Blog 7

Group tactics/strategies

As a group we discussed the case and found out that we should focus on promoting the brand , use the recycling plan to support green environment, add the transfer points tool into the application and creates a new diamond level of reward loyalty.

CRM Promotion plan for Starbucks


Most loyal / promotion

Quarter 1  --------   Create a VIP Starbucks members rewards plan (VIP members can be after upgrading from gold or after basing a specific number of purchases or points such as free coffee after 75 points )

Quarter 2-------- Offers special discounts and first on line offers for VIP members (Such as extra 0.50 cents discounts ,,, and VIP members have fast pass in lines )

Quarter 3 -------- offers free bakary item after a specific number of purchases by the VIP member
Quarter 4 -------- Promotion to educate people about the program.


Passive / Satisfied/Not yet loyal:

Quarter 1----- offer a discounts in applying for a memberships.
Quarter 2----- Special offers and discounts through mail, and email,
Quarter 3 -----Special offers in application such as (the nearest Starbucks has you coffee for free today message)
Quarter 4 ----- Promotion in social media to tell consumers whats new about Starbucks.


Infrequent users


Quarter 1------ create transfer points tool in the application of Starbucks
Quarter 2------ offers a free coffee for bringing somebody new or a friend to SB.
Quarter 3 ------ Social media promotions to get consumers buy more such as suggestions for a new coffee to try based on the data known about the consumer or the usual coffee he buys.
Quarter 4 ------seasonal promotions.


Former loyalty rewards


Quarter 1----- create a survy to see why consumers stop coming to starbucks.
Quarter 2----- Social media reports on why they change the program .
Quarter 3 ----- If the survy of first quarter supports the old program they should change it back . if not keep promoting
Quarter 4 -----Holiday promotions with extra points in special days such as merry monday or friday free day .


To Promote their philanthropy

Quarter 1----- introduce the idea of Narayana Peesapaty (India): Edible Cutlery of small cups and spoons that are environment friendly and save money and promote green environment.

Quarter 2----- Social media campaign to promote the use of new spoons and cups
Quarter 3-----Discounts on using the new cups .
Quarter 4----- based on the success of the idea they can promote it for all Starbucks or take a step back from it .

Final Reflection Paper

Question 1 on Business/Marketing: 

• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

Pantene case study was such a great example in how Procter and gamble used data or big data in understanding their consumers wants and needs , and preferences. and how to make the products fits the consumers expectations and satisfy them.

• “Because its purpose is to create a customer, your business has two purposes and two purposes only: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation make you money, generate sales, produce profit. Everything else is an expense...”

Apple case study is a great example for marketing and innovation, The company was customers oriented, that is aiming to go beyond the satisfaction level of its consumers. Great marketing and Great Innovation leader in the market.

• “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

Pixar case study was a great example illustrating the benefits of team work /brain-trust practice, where new ideas come into light resulted from collaboration and out of the box thinking.

Question 2 on Teams:

The team collaboration was a great tool in practicing the real world scenarios, Overall, my team consists of 4 hardworking students that are willing to help each other and collaborate for better results and better understanding, I really enjoyed working with each of my team members where each of them was nice, polite, smart, and funny, we had a great time working together, each member was ready and well prepared before our group meetings wich makes it easier working together.

In developing case alternatives and solutions , we as a team toke the strategy of discussing each member alternatives, and then decide as a team which ones are most important , in case of a tie we vote for  which alternatives.    

Question 3 on Overall Outcomes: 

In overall takeaway from this course , First, I have reviewed the main concepts of marketing and the marketing theories and practices, Second, I have learned how to use those theories and  marketing techniques and apple them into real world situations, Lastly, The case studies given in this course was a great example of how to analyze a case and how to read and use data as supporting evidence or as a basis of my solutions.  

Starbucks loyalty and the cause-related marketing

Starbucks loyalty: 

Starbucks customers are so loyal to the brand and the products.  Starbucks has maintained a great reputation and customer relations through their SB-APP and the multiple services they offer through the app. In studying the data provided through the Starbucks case, and the other articles the main issue Starbucks is facing is how to maintain the growth rate and stay ahead of competitions.

In terms of Starbucks loyalty programs; The number of loyal customers is increasing

 through the years:

In terms of Starbucks performance over the year's Starbucks is leaDING THE MARKET:

The main problems they are facing currently: 

First, the customers responses to the change in the reward program:

Starbucks should survey their consumers and change the program back if consumers want too.

Lastly, Starbucks should focus in the short term plan on the 20% percentage of their consumers that are loyal to the brand  and keep maintaining they relationships with them, on the other hand, they should work on getting back the other 80% of non loyal consumers to be loyal through offers, rewards, or other promotional tools in the long term plan.

Cause-related marketing:

Cause-related marketing is the strategy of an organization to market a product in the way that shares goodwill and donates a percentage of the revenue to charities for the cause the product is sporting.


bees are important to save because they are responsible for over a third of the food people consuming in daily life, including coffee.

  Many big organizations such as Home depot and other big stores are already involving in the save the bees campaign   

Starbucks can be a leader in the save the bees campaign if they promote it well through their applications and offers reward points for donations. 

Starbucks can offer as an example 10% of their revenue to save the bees campaing; which will build a strong name for Starbucks in the mind of bee lovers and green environment community. 

Starbucks Loyalty & The Tripple botton line 3P's

Triple Bottom Line :

The Triple bottom line consists of profit, people , and a planet.

Profit in terms of traditional measures of corporate profits and loss, People in terms of the bottom line company's "People account" where it measures how socially responsible an organization is in its operations and Planet in terms of how environmentally responsible the organization is.

The 3P's of profit, people , and planet are measures of the financial, social , and environmental performance of an organization over time.

In relates to the Triple bottom line; Starbucks did the following:

First , Starbucks has been the leader in the development and implementation of the green building program for retail companies , Starbucks collaborated with the U.S.Green house council to develop LEED the for a retail program that stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Second , Starbucks took into account the recycling issues and how to help support a green environment.

The Starbucks Application is one of the new innovative channels of marketing, the application is professionally design including many features such as customized orders and other customer oriented features. The application increased the in-store traffic and built a great customer experience that represented 6% of U.S transactions of the fiscal year of 2016.

Over the years all the financial measures of Starbucks has increased, average tickets grew by 4%, traffic grew by 1% , and Store sales grew by 4 %

Starbucks brand image and experience:

Starbucks brand image is strong and delightful for its consumers, since the great recession of 2009, from 2009 to 2012 , the growth rate of Starbucks slowed but still increasing .

Starbucks achieved many of its goals and plans for the 2015 goals plan.

Some of this plans met such as :

1.    Ensure that the coffee is ethically sourced.

2.    Invest in farmers and their community 

3.    Reduce water consumption by 25%

4.    Purchase renewable energy sources. 

Other plans they does not met :

1.    reduce in-store energy consumption 

2.     achieve LEED certifications

3.    mobilize  employees and customers to achieve 1 million hours of community service. 

 The multi-channel strategy that Starbucks uses is working great in term of building  a great customers journey of  users of  their application. On the other hand , the customer services at the Starbucks stores are excellent in terms of interactions with consumers and supporting the consumer's experiences at the store.

The Starbucks application, is a great application that is easy, colorful , and have many customization options for coffee, the app also offers rewards to consumers and favorite list, that both supports the customer journey in using the application and makes it easy to use such as make my favorite coffee list and re-order over time.