Mkt 421 Week 3 Learning Team Submission

Starbucks has a specific target audience for the company’s soup line. According to “Who Is Starbucks’ Target Audience? ” (2012), “This audience is adult male and adult females from the ages of twenty-five to forty years old. This is approximately half of Starbucks total business” (para. 3). The company has another large target market audience. According to “Who Is Starbucks’ Target Audience? ” (2012), “Starbucks’ second largest target market is forty percent of its business. This audience is between the ages of eight-teen to twenty-four” (para. 4).
This helps the company to target a mature audience that will appreciate the wholesome goodness of the company’s soup line. One potently large target market the soup line will open up is catering business lunches. This will open up corporate America to the value that Starbucks presents. This corporate customer will not only purchase soup, but will also be able to purchase coffee with the order. This audience already consumes the company’s’ coffee, but goes elsewhere for their meal plans. This is also an attempt to gain customers from fast food establishments that would like a more upscale dining experience.
This experience along with the other things like internet access is what Starbucks offers its customers. Who Is Starbucks’ Target Audience?. (2012). Retrieved from http://smallbusiness. chron. com/starbucks-target-audience-10553. html It might be argued that Starbucks is no more than a fast food company paralleling such chains as McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell. The company appears to provide the same basic service customers expect from a fast food giant. One sharp marketing contrast however, consistently has Starbucks standing out far above the others.

Starbucks Corporation counts on the same customers visiting their local stores daily and sometimes multiple times in a day. Most fast food chains cannot typically tout such a claim. Starbucks’ customer base is not necessarily specific to age, gender, or cultural origin. Starbucks customers are those who buy-in to the sophisticated image of the “Siren,” and all she represents. Many Americans have always loved good coffee and coffee drinking as a social event. Starbucks capitalizes on this tradition and caters to the coffee house crowd.
In the minds of many, coffee houses represent a rather bohemian genre of artists, poets, and scholars. Starbucks customers know there is a bit of the coffee house crowd in all of us. The company markets a sense of social freedom that has timeless appeal. Starbucks customers like the feeling of exclusivity that being a Starbucks customer provides. Knowing the quirky Starbucks language is an example that is exclusively Starbucks. Starbucks language is a kind of mix of Italian and English. For example, beverage preparers are referred to as “baristas. Beverage titles like “caramel macchiato,” and “Triple, Vente, no foam, three Splenda, skinny, latte,” are fun to say and make the customer feel worldly and sophisticated. Ordering the exclusively Starbucks “frappacino” satisfies that strange attraction Americans seem to have toward all things European; never mind that the trademarked word frappacino is not a real word in any language. In addition, Starbucks customers value time and are often master jugglers and multitaskers. Schedules that often overlap career, academics, and family needs are common among Starbucks customers.
The new, “Cup of Comfort” line of gourmet soups provides customers a way to grab a healthy bite of lunch or dinner without interrupting an already busy day. Soccer mom can swing through the drive through so little Bobby or Jennifer can eat a healthy meal before practice and mom can get a quick boost to keep her going. “Cup of Comfort,” adds an appealing element to the Starbucks menu and satisfies a need for something substantial and healthy in customers’ diets during an afternoon or evening visit to this favorite gathering place.