Strategy for the Business Marketing Plan Developed for Starbucks Firm - Assignment Example

Starbucks Marketing The need to develop a marketing plan is a key issue in the running of Australia based Starbucks firm. Since marketing is not a onetime project with the beginning and the end but a lifetime process where innovations are made and systems changed if they are not performing to the required standards (Moon & John, 2003). The need to develop one such a marketing plan calls for an iterative process with a well-defined review process. This review process will help in assessing whether or not Starbucks Corporation is on track as it tries to achieve the long term objectives on a daily basis. So, review process must be done on a frequent basis, most probably on monthly basis. The following is the marketing review strategy for the business marketing plan developed above for Starbucks firm: 1. At the beginning, Starbucks managers are supposed to review on the assumptions and the learnt experiences after developing the master plan. Since all plans are based on optimisms that the marketing plan will go through as intended, it is wise to review them so as to know if they are still working or not. The managers would therefore look whether the pre-teen are frequently visiting the restaurant as it was on the marketing plan. If not then, they need to check on the process of implementing the plans because it can be the main reason why the whole system is not working. 2. It would be essential to review the already implemented marketing strategies at the beginning of everything else since it will make Starbucks community have the big picture of what they want to achieve in the long run. 3. It is also very essential to review on the lessons learnt on the process and since the last meeting; the learnt lesson can be either negative or positive depending on the mistakes made and the feedback from the customers. If the feed-backs are good they go ahead with the plans, if any mistakes are done then they go back to where they started and make the necessary amendments. 4. In the four review strategy, it would be necessary to make changes in the marketing materials such as budgets, metrics, and the marketing calendars. These will make the management know on the best way to handle the children cases and the product prices to attract more customers. 5. In this phase, is important to get ready for the next iteration. This includes identifying the developments achieved so far and how they are being coordinated with the others which have failed. 6. The implementation plan is the final step the Starbucks managers need to do in the review analyses. In this step, they go back and start marketing again. After the changes have been done it is always advisable to go back and do according to the changes. Marketing ethics is one of the fields of marketing that concentrates more on the principles of marketing. Ethics in marketing can be divided into promotion, advertisement and pricing. Marketing ethics to children mostly revolves around the following questions; a) Should marketers seek permission from the parents? b) Do children have the purchasing power? c) Do children understand the marketing styles used by the marketers? d) Do children understand the negative effect associated with some (if not all) of the products advertised? All marketing strategies are legal expect if used wrongly to over exaggerate the marketing strategy for adults. But for children, food marketing policies are of special concerns because it can be associated with childhood obesity. The marketing strategies for children should be monitored because children lack the cognitive skills to understand the exert intentions of the marketer and be in a position to say no if exploited. Some of the marketing strategies to children include; advertisement with cartoon animations which makes the children feels that they have the power to purchase items without the consent of their parents or guardian. Another way of marketing strategies is when advertisements are done during the kid television programs. This is unethical since the children are not under the watch of their parents. Again they make children to have the desire to buy those products at all cost, without realizing the pressure associated with the purchasing of new items (Kennedy, 2009). Therefore it would be unethical to keep aside the parent when advertising to young kids. In some other cases, the content in an advertisement matters a lot because, if some of the advertisements make children feel belittled if they don’t buy the item or the product these can led to pressure on children to buy unnecessary items. Such advertisements too are unethical. Starbucks Corporation should see to it that it does not exaggerate on some of the quality in their advertisement like color, voices, music and images. These four qualities in an advertisement can cause children to like some of the products advertised and they are not meant for them. However, there are some good advertisements which meet all of the requirements in children marketing strategy. These are advertisements that don’t change the moral values of the children then or in the future. Marketing to children therefore is a challenge which even Starbucks has to internalize and work with it. The legality or illegality may hinder in the implementation of the developed marking plans to children since it is illegal in some counties. Since the marketing strategy developed is made with good intentions and it meets almost all the ethical and some of the legal requirements, it is advisable to implement it. It is also advisable to be on the lookout not to market with the wrong reasons and be in a mess. So, it is in the mandate of the managers of Starbucks Australia to remove the teddy bears in its signature line. They may also change the color of the teddy bears to one which does not draw much of the kid’s attention. The management is also supposed to provide beverages that are user friendly such as one with low quality of caffeine and the like. They should also try and provide smaller quantities of soft drinks like Pepsi and coke (Kennedy, 2009). By so doing, the Australian based Starbucks Corporation will become more successful in providing products to