Starbucks - Brand Audit
Ranking as the 96th in Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands of 2011 list with its $3.6 million brand value, Starbucks is one of the most successful and highly recognized brands. In order to understand more about the underlying strategies that brings this success, we analyzed the brand focusing on its brand inventory, brand positioning, marketing strategy, consumer perceptions and competitors. Finally, we evaluated Starbucks’ strengths and improvement areas and recommend future actions in pursuit of success.
Brand Inventory
Starbucks is one of the few brands to develop a strong brand image without investing large amounts of money to marketing and advertising. With its ability to align its brand positioning with consistent brand image, Starbucks delivers its core values to its customers directly with its brand inventory.
Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle in 1970 's. With ties to Seattle’s history Starbucks name originates from an old mining camp: Starbo. The exact Starbucks name is taken from a classic American novel, Moby Dick, which gives the idea to evoke seafaring romance of the early coffee traders.1 Although there have been changes in the logo, mermaid logo become one of the most easily recognizable logos of the world.
With $3.6 million brand value, Starbucks is ranked as 96th in Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands of 2011 list.2 In its 40 years of existence, Starbucks brand was able to create strong brand positioning and increase its brand equity year after year without mass media marketing. Starbucks employed strategies in its marketing similar to its business management which are consistent growth and quality emphasis. Starbucks brand has grown with company and kept its consistent image throughout the years. Until 2011, 40 years after it is founded, Starbucks had positioned itself as a coffee company. However in 2011, Starbucks changed its long lasting brand strategy and repositioned to Starbucks
References: 13. Moore, John. Tribal Knowledge. 2006 14 15. Koehn, Nancy, Marya Besharov, and Katherine Miller. Starbucks Coffee Company in the 21st Century. HarvardCollege. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2008. 1-35. 16. Stephanie Kang, Janet Adamy, and Suzanne Vranica, “TV Campaign is a Culture Shift for Starbucks,” The Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2007.