategy I plan to make is the acquisition, by finding another business that would like to purchase mine and selling it to them. This generally means being bought by a larger company and is a win-win situation as a more efficient and quicker way to grow rather than creating new products organically. In an acquisition, I can negotiate the price as the owner and founder of the venture, and public markets value me relative to the industry. By choosing the right acquirer, the value gained can far exceed and outweigh what would be reasonable, based on my income. However, the right company needs to be chosen based on strategic fit. This can be determined by asking the question, “Which acquirer can buy you to expand into a new market, or offer a new product to their existing customers?” As an exit strategy, acquisition can result in incorporating assets and goodwill into the business for sale, maximizing the return to the owner. The ...

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future , Ashlee Vance 1. You read about an entrepreneur: What surprised me the most about Elon Musk was that he was born in South Africa and remained there until he was 17, when he left for Canada with the intention to either get closer to America or to avoid South African military service. Musk had his eyes set on the United States for a long time because he viewed the country as the land of opportunity. What I most admire about Musk is his determination and creativity, from taking risks as an entrepreneur and working very hard, changing online banking through X.com and PayPal, to revolutionizing both the automotive industry with Tesla’s electric car and taking on the space industry by outperforming competitors at quicker and cheaper rates through SpaceX. What I least admire about the entrepreneur is his expectation of employees, setting wild or extreme deadlines and accelerated schedules, expecting his workers to be as co...

1. A time this past semester that I failed: A time this past semester that I failed was in my ADV4800- Advertising Campaigns class. The class is a demanding, but rewarding capstone class for advertising majors, and is about strategic advertising planning and is the culmination of what is taught in the research, strategies, copy and design, media planning, promotion and public relations courses the major offers. I was managing the project, which is a campaign plan book, for a real client, and my group and I were so eager to please them that we set ambitious goals and deadlines at the very beginning of the project. Everyone in the group thought this was doable, but we forgot to take into account classes and other extracurriculars that everyone had, and we all failed at meeting internal deadlines that we had set together as a group at the start of the project. Tasks that were supposed to be completed by the end of the week ended up taking two or three weeks, and everyone in the group wa...

Existing Market: What’s next in terms of products and services for my venture: What I think is next in terms of products and services for my venture is creating and developing strategic business units specialized in certain products regionally, such as tea for England and mooncakes in China. Starbucks currently incorporates strategies to reach diverse populations and cultures by conducting extensive research on the history, culture, and the locals’ taste preferences to best adapt their products. The corporation’s localization strategy is to blend local products with innovative store designs to fully adapt to the country’s culture. When Starbucks entered the market in China, they knew it was not about the coffee, but about reviving a tea house culture that existed for thousands of years. In China, the brand started by serving tea at Starbucks locations before coffee was sold, enabling the market to become accustomed to the brand. Starbucks was also not localized, or branded as a Chine...

Opportunity: I believe that an opportunity exists for Starbucks to enhance their advertising and social media marketing methods. This belief comes from the experience of frequently visiting the Starbucks stores located on campus because the coffeehouse’s main advertising medium is the store itself. The unmet need is Starbucks potential to increase their advertising and social media marketing methods for various promotions such as offering BOGO (buy one, get one free) offers to consumers to encourage them to purchase a drink and receive one to give to a close friend. The people who have this need are young people ages 16 to 24, typically in high school or college. The need came from when I asked some of my peers out of curiosity if they had ever seen an advertisement for Starbucks before, in which all of them answered no. The need has always existed, due to Starbucks relying on not following traditional methods of advertising, which some consumers view as a throwback to the methods bus...