both adults and pre-teens. These in return will make the customers develop more positive attitudes about the firm’s, products, its services and their advertisements. Not Applying ethical standards can lead to customers’ dissatisfaction, bad reputation, and lack of trust with the firm and the firm’s management which can lead to legal action. Some of the potential stakeholders include; I. The local community at large II. The government officials III. Employees of the company IV. The suppliers V. Staffs and students from academic institutions VI. Tourists The stake holders are in a position to sign-off the selected business plan in order to implement it (Overholt and Alison, 2004). These will follow if the stakeholders are satisfied with the serves of the firm. The firms’ aim is to increase the reliability and increasing profit by offering quality services, products and providing good ethics and regulation in order to have a competitive edge over the other equally good hotel firm like Hilton Sydney. The marketing plans are to improve the relationship of the customers and the business operators. Therefore by sign-off the plans the stakeholders will be in a position to bid for more services that are fair to them and to the firm at large. One of the stakeholders that I will choose is the tourist visiting the hotel. If the hotel implements fair policies, the tourists will benefit since the firm will attract more of the other stakeholders like insurers who will benefit the firm. The other marketing plans may be signed-off by the other stakeholders depending on the satisfaction and the relationship developed. It therefore does not mean that if one stakeholder signs-off the marketing plans then the other has no right to push and sign a policy that benefits them most (Overholt and Alison, 2004). As a tourist I would push for Starbucks Corporation to start offering accommodation services by erecting buildings with these facilities. By so doing, the corporation will increase the number of customers since the stakeholders will feel more confident and have more time at the restaurants. These will also make the firm to increase their services and products. Again by doing this, the operators will get to know the favorites taste of the customers. This will not help the tourist as the only stake holders but the other stake holder at large. The company will make more profits only by implementing one marketing plan, if more of such marketing plans are put in place the company and the stake holders will benefit significantly (Moon & John, 2003). This will benefit me as a tourist in more than one way; first, I will be more relaxed when taking my cup of coffee in one hand and sandwich in the other hand I because I won’t be worried about where I will spend the night. As a matter of fact, I can pay for the accommodation in advance and be traveling from the restaurant in the morning and coming back in the afternoon. Secondly, it will make me have my favorite cup of coffee anytime I want. Thirdly, it will make me interact with other stakeholders and have them as friends. As one of the marketing strategies, the mingling of the stakeholders will benefit all since it will make them have one favorite joint. Now back to marketing development, I as a marketer, and with the feedback above from one of our stakeholders who is a tourist, I have belief with this marketing plan. On implementing this marketing plan, it will open more avenues on the company’s list of opportunities (Overholt and Alison, 2004). The company’s strategy in doing all these once again is to increase productivity and the rate of return. This therefore will be a lifetime chance though it comes with an extra cost. To implement this, some things must be done to fund the building of the lodges. To facilitate these, small but smart moves has to be put in place to start a long journey with a strand. The one thing that I would advocate for is to see to it that, Starbuck stores business districts have been redesigned to incorporate a comfortable feel for the stakeholders and encourage large gatherings. The made design should be able to accommodate a small conference of about 30 people. These should then graduate to accommodating people overnight. Another thing that I would implement is to promote our products in order to increase returns which will be used to fund in the implementation of the plan. These can be achieved by first offering free coffee cups to the most frequent customers and customers who are most loyal to their brands tastes of cups of coffee. These with reflect to the mandate of the company’s need to increase the numbers of customers in their restaurants. The last thing to put in place would be to sponsor customers who will purchase premium products like holding golf events, college and university games, business and public conferences not forgetting the rich cohort (Kennedy, 2009). The money collect of such events will be used to build the lodges and hiring of personnel to cater to the services to be rendered by the accommodation lodges. In conclusion, it is wise to say that, it is in the Starbucks mandate to adhere to the recommendations listed, since by so doing it will have more than one advantage. Again, it will avoid any legal action that can be taken against them, and if they are sued, they will have a good legal basis to defend themselves. It is also advisable that in the implementation plan, they implement a more sensible plan that will not have any hiccups. These can be done by using psychologist in developing the marketing plan for children. These will minimize the chances of implementing an erroneous marketing plan. Finally it is good to be always ware to know what is on their display counter. References Moon, Y. & John, Q. (2003). Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service. Harvard College. Boston: Harvard business School Overholt, A. (2004). Thinking outside the cup” Fast Company. . Retrieved February 24, 2012 from http://www.fastcompany.com Kennedy, D. S. (2009). The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Find Your Hook. Communicate Your Message. Make Your Mark. Ohio: Adams Media SWOT Analysis Starbucks.” 2006. Marketing Teacher Ltd. 22 Feb. 2012 from http://www.marketingteacher.com Read More