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Will Starbucks survive UK competition?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs January 9th, 2008 by Melinda Varley

This week take-away coffee king Starbucks asked its CEO Jim Donald to leave the company after he failed to increase coffee sales in the face of some stiff competition in the US. However, the chain couldn’t be doing better in the UK.

Starbucks is the Seattle coffee company that made take-away coffee fashionable and brought the macchiato and latte to the masses.

Launched in the US and then across the world, it made a huge impact in Australia when it first came about. Starbucks is a coffee house that plays cool music and has nice lounge chairs where you can sit and read for hours.

When I first moved to London, instead of looking for a job I’d sit in a Starbucks writing nonsense in a journal and reading all day. However, it wasn’t only coffee drinkers that caught on to the uber style that made coffee famous.

Since coffee has become everyone’s must have accessory on their 9 am stroll into work, other companies have decided to get in on the secret that is caffeine and Starbucks now faces some stiff, and cheaper, competition from outlets such as Eat and Pret A Manger.

Its US rivals have managed to take the share of the market, hence Donald’s departure. But what’s in store for the coffee maker in the UK?

I’m trying hard not to have favourites but I love Starbucks and despite there being much cheaper alternatives I stick with it. this is for various reasons, including the fact it is a recognizable and trusted brand and something I know will always be the same whichever country I buy it in.

Despite the US hiring a new advertising agency for a campaign assault on the market, the UK arm of Starbucks maintains that it will stick to its policy of not advertising in the UK.

Instead, over the next 12 months the chain will open more than 100 outlets across the UK and Ireland, that’s 25 per cent more than 2007, taking the total number of stores to 725.

Who needs advertising when you have brand presence on every main street in the country…but will it be enough to keep competition at bay or will it sink as consumers continue to boycott the brand deeming it one of the giants that is globalisation and commercialism? 

To read the news story related to this blog visit mad.co.uk