Marketing Strategy
Marketing Strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal.1
A marketing strategy is a written plan which combines product development, promotion, distribution, and pricing approach, identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved within a stated timeframe. This strategy determines the choice of target market segment, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of firm strategy, defining how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena. As the customer constitutes the source of a company's revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.2
A company needs market to sell the products they offered, and to gain these markets or demands, the company formulates a Marketing Strategy that can solve the mystery on “How to catch the taste of the Market?”
The life of a business depends on how the market is going to accept their product. That’s why, many business spend most half of their capital in making some market research that will effect in their target place. And that is the start of a marketing strategy.
The two different products
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based USA. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 16,120 stores in 49 countries. Starbucks sells drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, snacks, and items such as mugs and coffee beans. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company also markets books, music, and film. Many of the company's products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store.3
Marketing Strategies
Some of the methods Starbucks has used to expand and maintain their dominant market position, including buying out competitors' leases, intentionally operating at a loss, and clustering several locations in a small geographical area (i.e., saturating the market), have been labeled anti-competitive by critics. For example, Starbucks fueled its initial expansion into the UK market with a buyout of Seattle Coffee Company, but then used its capital and influence to obtain prime locations, some of which operated at a financial loss. Critics claimed this was an unfair attempt to drive out small, independent competitors, who could not afford to pay inflated prices for premium real estate. A "licensed store" franchise system were imposed, which permits Starbucks franchises only if they are inside other stores or in limited or restricted access spaces. The policy of clustering stores was parodied in The Onion with the headline, "New Starbucks Opens in Rest Room of Existing Starbucks".4
Nike
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment.
In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just do it" and the Swoosh logo.5
Marketing Strategies
Nike relied almost exclusively on print advertising in highly vertical publications including Track and Field News. Most of the early advertising was focused on a new shoe release, essentially outlining the benefits of the running, basketball or tennis shoe. A print ad with the tagline "There is no finish line" featured a lone runner on a rural road and became an instant classic. The success of this simple ad inspired Nike to create a poster version that launched the company's poster business.
They also launched a television commercial which won in Cannes Advertising Festival as ‘advertiser of the year’ twice (1994, 2003). Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial twice. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000 if every dire prediction about Y2K came to fruition. The second Emmy for advertising earned by Nike was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a stream of athletic pursuits.6
Compare and Contrast
After considering the marketing strategies of the different companies, the comparisons and contrast between the two companies are arranged in the following:
Advertising
The print ads are effective for the two companies especially on the part of Nike. The impact of every battle cry that they give stays on the mind of the viewers or the markets itself. The Starbucks usually advertises through their own product like the mugs and t-shirts that a regular customer can purchase.
Types of Media
The television is a powerful medium of information and commercials makes the viewers realize in themselves that they have a certain need. That is what a commercial must relay to the viewers, to make them realize that they need a product although they don’t really need it. And by that, from the awards that the Nike Company gained, the use of commercial is an effective way to sell.
Target Market
The two companies differ in their target market. The Starbucks targeted coffee lovers and on Nike are the athletes. The two kinds of target maybe share a same group age and share same gender range but the needs are different.
Cost
If the cost of product produced is the question, of course, they also differ. The products vary depending on what is the order. Like for example, the Starbucks’s espresso is much expensive than of café au bit, and the customer will cost an additional ten bucks. Meanwhile in one of Nike store, if the customer or the buyer chooses between the colors of the same style of shoe, the piece will still be the same. Oftentimes, the store makes their prices through the latest trend and by the famous celebrity who endorsed their product.
And if the cost of material is asked, definitely, like the other one it also differs to the other. The Starbucks operate their store with an expert barista who mixes the drinks of the customers, and the cost of ingredients depends on how much is used in a coffee or if there is a waste of ingredients. On the other hand, the Nike operates within a factory. Inside that factory, the experts designed and fashioned good footwear meant for all sizes. The expense for the cost of materials depends on what type of material is used to create a good product.
Selling Style
The Starbucks don’t sell on sidewalks as well as the Nike but people can spot them into different parts of a shopping malls or crowded area. It is a part of marketing strategy, to make their product visible to the people. While the Nike displayed their products in a window of their store branch, the Starbucks presents menu. To help a buyer in deciding what shoes will fit his sport, the attendants of the store guides him to fit whatever shoe his eye catch. But inside the Starbucks coffee house, the beverages are not free for taste whether the customer will purchase the coffee or not after he had taste it.
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