The article I chose is Starbucks moves away from the ‘drumbeat of promotions’ to build longer term relationships with customers. I chose this article because I thought it was interesting that Starbucks is changing their promotional activity. It seems that marketing tactics are changing more and more these days. The article explains that Starbucks admitted that the brand has focused on a “drumbeat of promotional offerings” that did not lead to sustained growth. Its new marketing plan will focus on targeted offers personalized to individual customers. They plan to focus on innovation in both their products and their marketing activities, and an unwavering focus on the customer experience in our stores. Starbucks value proposition revolves around their mantra “Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome. Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other.”

Starbucks has decided to make changes to their goals for promotions. As quoted from the article, Matthew Ryan, global chief strategy officer at Starbucks, said “it’s part of an ongoing shift in our marketing, from a short-term ‘one and done’ focus to a sustained platform, ongoing relationship focus with our customers.” Starbucks is recreating the strategy they use to reach their customers and target market. Starbucks is acknowledging the faults in their stream of promotional offerings which may not appeal to all customers and have not been bringing in the results they expected. Starbucks is changing how they promote to their customers. They are making their promotions more personalized for each customer. This is new and very different from how Starbucks had previously made promotions. If I were the brand manager, I would absolutely go down the path they are taking. The previous Starbucks promotion for happy hour didn’t appeal to many customers because of the drink options. Because of that, they were not getting the results they wanted. Doing personalized promotions will definitely appeal to a broader group of customers.

Through this article and assignment, I have learned that marketing strategies do not always succeed and revising the strategies is always an option.

https://www.marketingweek.com/starbucks-drumbeat-promotions/
https://www.starbucks.com/