Starbucks growth strategy

I’m a fan of Starbucks, but not quite the zealot that Winter is (he’s that guy trying to visit every single Starbucks in the world). Congrats on the new documentary film Starbucking releasing in April 2007 [see trailer], and the free London trip he got on the Wayne Brady show.

Starbucks just had their annual shareholder meeting, where they revealed key business drivers behind their growth strategy: exapnd store footprint, increase average unit volumes, promote continuous innovation, leverage the Starbucks brand with complementary offerings, remain employer of choice, extend the Starbucks Experience beyond our stores, leverage business partners.

I sure hope they come up with better growth strategies and tactics. Maybe try some of these ideas — 2 former Starbucks marketing strategists over at Brand Autopsy and Idea Sandbox volley back and forth on solving Starbucks problems: loss of coffee theatre, loss of coffee aroma, loss of store soul, lack of merchandise focus, and loss of identity. [note to self: brilliant idea, have to do a blog volley with Next Gener.Asian Church some time]

Wallstrip weighs in with their take on SBUX: