When customers come across unique brands that they love, they become loyal to the brand, they will recommend the brand to their family and friends. Starbucks coffee drinkers will do Starbucks' marketing for it. In Starbucks' case, this word of mouth helped creating an awareness and brand interest before stores were opened in new areas--decreasing the time it took for each new store to become profitable. Customers enter the doors of Starbucks when craving for the taste of fresh roasted gourmet coffee.
Starbucks started out by being closely linked to Italian cafes providing the intense coffee experience previously only available in Europe. These extreme coffee aficionados are Starbucks' best customers prefer their roasted gourmet coffee dark, rich, and strong. But there is a set of customers related to this group who view themselves as drinking a high-quality brew but who also like their coffee a little lighter, a little less intense. For this group, Starbucks expanded its brand to include lattes versus espresso. Starbucks could then both control the top of its market as well as expand downward into the larger mass market.
Generally speaking, coffees are in best taste from light-medium to medium roast. Gourment coffees have its complex aroma and sweetness. The darker roast blends are most of their fine distinctions most likely could be smelled while roasting. Both Columbian and French bled are impressively exquisite and balanced. Even coffee enthusiasts would not even taste the differences between the Columbian and French roast, one major basis for roasting coffees to a fairly dark roast, which lessens acidity.
The company provided the trendsetters and early adopters with a unique experience, and then created a less difficult way for a larger market to cross the chasm into fresh roasted gourmet coffees. The company is maintaining its top position against its current competition, which includes a number of coffee manufacturers such as Tully's and Seattle's Best Coffee, as well as against wherever the market may go in the future.
