The key difference between Starbucks and Kusmi Tea is the brand experience. Starbucks offer fresh-made coffee that is generally to be consumed in-store. Because of this Starbucks has to ensure a consistent experience in all their stores. Kusmi Tea’s key product is packaged tea, and tea consumption is more geared towards in home consumption where out of home tea consumption is driven by need for premium tea experience. These different expectations of their customers will lead to different retail strategies for the two brands (see question 3).
Brand Awareness in France
Awareness but no preference
High awareness in premium tea segment
Competitors
Starbucks and Kusmi Tea compete in the same product category: beverage.
Specific competitors for each brands vary by distribution formats (shown on the right)
Physical Store
Coffee Shops: Costa Coffee;
Nothing Hill; traditional cafes
Tea salon: Ladurée/ Mariage Frères/ Fauchon/ Meert/ etc
Supermarket Retailers
Illy, Nescafe and other bottled coffee brands
Lipton/ Tetley/ Twining
Premium outlet/ retail
Nespresso
Mariage Frères/ Pammamn/ Palais Des Thés
Market Situations/ Trend/ Challenges
Strong coffee culture in France; Zinc Culture
Repositioning of Tea Category to be more modern/ health-oriented and appealing to young clienteles
Consumers Profile
Demographic
-Unisex
-Tourist/ Business clients/ Nesters
-85% Female
-Younger, modern, and more dynamic clientele
-Socio-professional categories
Consumer Trend (consumption trend
-Towards in-home consumption
-Social dimension of tea consumption makes tea consumption more popular in home than out of home
-When out of home, customers prefer high-end tea
Hero Product
Frappuccino
Fresh-made coffee drinks
-Well-Being range (Detox: 35% of sales)
-Packaged tea range
Brand Extension
Coffee, beverages and confectionary
Tea related
Distribution