In 1971, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowher started a store named Starbucks that sold whole-bean coffee in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Ten years later they owned five stores, a roasting facility and a wholesale business that distributed coffee to retail stores.

Starbucks was working with a Marketing company called Hammarplast. Hammarplast and its VP, Howard Schultz, was helping Starbucks to promote their product. Schultz was then hired by Starbucks to be in-charge of marketing and retail sales. Schultz traveled to Italy and observed the way that Europeans marketed and consumed gourmet coffee and came back to the US to tell Starbucks founders of his idea of copying Italian coffee bars. His proposal was denied and he

Starbucks corporate level strategy has been their ability to form strategic alliances. Alliances with Colombian farmers have been helpful to promote their product uniqueness as well as a good relationship with their suppliers. Agreements with different establishments have given Starbucks exposure to more customers. For example agreements to serve Starbucks coffee in Barnes and Noble, Nordstrom's, office coffee suppliers, hotels and airlines. The most creative outlet for its coffee was Starbucks deal with Smith Brothers, one of the Northwest's oldest diaries. Smith Brothers now sells Starbuck's coffee in its home delivery routes. The only complaint has been that Smith Brothers does not carry the thirty varieties of coffee that Starbucks carries in their regular stores.

Overlap between functional and product-based divisions.

Starbucks ability to educate their customers on the art of making and drinking coffee.

Starbucks is a very well known and successful company. Its sales grew from $285 million to $465 million, up to 63 percent from 1984 to 1995. Earnings rose 156 percent to $26 million, which is ten times the level in 1991. Starbucks is a nationwide company that has grown and has developed very strongly.

I went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and also to investigate about the training that they give employees. I was very impressed especially with one young gentleman that knew his stuff. He said that in order to be able to select the type of coffee, you have to know with what kind of food you will be drinking it (just like wine), but the first thing that came out of his mouth when I was explaining about my school project was "mark-up" in a sneezing kind of way. On the other hand, there was this lady that was clueless, so I then asked about the 24-hour training. She stated that everyone goes to the training but that she personally didn't remember. I didn't want to take too much of their time because the line was very long (even though it was about 9:00 am and a weekday).

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Approximate Word count = 2134
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)