Read the dis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Read the dis - Essay Example Usually Starbucks like firms have both long term and short term strategies to sustain its business in the market. It is difficult for a firm to rely entirely either on short term or long term policies to compete effectively in the market. Judicious implementation of short term and long term policies will help the firm to achieve its objectives and targets. Short term objectives should be specific, time bounded and accountable in order to become effective. Starbucks concentrated heavily on short term strategies to achieve success. Between 1987 through 1990 Starbucks entered new markets, and continued to grow. At the end of 1987, there were 17 Starbucks locations, and by 1990 there were 84. During this four year growth phase Starbucks entered the markets of Chicago, Vancouver, and Portland. In 1988 the company started a mail order catalog for it's fine dark roasted coffee beans and high quality coffee equipment (Kembell) Starbucks never tried to undertake a comprehensive expansion stra tegy. They focused on establishing few more outlets every year rather than establishing numerous outlets at different countries at the same time. This strategy helped them to give more attention to all the newly opened outlets till such outlets became profitable. The above short term strategy of establishing only few outlets every year helped Starbucks to achieve its long term objective of establishing outlets at different parts of the world and manage all of them with success. In other words, the short term strategies of Starbucks are linked to the long term objectives of the firm. They have given priorities to their short term strategy of establishing few outlets at a time and manage them well in order to achieve their long term strategy of establishing as many units in different countries and manage all of them well. Business strategies and functional tactics of a firm have direct relationships. In fact business strategies are usually implemented using different functional tactic s. For example, coffee lovers always like variety while taking a coffee. They don’t like the same taste every time when they take a coffee. Starbucks know this consumer psychology very well and they have introduced many flavors in their coffee products. Starbucks introduced ‘walnut flavor of Colombia Narino Supremo, the creamy sweet Caf Verona and the smooth, buttery Sulawesi† (Kembell) etc as a result of their realization of the above consumer psychology. Some of the other functional tactics employed by Starbucks are the selling of coffee-related products, Expresso machines, stainless steel coffee filters etc. Through the selling of coffee-related products such as brewing equipment and accessories, many consumers can enjoy high quality coffee at home rather than traveling out of their way. The equipment available includes Expresso machines, stainless steel coffee filters, and Starbucks cleaner and canisters. This is another example of how Starbucks is meeting the needs of current customers as well as increasing its attractiveness to potential customers (Kembell) The above functional tactics helped Starbucks to spread the popularity of Starbucks coffee from its outlets to home. Moreover, these strategies helped Starbucks to polish its face more and to popularize its products more in the market. The name Starbucks is currently fixed firmly in the hearts of the coffee lovers because