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Running Head: TARGET MARKET

Target Market

Kelly Howerton

MKT/498 ± Integrated Marketing Strategy

November 29, 2010

University of Phoenix
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Target Market

Starbucks is the primary retailer for brand forte coffee in the world. The company has

over 7,500 stores located worldwide (Starbucks Corporation, 2010). As Starbucks persistently

increases, it will meet all types of innovative product markets, with modern and challenging

consumers for exclusive and attractive products. Starbucks has started by presenting the new

Frappuccino beverage. Coming into this new market, Starbucks copes with many challenges

including creating awareness from consumers for its new product. In order for a company and

product or service to be successful, the target market must be well defined. According to

Entrepreneur Media Inc. (2010), ³the target market is a specific group of consumers at which a

company aims its products and services.´|A primary cause for Starbucks Coffee¶s achievement is

the flourishing forecast of its stores that are used as locations for mingling among home and the

office. Using this approach presented Starbucks with a huge consumer support that is now able to

make use of Starbucks stores as a location to socialize or host meetings frequently when not at

home or the office. This, in addition to the principle of being a leading exclusive brand of coffee

that is identified as a reasonably priced extravagance allowed Starbucks to demand a high price

for its goods. The Frappuccino is a coffee blended with milk and ice. The innovative

Frappuccino blended beverages, also to be recognized as the Summer Beverage will assist

Starbucks in shifting itself in the increasing iced beverage market; Starbucks will also have to

improve the product awareness to preserve the recognized high value. Consumers included in

this segment are receptive to taste and eminence of food products.

Starbucks Corporation¶s policy has been to place itself as a fashionable brand and

distinguish its goods as being not just coffee, but somewhat a rich "experience". The

corporation¶s selling point for many years has been the thought behind the ³Starbucks
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experience.´ The business originally aimed towards adolescent university students, social

groups, and areas that would be most interested in the notion of spending $4 on a cup of coffee

while being able to socialize with friends. With quick growth and development, Starbucks target

market extended quickly to embrace every person of all ages. According to Starbucks

Corporation, ³The Company targeted small towns, rural communities, ethnic neighborhoods,

highway rest stops, and even markets already saturated with various coffee shops (2010).´ The

target audience of the current typical user is women ages 25-49, college educated, and a

household income of $55,000 or more. With offering the new frappuccino beverage, the target

market will be 18-25 year old students. This will mean difference advertising and marketing

techniques in order for the product to be successful. The target market for the Frappuccino¶s

includes the Millenial generation. ³Starbucks' vice president of marketing, openly recognized

that 'consumers don't truly believe there's a huge difference between products,' which is why

brands must 'establish emotional ties' with their customers through 'the Starbucks Experience¶

(Starbucks Corporation, 2010).´ According to a report by Rutgers, ³of the 75 million 12-29

year olds in the United States today, there are 41.9 million 18-29 year olds.´ In addition, this

targeted group includes the nation's wealthiest urban consumers. The Young Digerati¶s are also

included in this lifestyle segmentation. According to Kotler and Keller, ³Members of this social

group tend to be midscale to upscale, college educated and ethnically diverse, with above-

average concentrations of Asian and Hispanic Americans. Although this group is diverse in

terms of housing styles and family sizes, residents share an upscale urban perspective that's

reflected in their marketplace choices. Urban Uptown consumers tend to frequent the arts, shop

at exclusive retailers, drive luxury imports, travel abroad, and spend heavily on computer and

wireless technology (2007).´ ³According to an analyst by the name of Michael Moe, the average
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Starbucks customer visits a store 15 to 20 times a month´ (Barnett, 2010). The Young Digerati¶s

are of an age that would be capable of affording the $6 beverage twenty times a month. 

With the size of the proposed target market, the estimated penetration percentage is 90%.

The target can be reached effectively and efficiently using a market budget allocation of 20% of

the Frappucino¶s selling price. Strategic marketing objectives and goals are first identified, and

then the company can develop strategic plans primarily based on these objectives and goals. The

goal of the overall marketing strategies for the Frappuccino is to achieve the 90% market

penetration rate by creating, developing, and maintaining customer satisfaction and ideal targeted

campaigns. The marketing strategies are going to need to include further segmentation of the

ideal target market. Classification of the target market into the customer¶s strength of

commitment to the Frappuccino would assist Starbucks in identifying the most effective and

efficient marketing strategies to strengthen the established relationships of the product with its

ideal target market. Because most of the targeted consumers consider themselves relatively

savvy via the computer, it is recommended to develop a web campaign aimed to increase the

awareness of the new summer beverage.

In conclusion, Starbucks has interested such a large target market, it appears every

product presented will be an immediate achievement. Classified in Fortune magazine as the #1

most innovative company, it¶s no shock that the cold blended coffee, wouldn¶t be just as

triumphant (CNN Money, 2010). The Frappuccino will generate a completely new coffee class

for Starbucks that will assist in driving coffee sales and amplifying sales during the hot summer

months where formerly the sales for coffee were slower.


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References

Barnett, A.A. (2010). þ
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 . Business Publications. Retrieved from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0903/is_n9_v14/ai_18687795/

CNN Money. (2010).   |


|   . Retrieved from
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/companies/1011/gallery.business_person_year
.fortune/index.html

Entrepreneur Media Inc. (2010). 
  
. Retrieved from

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82498.html

Kotler, P., & Keller K. (2007). |



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 (3rd ed). Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Starbucks Corporation. (2010). 
. Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com/