The article on Forbes magazine describes the fact that Starbucks has been “going through a transition in costumer segment and value proposition” in my fellow Sauder student, Emi Hirano’s words.  Since its establishment, Starbucks target audience have been middle aged baby boomers who regarded the coffee shop as an “affordable luxury “ where they could meet friends outside from home or work. A third place.

Recently however Starbucks have been attracting all kinds of costumers. Through diverse strengths such as a menu that has breakfast and light lunch items for costumers of every age. They have also taken advantage of the opportunity that a slow growing economy present: Starbucks is not an affordable luxury that can compete with more expensive and traditional coffee houses. As I mentioned earlier, this has attracted all kinds of costumers but the risk is that in the process, Starbucks could alienate its first target audience, the middle age.

While I agree with Emi’s opinion that Starbucks, as a retail giant, must continuously adapt an evolve to meet the costumer’s demand, I think that the built of a strong business plan while necessary is too vague of a solution. The article proposes separate rooms for middle-aged that seek a third place and the rest of costumers. While the idea is correct, my personal opinion is that that would greatly increase costs for the Coffee house.

I propose that Starbucks continue to sale itself as an affordable luxury for the aging baby boomers. Its stores are generally characterized by having many microenvironments. Young adults usually prefer to work silently either alone in one table or in groups in the couch section while baby boomers who may want to talk would do in another table. Most of the time there is hardly any problem due to the fact that people mind their own business. If Starbucks continue to market themselves in channels such as TV or social media, it will still attract all kind of costumers, while the baby-boomers, who are usually not driven by social media advertising would continue to go to Starbucks by mere tradition. In the end, Starbucks gets to keep all of its costumers.