Long awaited Starbucks is finally in India with a bang. Entry of Starbucks in India is much hyped up news these days but Howard Schultz is not being carried away with the success they got and instead says “India is going to be no cakewalk, we’ve got to earn the respect of the Indian consumers.” I totally agree with the Starbucks boss because I am myself from India and I know the culture there. Presently, Starbucks has opened three stores in Bombay which is India’s most modern and westernized city with a population of many wealthy people. But India is a country with the largest population of middle class people. Starbucks is mainly attracting the rich people of India right now and to expand to the other cities to attract the middle class society they have to use different business strategies.

I think one of the business tactics would be introducing new flavours according to the Indian tastes. And they also need to keep the price low to compete with their competitors like cafe coffee day, Barista etc, which have already made their place in Indian market. If Starbucks keep their prices the same as they have in North America, nobody in India will choose Starbucks over the other cheap cafe’s available.

They also have some plus points that Vanessa discussed in her blog. One of them is that cafe culture is already running in popular cities like Bombay, Delhi and many people have heard about Starbucks. Starbucks famous brand name and customer loyalty are their biggest weapons, which can help them defeat their competition and make their place in India.

I am looking forward to see how it adapts in other cities in India, and would definitely check it out this winter on my trip to India.

Vanessa song’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/vanessasong/

The article used: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/features/starbucks-india-isnt-celebrating-yet_781171.html