Starbucks Disaster Relief PR Campaign Lindsey Scheltema ...

Starbucks Disaster Relief PR Campaign Lindsey Scheltema, Michele C. Hladik and Katie Goodling

6-26-11

Organizational Audit: Executive Summary "Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit ? one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time ()" Plain, simple, and directly to the point, Starbucks is all about the customer, from the drink, to the friendliness, to the connection each partner develops with their customers in each community. Founded in 1971, Starbucks belongs to the specialty eateries industry of gourmet coffee found from the best coffee producers in the world. Starbucks prides itself in not only delivering the best customer service, but also by giving back to the community by helping out the environment and communities they surround themselves in. Like many other big corporations, Starbucks saw rough times during the global economic crisis, but after reshaping their company and going "back to basics", Starbucks has been looking up, not only Internationally, but financially- in 2010 they reached a record net revenue of over 10 billion dollars.

Organizational Audit Starbucks belongs to the specialty eateries industry. Specialty eateries are establishments that serve a limited menu and often specialize in a particular foods and beverages. Starbucks' industry segment is that of gourmet coffee. Starbucks prides itself on high quality coffee and espresso products and compliments its coffee menu with highly focused cafe-type food items such as muffins and pastries as well as the sale of coffee-centered merchandise such as travel mugs. First and foremost, Starbucks works with its customers to provide high quality coffeerelated products and superb customer service. The Starbucks customer has evolved from the upper class businessperson to members of all societies who view Starbucks as a place to conduct business, study and socialize.

Starbucks also prides itself on working with a diverse group of suppliers to provide its customers with quality products. Starbucks uses many women and minority-owned coffee bean suppliers due to their dedication to promoting prosperity in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. Starbucks works closely with all coffee bean farmers to improve benefits to their businesses, communities and environment. Starbucks has created support centers in Costa Rica and Rwanda to assist their farmers with production costs, health issues and quality control. Starbucks also contributes to companies who release loans to coffee farmers, which allows them to create the best coffee and sell their beans at the right time and at the right price.

Over the last three decades, Starbucks has grown and transformed from a single coffee store to an international success. Founded in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, the company started with a narrow store that featured fresh roasted, whole-bean coffee. The store's name was inspired by Moby Dick and designed to evoke romantic images of the sea and traditional sea faring coffee traders ("About Us," 2011).

It was discovered by current President, Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz in 1981. Schultz began working for the company in 1982, but soon took a short break to tour Italy. There he fell in love with the Italian coffee houses and when he returned to the United States he began to branch out on his own. By 1987 he purchased the Starbucks company and began to develop his dream of community coffee houses spread throughout the United States This dream soon grew to its current size of 17,009 stores in 50 countries around the world. More than half of those stores, 8,870, are company owned and 8,139 are licensed stores ("About Us," 2011).

Despite the size of the company, Starbucks continues to be part of the local communities it serves and a steward of the environment. It has become a daily routine for some customers and has developed into a community meeting place. It is also seen as a great environmental protector

and has received many awards for its role in community, employment and environmental living. The company has received nine awards in the last year for its role in local communities, protecting the environment, and corporate responsibility. It has also been recognized as one of the best employers, one of the most admired companies and one of the most sustainable companies ("About Us," 2011). What is the organization like?

Specializing in handcrafted and blended drinks including coffees and teas, Starbucks has developed into even more. It also features fresh baked goods, pastries, sandwiches, salads, yogurt, oatmeal and fruit. Patrons may also purchase Starbucks merchandise like coffee and tea making equipment, packaged products, music, books, mugs and other accessories and items.

The company is part of the brand portfolio of Seattle's Best Coffee, Tazo Tea, and Torrefazione Italia Coffee. Starbucks became a publicly traded company June 6, 1992. The economic crisis of 2008 had a dramatic impact on the company which almost had to close 300 stores and cut thousands of jobs. It was saved when Schultz retook the reins and the company has actually grown. It celebrated its 40th anniversary in March 2011 with a redesign of its logo and a move toward more calorie conscious products ("Starbucks Corporation," 2011). Mission Statement

The Starbuck's mission simply is "to inspire and nurture the human spirit ? one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time ("About Us," 2011)." The company is committed to operating in a manner that builds trust and respect among employees, investors, neighbors and customers. It is also interested in building strong relationship with farmers all over the world to allow the purchase of the best quality products. The company aims to follow ethical trading practices and good agricultural standards ("About Us," 2011).

The mission also states the company's strong believe in good environmental stewardship. It works to reduce or eliminate its carbon footprint through water and energy conservation, recycling and green construction. The company is also working to ensure all of its cups are reusable or recyclable by 2015. The mission also places continued importance on community involvement and expresses the plan to contribute more than one million volunteer hours a year in Starbucks based communities each year by 2015 ("About Us," 2011).

This huge transformation of reshaping the company in times of the global hard economic times was difficult, but the progress the company has made in the past 12 months has been phenomenal.

The most recent financial information was retrieved from the 2010 fiscal year annual report. The total net revenue for Starbucks is at an all time high at 10.7 billion dollars, which is up from 2009 by 1.1 billion dollars. Their comparable growth rate went from being negative 6% to positive 7% increase, which is a 13.3% difference; which was the highest full-year consolidated operating margin in the history of the company! Starbucks capital expenditure dropped almost 540 million dollars from 2008-2009; which meant they decreased a lot of spending; but this helped in the long run because in 2010, their operating cash flow rose and capital expenditures was still lowering; which means Starbucks is handling their spending more wisely and staying conservative with cash flow. As far as the future for 2011 Fiscal Year is concerned, Starbucks is only expecting to increase its revenue and improve their operating margin for 2011

Starbucks Communication Audit: Executive Summary Starbucks is an international specialty eatery that uses various forms of communication to reach its target audiences. The company's communication plan as a whole is extremely

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