Today I went to my University bookstore to buy a textbook when my eye caught an arrow that wrote “Ethically Sourced Coffee” and was pointing at a Starbucks store. This sigh was further accentuated as the “E” in the word “Ethical” was written in bright red and underlined.

This is an example pf Starbucks’s marketing strategy of selling the 99% ethically sourced coffee as its Unique Selling Point. Through this USP, Starbucks has managed to have  higher priced products compared to the products of many other coffee shops, such as the  Blenz Coffee shop and has also increased the prices of its drinks by as much as 30 cents. in the recent years.

Starbucks follows this pricing Strategy largely on the bases that people should pay more for its products compared to the products of other firms as ethically sourced coffee costs more than the unethically sourced one.

However, people have debated about whether Starbucks is overpricing its products to, indeed, cover the ethically-sourced-coffee costs or just to maximize its profit. If the second statement is true then Starbucks tries to maximize its profits by making people believe that they pay for an ethical purpose, which is greatly unethical.

Lets see the two points of the debate:

On the one hand Starbucks, indeed, ethically sources 99% of its coffee and rightly advertises this ethical activity

But on the other hand, this statement means that 1% of the coffee is not ethically sourced, and although 1% seems a very small percent, it translates to tons of unethically sourced coffee. In addition, Starbucks does not only sell coffee but other beverages such as tea, fresh juices and chocolate, the ingredients of which are not ethically sourced.

Since both sides of the debate are valid, the way a firm promotes its ethical behavior is what really matters. For example, if Starbucks had not overpriced its products so much then people might have appreciated more its ethical behavior.

Thus, whether a business is ethical or not is not a standard variable but depends on the viewpoint of each stakeholder and the marketing each business uses to promote its ethical behavior is what really matters.