STARBUCKS Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

STARBUCKS - Coursework Example 10 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Investment 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Bibliography 15 Introduction In 1971, Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegal start up a coffee store in Washington in the heart of Seattle’s Pike marketplace. During 1987, Mr. Schultz purchased the store and started expansion of the business outside the Pacific Northwest and Chicago. In 1993 Starbucks registered under company rules and started selling share to expand its business world-wide (Starbucks Corporation, 2013; Lee, 2009). Starbucks wanted to establish itself as the premier seller of the most favourable coffees globally. The company was committed towards ensuring and incorporating exceptional business principles, ethics, corporate social responsibility as well as unique product and services. The mission as well as vision of the company duly focused upon the motto "inspire the human spirit." During the year, 2002, Starbucks conducted qualitative research wherein it was discovered t hat the brand image of the company was deteriorating. As a result, Starbucks has been extensively concerned about its eroding customer base and reducing level of customer satisfaction. The company was duly committed towards mitigating the problem of reducing customer base in order to return to the mainstream of growth and expansion in the global market (Moon & Quelch, 2006). A. The Case Highlights Customer Satisfaction Issues That Starbucks Is Facing. ... This ultimately led the company to place due consideration to resolve these issues in order to remain viable at the marketplace and to gain greater competitive advantage over its rivals. Few important issues considered by the company are revealed below. . Consumer Frequency as well as Loyalty Issue The scores of customer satisfaction obtained from the qualitative research was taken into due consideration by the organisation because this factor was directly related with the customer loyalty and its overall performance. To ascertain the degree of customer loyalty, the researchers were concerns about analysing the data of customers’ frequency of visit in the Starbucks coffee stores. According to the research, it was found that 21% of its total customer visits the company’s stores more than 8 times per month while 37% of customers visit 3 to 7 times per month. At the same time it was ascertained that 42 % of customers visits just 1 to 2 times per month at the Starbucks stor es. Source: (Moon & Quelch, 2006) This research data revealed the negative impact on the organisation in terms of customer loyalty as well as level of customer satisfaction (Moon & Quelch, 2006; Hurth, 2006). Starbucks Brand Image The organisation also concerns about few more important attributes which were associated with the Starbucks brand image. Firstly, the researchers were concerns regarding the customers’ awareness about the speciality of Starbucks gourmet coffee. Through this analytical study the researchers discovered that 54%of customers were fully agreed about the Starbucks speciality coffee and they were aware about this product. Secondly, in

Inventory Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Inventory Management - Essay Example A small pizza restaurant might face a number of issues with regard to inventory management. The most important is that pizza is a food item which is perishable along with its ingredients. Therefore, it is not possible to store these ingredients for a long time and must be ordered on a weekly or a monthly basis. Some ingredients even have a perishability of just one day. The owners of the small pizza restaurant should keep in mind the exact degree of perishability of the ingredients and then plan such an inventory level which reduces waste as much as possible. Higher waste would increase the costs of production of this business and might even affect the operations of this restaurant. Another issue is that, unlike other goods and services, food is consumed everyday and even more than once within a day. Therefore, if proper stock counting is not done then there might be a shortage of ingredients and this will directly have an impact on the sales of the restaurant as well as customer sat isfaction. Food items are also prone to health and safety issues. The owners should make sure that the ingredients used in the pizzas are healthy and clean. The inventory being stored for the pizzas should be kept in a clean and safe place as well. For the above reasons, inventory management should be done in an efficient and effective manner.    Compare and contrast the benefits of using a fixed order quantity against using a fixed period system for fresh dough purchased from a bakery on contract. A fixed order quantity system is one in which fixed quantity orders are placed with the suppliers over a period of time. Under this system, there is a reorder point and as soon as the reorder point is reached, the business places their fixed order with their suppliers (Fixed order approach, n.d.). A fixed period system, however, is one in which orders are placed periodically but the order size or quantity is different for each order. An important benefit of this system is that fluctuati ons in demand could be easily met through this system. For example, if, due to certain factors, the demand for a business increases then it can place orders of higher quantities as the order size is not fixed in this system. Another benefit with this system is that even if the orders are delayed, it would not have a large impact on the operations of the business as an ample amount of time is given for orders (Fixed period ordering system, n.d.). For the purchase of fresh dough from a bakery, the perishability of fresh dough should be kept in mind. Therefore, the restaurant has to order fresh dough everyday. The benefit of using a fixed order quantity against a fixed period system is that it does not require a regular periodic count and the business is aware of the amount of fresh dough available for a particular day. Another essential advantage is that the bakery will be aware of the order quantity required by the restaurant and therefore, there would be no delays on part of the bak ery. A fixed period system also has a disadvantage as the usage of the inventories is not constant and this might even cause disruptions in the operations of the restaurant. Evaluate which approach is better and explain your rationale.   As far as a small pizza restaurant is concerned, the best approach is the fixed order quantity system. This is because a small pizza res