¶ … Starbucks and Gloria Jeans in Singapore. The focus will be on the marketing elements of these two stores. For Starbucks, the store visited was in Raffles City. The Gloria Jeans was in Suntec City Galleria. The focus of the report will be on describing the elements of the marketing mix, including product, price and promotion. A table will be presented, and then there will be descriptions of the findings. Last, an analysis and conclusions will be presented about the marketing traits of these two coffee shop chains. Reflective Journal

Starbucks. Exit the MRT and the Starbucks is visible right away. There is a counter in front and a large store with indoor seating area, and a door to the outside. This is a busy area, and there are a lot of customers both European and Asian. The colours have a lot of browns, and some bland, background art on the walls. The staff are friendly, and smiling. I ordered a grand mocha Frappuccino and sat down. The prices for most items are fairly high, much higher than for kopi ais, lah! Beverage is cold, sweet, not much coffee taste. The customers are mainly businesspeople, and maybe some tourists from the hotel. There are signs that promote the new Blonde Roast, and there are promotional displays for different beans that are on special. The counter where you order is cluttered with different things for sale. There is food, too, mostly pastries.

Gloria Jeans. This shop has a more open plan than the Starbucks, but again everything is very brown. Coffee-coloured, I guess. The counter is set back and I entered the store. There are fewer customers than at the Starbucks. I order a Mocha Chiller Cocoa Loco. It looks a lot like the Frappuccino I just had at Starbucks, dark brown and with whipped cream. Tastes sweeter. Quite expensive. The promotion here is similar to Starbucks, but with fewer signs. They also have displays of various items for impulse purchase. They promote Rainforest Alliance. Overall, the design seems similar to Starbucks, but maybe not as slick-looking. But a similar experience. Friendly, smiling staff here too.

Comparison Between Starbucks and Gloria Jeans

Starbucks

Gloria Jeans

Product

Coffee drinks

Frozen coffee drinks

Light snacks

Coffee beans...

I found the biggest differences were in the products, but even then the difference was not so significant. With respect to product, both shops sold roughly the same product lineup. Starbucks has fewer items, which makes ordering easier. Both shops were allowing customers to customize their orders, but the practice is more prevalent at Starbucks. It possible, it seems that the Gloria Jean's menu items were of somewhat lower quality and more sugary/fattening, but both companies are oriented towards the snack/dessert side of the spectrum, along with regular coffee. On these visits, I did not try food but have in the past and was not impressed with the food at either location.
The pricing at the two companies is similar. Both companies have relatively high prices, certainly relative to a more Singaporean-style coffee experience. Ideally, this would translate to higher quality, in order to justify the pricing. There are some products where this is the case, like the bags of special Sumatran beans that Starbucks had for sale. But for the most part, the quality level seemed not to be at the level of the prices. The experience and the novelty of the Western-style coffee shop seems to account for some of the pricing.

Both shops take advantage of the captive audience to promote other menu items. Displays of food at Starbucks are a good example, since the lineup to order coffee makes you stand in front of the food display. At the cash register, both shops have multiple small point-of-purchase…