Starbucks Success Secrets

Starbucks establishments are a brand with a worldwide reputation. These coffee houses are most popular, of course, in America. But in other countries they are no less in demand. Americans even have a common expression that they spend almost as much time at Starbucks as they do at work and at home.

What allowed the popular coffee house to win such a love of customers? Only the availability of high-quality coffee, which in these establishments is undoubtedly beyond praise? The quality food products presented at Starbucks are by no means the only reason for the popularity and relevance of this brand. We will talk about how Starbucks started its journey and developed.
The history of the legendary Starbucks began back in 1972. Friends Zev Siegl, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker decided to open a small business for three – a shop selling coffee beans, as well as various appliances for roasting and brewing coffee. Entrepreneurs owe the name of their business to the world-famous literary work “Moby Dick” by the author Herman Melville.

Why coffee? Yes, it’s just that all three of them loved this freshly brewed, aromatic drink with passion. For about 10 years in a row, the coffee shop did very well. And in the 1980s, the business began to undergo some changes.

The arrival of Howard Schultz in business
Zev Siegl was the first to leave the business, and it happened in 1980. At that time, the business was no longer one small store, but a whole network of six outlets throughout Washington.

Starbucks Success Secrets
Howard Schultz, who today is a key figure in Starbucks, was a spokesman for Hammarplast in 1981. One of Hammarplast’s activities was the production of plastic thermoses. And it was these thermoses that Starbucks owners often bought for use in their business. Howard Schultz became interested in their activities and began to provide all kinds of support to the business.

A year later, Schultz headed the marketing department of Starbucks. After only a short time, he traveled to Milan, where a major catering trade show was taking place, to represent Starbucks. There he learned about the traditions of making espresso coffee, which sowed in his soul even more love for the coffee business. Continuing to study the Italian culture of drinking coffee, Schultz also visited Verona, from where he brought a recipe for the now mega-popular coffee – latte.

Around the same time, an idea was born in Schultz’s head, which at that time became something like an epiphany. He wanted to create establishments where only admirers of good coffee would gather and enjoy this drink in a cozy atmosphere. He developed the whole concept of such establishments for a couple of years, improving and honing even the smallest details.

Embodiment of a new concept

Jerry Baldun, who at that time still headed the Starbucks chain of stores, for some reason did not want to fully plunge into the restaurant business, however, Howard’s idea pleased him. Thus, the first espresso bar was created on the territory of one of the existing Starbucks stores. Businessmen were interested in what would come of it.

The Starbucks chain continued to grow, and when the first coffee shop in Seattle was opened, it gained wild and instant popularity among coffee lovers. Within a couple of months, the daily number of visitors just went through the roof, and sales were several times higher than in all other Starbucks stores combined.

1987 was the year that ownership of the coffee shop chain passed to a group of Seattle investors. The deal was worth $3.7 million. Howard Schultz, using his talent of persuasion, was able to persuade investors to pay exactly this amount, promising that in the next five years, the network could expand to 125 outlets. Shops that had until then only sold coffee beans were transformed into cafes. The Starbucks logo has also been tweaked and redesigned into a more “decent” version (previously the logo featured a topless mermaid).

Further, the development of Starbucks began more than rapidly. Separate cafes appeared in cities such as Chicago, Portland, Vancouver and others. In the early 1990s, the company experienced the following changes: Starbucks grocery stores were opened at airports; the state of California was conquered; as well as the company went public and began to openly place its shares.