When I was still in China last year, I could find some beautifully decorated moon cakes sold in Starbucks. This year, it started to sell tea drinks in China. These two great innovations are part of Starbucks’s localization strategy. As its dominant status in China market is threatened by CostaCoffee and Shangdao Coffee, it has to renew its products that can attract more consumers.

In China, people prefer to chat sitting in a laid-back style tea shop rancher than having coffee. However, there are few tea shops that can satisfy this kind of requirement of customers. Most tea shops in China are small shops which are roughly decorated and not able to provide a desirable chatting atmosphere. Thus, it gives Starbucks an edge to sell tea drinks in its beautifully decorated stores. Also, as most of the locations of Starbucks are situated in prosperous business areas, it also leverages its brand image and value proposition : provide white collar workers and busy students with comfortable environment  for their social lives. I am pretty sure that this decision will make huge profits by attracting mountains of business people.

Mid-autum day is one of Chinese important traditional festivals.Chinese people like to give moon cakes as a present to their friends and co-workers. Starbucks make nicely decorated and packed moon cakes to satisfy the requirement of customers in China. Plus, the moon cakes sold in Starbucks have special flavours that others don’t have, such as coffee flavour.