What is the definition of
competitive advantage? According to Enz (2010), the competitive advantage is
exists when a firm has a long-lasting business advantaged compared to rival
firms that is a significant edge over the competition. In the other words, the
firms will do something competitors cannot do. Starbucks apply many competitive
advantages in the Chinese market such as strong brand name recognition, large
retail distribution system, quality product, extensive product list, good
supplier relationships, strong financial history and strong human resources.
The first point is brand name recognition. Starbucks is a
well-known branding of coffee product company. According to Venkatraman and Nelson
(2008), Starbucks is an iconic emotional brand. These emotional
brands become meaningful in part because they become interwove with the
narratives of people’s lives. Starbucks create their brand name with offer good
environment of store’s which is captured by four themes such as “Starbucks as
Home;” “Starbucks as a Constellation of Personal Spaces;” “Starbucks as
Exotic;” and “Starbucks as a Bridge between Cultures” (Venkatraman &
Nelson, 2008). These entire themes will create good brand name within the
customers.
The second point is large retail distribution system.
Nowadays, Starbuck is one of the companies that expand their business to the
other country such as in China China China
The third point is quality of product. All of products
that Starbucks offer to the customer have high quality of item. Starbucks
establish their own Total Quality Management System in order to provide and
control the quality of product that they sell to the customer. They also have
corporate headquarters that exercises controls over individual sites. Other
than that, they also have internal controls for the store that is managing by
the manager.
The fourth point is extensive product list. This is one
of the competitive advantage of Starbucks because the product that they produce
is always be consumed by the customer. This is because the demand for food and
beverages is constant. Therefore, the extensive product list of Starbuck will
help them to compete with other company that in the same business.
The next point is good supplier relationship. This is
important to Starbucks in order to produce their product. Starbucks is one of
company that cooperates with the other company in order to receive raw material
for their products. They have lack of their own coffee farms. Therefore, to
ensure that all the raw materials for their production are being supply, they
build good relationship with their supplier. Therefore, this will overcome
their problem.
Besides that, Starbucks also is a company who has strong
financial company. This is because Starbucks was starts operated in many years
ago and has good financial management and strategies. They will achieve strong
financial in company because they have largest market share in the industry.
They also expand their business to the other country and do joint venture with local
business partners to help recruit talented individuals and maintain financial
control.
The last point is strong human resources who is the
employee and staff that working in their company has good skills such as
production skills, marketing skills, managerial skills and others. The most
important skills in Starbucks is people skills and drink preparation ability.
In order to maintain and control the quality that product that they produce,
all the employees will give training to learn about products, brewing methods
and sales techniques. They also giving rewards to their staff in order to
encourage them work in a good performance.
As a conclusion, there are many competitive advantage
that Starbucks have for competed with other company. Nevertheless, the most
important things are they must have a good missions and visions of their
company that lead them to achieved good performance in business. They also must
create positive value with their customer to ensure that customer will loyal
with their products.
