Marketing Strengths

The organization that has been chosen in this context is Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the most recognizable and popular brand names in the world because it is the world’s largest coffeehouse chain having branches all over the world. The organization sustains its reputation through a sturdy marketing strategy that focuses on product quality and customer service.

• The major strength of Starbucks is the quality of its products. It uses high quality raw materials in order to produce the best tasting coffee in the market.
• The cafes are located in prime and populous locations, which can be easily accessed by consumers. Apart from that, Starbucks also maintains an aesthetic ambiance inside the cafes so that the customers can relax while they have the coffee (Haskova, 2015).

• The prices of its products exceed the prevailing rates in the market. Therefore, there shall be a lot of customers who shall pay a lesser price for the coffee they can get from local cafes or other competitors (Gelbrich, Roschk and Gafeeva, 2016).
• Starbucks specializes on a product, which can be easily imitated, and therefore, there can be a lot of substitutes available in the market at cheaper prices.

Starbucks’ strategy focuses on quality and customer service that shall be instrumental in securing the customers loyalty. It has expanded into Asian markets in order to operate in the emerging consumerist economies. However, there are certain factors that can seriously put Starbucks in a disadvantageous position like the availability of substitutes. 

Starbucks has positioned itself in the market as a premium coffee brand that offers the best quality coffee to the customers. It ensures that the quality of its coffee is superior the ones available in the market. Therefore, customers shall be more likely to have their coffee from Starbucks. Coupled with the high quality of its products Starbucks also boasts of an excellent store environment, which makes the cafe-going experience of the customers truly relaxing and enjoyable. It can be observed that there can be innumerable coffee shops in a certain location but none can offer the value proposition that Starbucks is offering (Harrington, Ottenbacher, and Fauser, 2017).

However, to maintain a good public image Starbucks is also very stringent about its ethical standards. Apart from offering value to its customers, it helps its employees in various ways like providing for their employees fees for education (Marques, Camillo and Holt, 2015). Therefore, Starbucks’ social responsibility forms an integral part of its marketing strategy. This integrative approach helps the brand to out-compete other brands selling similar products.   

Starbucks seeks to maintain a synchronous relationship between its marketing objectives and corporate objectives. This implies that the marketing strategy is devised in such a manner that it aids in the fulfillment of the long term corporate goals. Starbucks has a glorious corporate mission, which is to “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time” (Real and Percell, 2018). Therefore, Starbucks does not merely aim at earning profits out of selling coffee. Rather, it seeks to imprint a lasting effect on the planet through carrying out business. Therefore, apart from ensuring its standards of product quality, it also indulges in various social activities for the benefits of employees and society. This helps to increase the reputation of the brand as one, which seeks to promote the betterment of society.

Starbucks also strives to operate in a transparent and humane manner while interacting with customers, employees and suppliers alike. It also actively invests in community building programs as a gesture to acknowledge the gratitude that it has for customers who let it earn so much profits (Ottman, 2017). 

While on one hand gaming consoles like the Microsoft Xbox 360 or the Nintendo Wii is offered in moderate prices, Sony’s premium console Playstation 3 has a very high price compared to the competitors. While on one hand, looking at the standard prices of gaming consoles available in the market the rate charged by Sony would seem to be a bit too unjustified to the average consumer. Various ethical issues about the legitimacy of pricing can be brought into the domain and Sony’s pricing strategy can be analyzed through the perspectives offered by ethical arguments. For example, the organization can be accused to being greedy and being interested only in profit maximization. However, such arguments should only be brought in after studying the value proposition that is being offered by Sony. The Playstation 3 by far, is the best gaming console that is available in the market. Leaving aside the quality of build and other physical features of the commodity, the Playstation 3 offers the widest range of compatible games combined with superior performance (Ofek and Wickersham, 2008). Moreover, the Playstation boasts of a very large number of exclusive games that shall not be available on other platforms. The Wii for example has only a limited number of game titles while on the other hand almost all games that are available on Xbox are also available in personal computers, which in fact gives better performance.

Marketing Weakness

Therefore, it can be observed that Sony’s quality outmatches that of Nintendo or Microsoft. Seen from this angle, the high price indeed becomes justified.  

Advertising Objective: Starbucks is giving free tickets in order to reach out to more customers.  

Advertising Objective: Starbucks points out those sharing Starbucks beverages mean sharing joy. 

Advertising Objective: Starbucks says that sharing and buying the food can help in passing on the cheer.

Four main factors to consider when selecting an advertising medium:

• Cost involved
• Reach to buyers
• Practicability of the returns
• Timing

A SWOT analysis framework mainly stands for the analysis of Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats faced by a certain business. It aids ion showing the different scopes and issues that the business is facing and on basis of that, management body takes certain steps and decisions in order to make the best out of the recognition of those elements.

