In 2011 Starbucks Corp. acquired Teavana, a chain of stores offering “boxed and loose tea and accessories,” in hopes to bring a new and fashionable vision of tea to the American consumer market. This new move places Starbucks in a new target market and offers an opportunity for growth in the company. While currently Teavana offers a limited amount of brewed teas, Starbucks plans to initiate a tactic that will bring further “ready to go,” products to stores. These new developments of the Teavana store will allow Starbucks to better segment their markets and customize their products to meet consumer needs. Tea bars and Tanana’s tea shops will target a more tea oriented consumer base, thus offering more product diversity and development than Starbucks’s current coffee shops.
While other tea bar alternatives exist such as “Culture Tea Bar,” in New York, Teavana will have little barriers to entry as there are few of such alternatives, and the strong support from Starbucks will allow for great brand positioning in the new market. With this market segmentation and product customization to new demands of customers, Starbucks will be able to become profitable in the new domain and bring an increased tea culture to Americans, just like it has with coffee.
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