Administrador De Negocios Internacionales

IMRD PAPER
Essay #2

Christopher Roche
LING 200
4/3/2012

INTRODUCTION
Starbucks started more than 40 years ago as a small coffee shop and chain in Seattle, Washington. Ever since they opened their first shop outside of the U.S. in the mid 1990s, the company’s importance has grown around the world. Starbucks is present in 58 countries with nearly 20,000 stores in total, proving itself asbeing a very successful company and as the biggest coffee chain in the world.
What has set this coffee shop apart from the others to become so successful? Starbucks has given multiple values for their company. The coffee quality and variety is one of them; for example, in their webpage they describe their “Starbucks Roast Spectrum” as a balance of aroma, acidity body and flavor where thecustomer can pick the one that perfectly fits them. Another core competency stated by Ethisphere annual report, “2011 World’s most Ethical Companies” is that Starbucks had been considered one of the most ethical companies, being eco-friendly and having a lot of social responsibility activities. In addition, we can consider the style that they have given to their coffee shops, a very contemporary place,where people feel comfortable. As successful and big as the company is today it also gives the brand status, where people feel indentified when they purchase their product. And last but not least is the proximity that Starbucks has, what is a very important factor for coffee shops. However, what are the specific values that really matter to the consumer? As a coffee shop, is their main competencythe coffee? Through research and a survey made to people, we will see what determines people’s decision to go to Starbucks and not to another coffee shop, whether it is ethical responsibility, proximity, or style/status that the brand has.
One of the most important core competencies that Starbucks has today is their ethical responsibility, considering their recycling programs and their socialactivities that they frequently do. But people are not very knowledgeable about CSR in general and that is not something that determines the customers purchase in Starbucks. I believe that people mostly frequent it because of their style and status that the brand has and also the proximity of the coffee shops, more than the quality of coffee of the different kinds that they sell.
METHODS
To helpus to know why people choose Starbucks we have done a survey investigation. The research was based on an online format for some people and also distributed to customers that were consuming at two Starbucks located in SDSU campus. Of the 15 questions of the survey, three questions were for demographic information, age, gender and nationality. The next question was to know how frequently they wentto Starbucks, if they have been at least sometimes, they would answer what is what do they like from there; the style, environment, proximity, prices, attention or other. If they answered that they have not been there or rarely, they would answer what they do not like from Starbucks. After that question, there is a general one about if they think that Starbucks is healthy or not to see whatperspective the people have of their products. Then they would been asked about the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and what they think about it; to then ask five questions related to CSR and how it is related to Starbucks such as if they would pay more for a cup of coffee fairly traded, if they knew about the Social Responsibility Activities (SRA) that Starbucks does, if the fair trade make themmore attractive than their competitors, if they would still prefer Starbucks if they would not do SRA and if it they considered if Starbucks had harmful practices for the environment. At the end they answer if they think that Starbucks is a good place to work or not, to once again see how is people’s perspective about this company. The data collected that was collected in addition to the...