A business has different kinds of internal and external factors that affect it overall, performance and profitability. The internal factors consist of things such as stakeholder, workplace environment, employees, management body and other things. The internal; factors of a business can be analyzed by using the micro based analytical framework, SWOT analysis. While the external factors consists of a total of all the factors outside the place of the business (which affects its actions and decisions). These factors can be analysed by making use of the PESTLE analytical framework. 

For countering the social trend threats, the company is taking steps to build online help services to guide customers. In the slowed down housing market, IKEA shall be able to give better home improvement tips to customers making it economic for them. They have also taken steps to provide better sustainability training to the employees. For countering market forces threats, the company is making use of economies of scale by taking advantage of huge operational area and distribution channel. It is employing modern technologies and efficient managers to organize all the work. This shall also help the company to lower cost in the long run. In order to gain advantage in a sluggish economy, IKEA lowered the prices of products (cutting down their profit margins) in order to increase sale and demand.

IKEA made use of each and every details of its SWOT analysis top strategize ways in order ensure better improvements in the business. In response to its global recognitions and vision, it has increased use of renewable materials by 75% and started making smarter use of them in order to maintain sustainability. IKEA has termed ways to buy large volumes of materials from its suppliers in order to maintain good relation with them. Further, it has also started sourcing raw materials from near places in order to reduce costs. This has helped them to offer products at lower price and high quality, thus keeping up to their vision.  

The opportunity of rising demand for green and low priced products has been harnessed by the company by using resources sustainability, advising people how to use sustainable and recycled furniture, funding various charitable projects and reducing the carbon footprints.

Due to its huge size, in many countries products are made without keeping quality regulations and have worse working conditions. IKEA has arranged for teams of inspectors in order to visit this place and ensure that all things are made and managed as per the legislation. The demand for low price products has pushed the company to adopt economies of scale. Profits margins have been reduced and raw materials are harnessed from nearby places in order to reduce costs. The large scale of scale has helped it to cover up all its profits. In addition, for helping customers, IKEA has built online guidance options.

• Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain in the world. It has a lot of resources at its disposal. It can easily use them in order to increase its productivity and profitability.
• It is the most popular cafe destination and has stores all around the world. Therefore, it can boast of a wide customer base.
• It is a socially committed and ethical organization and therefore, it has a strong public image.
• The best quality coffee is available in Starbucks.

• The prices are exceptionally high for the products to be bought by many customers.
• Its products are not unique and can be easily imitated.

• The developing economies in Asian countries have opened up a number of opportunities for Starbucks to expand around the globe.
• Starbucks in indulging advertisements in order to increase the reach of its marketing strategies.

• There are a number of alternatives to the coffee offered by Starbucks at cheaper prices. Many consumers would opt for the cheaper coffee than Starbucks.
• The organization operates within a specific and restricted market. Therefore, Starbucks does not have a wide range of different products that can sustain its business if its primary niche fails to offer sufficient profits. 

References

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Danimacdesign.com (2018). Web Banner Ads » Categories » Starbucks. [online] Danimacdesign.com. Available at: https://danimacdesign.com/projects/web_banners/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2018].

Gelbrich, K., Roschk, H. and Gafeeva, R., 2016. Countercultural Service Usage: a Cross-national Observation of Starbucks Customers.

Harrington, R.J., Ottenbacher, M.C. and Fauser, S., 2017. QSR brand value: Marketing mix dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), pp.551-570.

Haskova, K., 2015. Starbucks Marketing Analysis. CRIS-Bulletin of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinary Study, 2015(1), pp.11-29.

Marques, J., Camillo, A.A. and Holt, S., 2015. The Starbucks Culture: Responsible, radical innovation in an irresponsible, incremental world. In Handbook of Research on Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibilities (pp. 302-312). IGI Global.

Ofek, E. and Wickersham, P., 2008. Sony PlayStation 3: game over?. Harvard Business School.

Ottman, J., 2017. The new rules of green marketing: Strategies, tools, and inspiration for sustainable branding. Routledge.

Pinterest.com (2018). creative starbucks print ads (3) | || coffee and kitties 2 || | Pinterest | Typography, Typography design and Typography poster design. [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/278660295665372689/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2018].

Real, K. and Percell, H., 2018. Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Sampson, J. (2018). Christmas ads in the newspapers: Starbucks. [online] Newsworks.org.uk. Available at: https://www.newsworks.org.uk/news-and-opinion/christmas-ads-in-the-papers [Accessed 14 Nov. 2018].