STARBUCKS CAMPAIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE AND REUSABLE CUPS
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The ecofriendly campaign is a big leap into environmental conservation consciousness. As an international fast-food chain and reputable for its coffee, Starbucks’ bid to use reusable cups is a strategic marketing tool. Green marketing is the production and designing of goods that are environmentally safe (Boztepe, 2012). Environmental problems resulted in the innovative creation of green marketing as organizations seek to balance sustainable profitability and social consciousness. In the strategy, designing of packaging methodology is utilized to venture into green marketing by Starbucks.
Starbucks sells a large number of coffee cups in their wide menu offer. The branding of the company’s logo on all its products packaging not only markets the firm but also sets a standard for consumers. As of the financial year 2021, the company peaked at almost $5 billion in income (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2022). This data means that an enormous number of cups were used; hence, a highly impactful environmental concern if the cups were all plastic. Plastics, synthetic and semi-synthetic, account for a significant part of the world’s pollution. The United Nations Environmental Program has lamented the alarming surge of plastic pollution; there is more plastic than fish in oceans (Sidhu and Desai, 2018). More than half a million cups that are poorly designed are thrown away unmanageably. The concern is grave since these products take a considerably long time to break down.
In the project, the Starbuck’s eco-friendly paper cup is designed to have 95% paper and only 5% plastic. The design maintains every aspect of the company's branding similar to the previous original cup, but the make-up of the new one is biodegradable. Further, the new design will have a denotation in the form of the recycle icon specialized with a Starbucks emblem to let users know and understand they are supporting an environmental change initiative.
The world is in dire need of environmental change towards mitigating the effects currently felt by global warming and other pollution. Plastics pollutions are among the top contributors to pollution where raw plastics are dumped in public while others are burnt to produce carbon emissions. The emissions damage to the ozone layer promotes global warming, which has seen escalating effects of drought and uncontrolled floods (Alabi et al., 2019). As plastic levels increase, the exposure to carcinogens to human being increases (Kumar et al., 2022). The physico-chemistry nano-properties of plastics make them potential carcinogenic hazards.
The eco-friendly campaign is driven by the heightening global warming effects due to carbon emissions. According to the Global Climate Report 2021 by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, the world is getting warmer every year(Ipcc.ch., 2022). The past decade has observed an average increase of 1.07 degrees Celsius yearly. This increase is attributed to the greenhouse effect (carbon-related emissions; organic gases) and other human influences. The world has had enough trouble, including the recent global Corona Virus pandemic and constant hurricanes, tsunamis, and typhoons. As some cannot be controlled, global warming can be minimized and eventually controlled through joint efforts. Starbucks aims to integrate its business structure in line with eco-friendly operations as a contributor to environmental change.
As the organization channels efforts towards environmental change, it also keeps a keen eye on its business viability and profit maximization. The green marketing strategy, first and foremost boosts the public image of the company. It is an elaborate tool to draw the attention of the public as the firm shows efforts in positive deeds that try to mitigate hazardous global concerns. This feature gives the company relevance and attracts potential customers. Environmental-conscious patrons will move from competitors in the market who do not exhibit good corporate citizenship (Mogadham, 2012). A competitive advantage is achieved in the process.
In the project, discounted prices are attached to coffee served in reusable cups or clients who walk into stores with their own cups. It is a move to attract participants to the campaign and further promote it. As the goal of the campaign promotion is achieved, the company’s sales will rise in the long run. A discount strategy in a new venture is known to influence sales, thereby maximizing profits (Chen et al., 2019). Starbucks has adjustable operational management and costs accounting stability; therefore, the campaign is well-cushioned in its general operations. This factor promotes profit realization for the firm as it already has an established customer base.
The target market for coffee served in reusable cups is already defined. The potential participants are eco-friendly conscious individuals with whom the world is full of at the moment. Therefore, the company is in a better position in the competitive, sales, and marketing dimensions. To further boost sales, the project intends to incorporate the use of The Decoy Strategy. When an appealing message is put in front of the target market, the potential for sales initiation and increase is high (Schumpe et al., 2020). Setting a relatively lower price on coffee served in reusable cups is well placed to drive the campaign as well as sales. The strategy extends to a larger audience since the lower and discounted prices are economic subsidies. The global distribution of Starbucks’ shops located in a highly accessible and convenient places in major cities, airports and terminuses, and places of attractions, play an essential role in the success of the project.
The company is already an established brand with extensive online, main stream media, and analog advertisement methods. In online advertisement plans, Starbucks has active Facebook and Instagram accounts with huge followings. This is in addition to brand marketing strategies through celebrated personalities who push the marketing, awareness, and consequent sales of the variety of coffee offered by the firm. All these strategies can be used to push the awareness of the project; however, for effective reaching out to a large audience, utilizing Search Engine Optimization will be a key step. As the project content is being pushed for awareness, search engine optimization enables the prioritization of the content in major search engines where the information comes up when a user is searching for similar or relevant data (Ledford, 2015). The approach leads to traffic influx in the content sites and pages, impacting positively on the project. In the process, the project explores similar content from other organizations and paying attention to the gaps in their content and focusing on that. Using keywords in the optimization enables easy realization by potential patrons for the campaign (Cui and Hu, 2011). The keywords can be analyzed and created through a comprehensive analysis of similar content sites' keywords as well as those from main competitors. The keywords developed will be unique and specific to the project. As the campaign pops up on top of the results of the search from an individual, environmental conservancy and sustainability keywords will quickly attract people with similar interests and also those who will fancy discounted quality coffee from a reputable seller. Appealing graphical designs and easy-to-understand message delivery enhances the reaching out strategy to online users during searches. Using the 'what people ask for' strategy in the Search Engine Optimization plan will lead to the content to a specific group of individuals who seek information about environment conservation concerns and efforts. This way, it will be easy to reach out to potentially interested people, who might subsequently create multiple referrals. Search Engine Optimization is a proven method to push content to reach out to the masses, as seen by its usage by successful companies. Amazon, for instance, the world's largest E-commerce retailer, uses the strategy to push for sales of its goods. Every time one searches for a product online, Amazon pops up with a wide variety of provisions. Similarly, the campaign can be promoted for its success in this powerful way.
The promoted content in Search Engine Optimization and other online platforms, as well as the physical advertisement methodologies such as billboards, placards, and packaging branding, aims at spreading the need for environmental conservation and well-being. The company, being a global brand, has devoted and sacrificed its efforts towards creating awareness of the importance of environmental safeguarding and maintenance. Speaking out for eco-friendliness is not enough until organizations act. In the process, the project hopes to maintain the constant income flow for the company as the endeavor is being campaigned for.
The content further carries the objective of sustainable and relevant marketing of the company. There is an urgent need for environmental conservation as the effects of pollution have been, and are being felt at extreme levels. However, as the firm promotes the campaign, sales are a keen consideration. It is a mutually symbiotic project. As innovation guides the program, there is the goal of achieving a cheaper and maintainable production of the reusable cup, but until then, the content aims at also influencing customers to embrace and bring their preferred packaging for coffee. As stated, the cups from patrons should also be environmentally friendly and in line with efforts of environmental conservation. Further, the content hopes to influence people to take upon personal roles to preserve the environment and campaign for the same. The move should ignite the intention of other organizations to channel their efforts towards eco-friendliness in their line operations, bringing a balance between profitability and social consciousness.
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