Starbucks: Expansion to Asia-Pacific Region

Following the rapid growth of since 1971, Starbucks management made the logical decision to expand internationally at the beginning of 1996. Going international is the decision made by many companies all around the world in order to be able to stay competitive, sometimes to merely survive, if not prosper. Starbucks saw the need for this and therefore expanded into the global marketplace.

Asia, specifically Japan, was chosen as the target market. This was quite a daring adventure because of the many differences that exist between the United States and Japanese markets. Companies in the food producing industry must be extremely careful when entering Asian markets. The tastes are much different from those in the US and consumer behavior is not at all the same.
The values, beliefs, customs and collective behavior of a people or a nation constitute its culture. These cultural factors influence (1) a company’s decisions about positioning operations overseas and (2) local consumption preferences. A company must ensure that it has a viable market for its products or services. (Holt, 1998)

To ensure that they have a specific market segment in Japan, Starbucks will definitely have to adjust their ways of operating. They have to define what will be their target audience and conduct extensive research to determine the customers’ tastes, preferences and needs. It is quite opposed to the American “pragmatical” approach to everything they do, both in their buying and consuming patterns. Starbucks has the advantage that their product from the beginning has been focused on high-quality, thus needing only minimal adjustment to their for the targeted Asian market.…