Marketing In Society

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MARKETING IN SOCIETY

Marketing in Society

Marketing in Society

Introduction

This essay includes the background of the organization including the number of its stores worldwide. A brief description of its products offering is given. Starbucks compiled through research and literature previously done. It discusses the ethical/unethical considerations in the areas of marketing and the ethical/unethical conducts in the organizations. Afterwards, the marketing activities of Starbucks and the issues that give rise to ethical considerations are discussed in further detail. A comparison of Starbucks is given with its competitor McDonalds with respect to their growth strategy and positioning of their customers. At the end, some recommendations are given on how to improve these issues. Finally, it is discussed that the marketing activities that Starbucks is performing is ethical or not and essay is concluded with the reasoning.

Starbucks Background

Starbucks is an American coffee company started from Seattle, Washington and expanded globally. Starbucks opened its first store in Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington (USA), in 1971. According to Bussing-burks, (2009), Starbucks is the world's largest coffee shop company with 20,891 outlet shops in 62 countries which include 13,279 shops in United States, 989 in Japan, 851 in China, 1,324 in Canada, 556 in South Korea, 806 in United kingdom, 377 in Mexico, 206 in Philippines, 291 in Taiwan, 171 in Thailand and 8 in India (Bussing-burks, 2009)

According to Starbucks Corporation, in 2007, Starbucks became the world's leader in coffee brand with over 13000 outlets in 39 different countries (Starbucks Corporation 2007a). The company ranking the world's top 100 brands (Interbrand 2006) has an impressive record of sales and profit growth. In fiscal year 2006 Starbucks sales turnover was $7.8 billion, an increase of 22% on year 2005, and operating margin was 11.4%.

Starbucks stores serve hot and cold beverages. Their coffee range includes whole-bean coffee, micro ground instant coffee. Besides that they serve teas(full-leaf), snacks and range of pastries. Most of their stores sell food items included in the category of packaged food, and cold and hot sandwiches. Starbucks evening servings offer wines and variety of beers. In their entertainment side, the company markets films, sells books and song collections.

Ethics Definition

Defined as the moral principles governing behavior of a person or the conducting of an activity (www.oxforddictionaries.com)

Ethical considerations in Marketing

Social and ethical considerations were given more importance by organizations before 1960. The concept of social responsibility was given much importance when it was the concern of society in those years. (De George, 1985). From years 1960-1970 were the years of social change on ethics background that affected the business management. This social change included the concerns about the rights of minorities, rights of women, and health and safety issues in workplace (Chamberlain, 1973).

During the recent years there has been recognition of differentiation between normative, analytical and descriptive works in the respected field among the positive developments in marketing field (Brenkert, 1999). Normal ethics deals with the basic moral norms that include their formulating and defending. Descriptive ethics deals with the study of marketing issues treatments with business press with ...
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