Overview
The article “After Customers Complain about Its New Pastries, Starbucks Brings Back Loaf Cake” was published on Business Week on April 1st, 2014 by Venessa Wong. The company which is directly involved with the loss of valuable customers due to their ‘appalling’ pastry items is the international coffee company, Starbucks. The article primarily focuses on Starbuck’s recent release of new pastry items which were said to be full of butter and unsuccessful to customer’s tastes. Starbucks bought La Boulange. Food in 2012 and last year, in attempt to improve their pastry items, La Boulange. Food started introducing new items to be placed in the Starbucks chains. After various customer complaints in both the United States and Canada, Starbucks had decided to bring back old favourites such as banana, pumpkin, and iced-lemon loaf cakes.
The article “After Customers Complain about Its New Pastries, Starbucks Brings Back Loaf Cake” was published on Business Week on April 1st, 2014 by Venessa Wong. The company which is directly involved with the loss of valuable customers due to their ‘appalling’ pastry items is the international coffee company, Starbucks. The article primarily focuses on Starbuck’s recent release of new pastry items which were said to be full of butter and unsuccessful to customer’s tastes. Starbucks bought La Boulange. Food in 2012 and last year, in attempt to improve their pastry items, La Boulange. Food started introducing new items to be placed in the Starbucks chains. After various customer complaints in both the United States and Canada, Starbucks had decided to bring back old favourites such as banana, pumpkin, and iced-lemon loaf cakes.
Business Strand
Starbucks is unquestionably an international company as its products are available for sale throughout North America. Nevertheless, the introduction of the new pastries at Starbucks directly relate to the factors influencing success in international markets strand of business leadership. This is due to the reason that the new line of Starbucks' pastries essentially ended being a type of business error rather than a way to increase profits. Since the products released were not of the customers liking, the company saw a decrease in profits. This comes to show that with international business and releases of new products, it is essential that if the product is to be successful, the product has to fit customers’ tastes.
Starbucks is unquestionably an international company as its products are available for sale throughout North America. Nevertheless, the introduction of the new pastries at Starbucks directly relate to the factors influencing success in international markets strand of business leadership. This is due to the reason that the new line of Starbucks' pastries essentially ended being a type of business error rather than a way to increase profits. Since the products released were not of the customers liking, the company saw a decrease in profits. This comes to show that with international business and releases of new products, it is essential that if the product is to be successful, the product has to fit customers’ tastes.
Opinion
In my opinion, I believe that Starbucks made a mistake of instantly releasing a new line of products without releasing a test product or sample first. This cost the business valuable sales and as well as their reputation. If Starbucks was to release test samples to customers and ask for feedback before arranging the pastries to be made in all the North American locations, Starbucks could have saved themselves from a disastrous outcome. This comes to show that one of the factors which can ultimately influence the success of an international market is promptly making sure that the product fits with the customer’s tastes. It can be seen that Starbucks made a business error which is one of the risk factors associated with doing international business.
In my opinion, I believe that Starbucks made a mistake of instantly releasing a new line of products without releasing a test product or sample first. This cost the business valuable sales and as well as their reputation. If Starbucks was to release test samples to customers and ask for feedback before arranging the pastries to be made in all the North American locations, Starbucks could have saved themselves from a disastrous outcome. This comes to show that one of the factors which can ultimately influence the success of an international market is promptly making sure that the product fits with the customer’s tastes. It can be seen that Starbucks made a business error which is one of the risk factors associated with doing international business.
Wong, Venessa. "After Customers Complain About Its New Pastries, Starbucks Brings Back Loaf Cake."Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 1 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-01/after-customers-complain-about-its-new-pastries-starbucks-brings-back-loaf-cake>.