Starbucks Case AnalysisBackgroundThe company began operations in 1971 as a small coffee shop located in Seattle specializing in the sale of whole arabica coffee beans. After being taken over by Howard Schultz in 1982, following rapid and impressive growth, by mid-2002 the company was the dominant specialty coffee brand in North America, with approximately 4,500 stores, 400 international stores, and 930 licenses. of a market research study highlighted issues related to customer satisfaction and what the brand means to Starbucks customers. The situation was unacceptable for a company whose overall goal is to build the most recognized and respected brand in the world. Starbucks was supposed to be a new and different place where every man could relax and enjoy quality time, alone or with others. But market research has shown that in the minds of consumers, the Starbucks brand is seen as a company, trying to expand endlessly and trying to make a lot of money. This huge gap between customer perceptions and Starbucks' values ​​and goals required immediate action. Christine Day's interpretation of market research made her think that by reducing the service time for each customer to a maximum of 3 minutes, all problems would be solved. However, this solution came at a price of $40 million per year, due to a significant increase in labor. The proposed solution would certainly lead to Day's desired outcome, but would it be enough to restore the damaged image of the Starbucks brand? Is 20 seconds of customer service really worth $40 million a year? This is the question we are trying to answer here, looking for alternative purposes for this expense, in order to obtain higher benefits. How did they get to this? Excellent quality, personalized products, served in clean and comfortable shops for everyday coffee, friendly and fast service, all in a pleasant atmosphere: these are just some of the factors that have led to the great success of Starbucks over the years Ninety. Their USP was a place where every American could escape from home or work, for a coffee-drinking ritual; high quality coffee, according to each customer's taste, served in a special and intimate environment. Their image had to appeal to everyone, being based on the idea of ​​community, "exploiting" people's need to interact with each other, in a "third place", away from home or work. Looking at the latest market report, we cannot draw the conclusion that customer satisfaction is actually declining, as there is no reference to a previous similar report.