Starbucks @Barns & Noble, BU

Identifying new opportunities to attract more customers

By: Daixin Neill-Quan

Products Unique Products

Cheesecake Factory desserts Imported and quality chocolate Larger selection of food items than other Starbucks at BU

Soup Breakfast combo Pizza Quiche

Larger selection of packaged beverages (bottled juice) than other Starbucks at BU

Standard Products Coffee & Tea Beverages

Services: taking order, serving beverage & food, checking out, cleaning tables

Starbucks @Barns Noble BU

Location: 660 Beacon St Boston, MA 02215

Advantages: Close to Kenmore Station and bus terminal Close to 100 Bay State Rd. and the post

office Located in between BU and the East

Campus residential areas

Disadvantages: Far from BU’s college buildings compared

to other Starbucks on Commonwealth Ave. Surrounded by many local restaurants and

coffee shops that may offer better value beverages and food items

Less noticeable for passerby Security guard at the door may be

intimidating or make customers feel uncomfortable

Store Location

Busy Time of the Day

8:30 am – 10:00 am 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Other Starbucks in the BU Community Starbucks @700 Commonwealth Ave.

Frequent Visitors: College of Communication Students; Any students who transit from central to east campus

Characteristics: very busy with a long line of customers, high level of tension and impatience in customers during busy hours (especially during class breaks).

Most of the customers are on a rush to go somewhere (for a class) or do something for the deadline- not a relaxed or hangout sort of place. This is possibly the most popular Starbucks location on the Commonwealth Ave., especially among BU students.

Staff: The staff here are usually highly concentrated to handle the large demand of service. They interact with each others and customers positively and professionally. They don’t necessarily have an attitude towards customers (mostly because they don’t have the time to). This Starbucks location has better staff attitude than the one at B&N and the Starbucks at GSU

Starbucks @SMG Frequent Visitors: Students in the SMG building

Starbucks @GSU Frequent Visitors: Students in the GSU building and passerby

Starbucks @874 Commonwealth Ave. Frequent Visitors: Students who go to class in the West Campus

On-Campus Competition

Direct Competitors: Coffee shops Dunkin’ Donuts: Across the street

Dunkin’ Donuts is the largest competitor to Starbucks both on a corporate level and on a local level. Compared to the chosen Starbucks location, the Dunkin’ Donuts from across the street is more busy with a more complex customer mix. Dunkin’ Donuts have an advantage to Starbucks in terms of price and the fast-food economy concept, but Starbucks can better appeal to middle-class consumers and college students who value delicate and quality products enough to pay for the higher price. Compared to Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks has a greater superficial connection to Bu students because it operates as a part of the on campus venders. Starbucks at B&N, BU should keep up with good service and products to prevent customers from literally walking across the street to get cheaper, faster coffee.

Café 472: 0.1 mi distance Ankara Café: 0.1 mi distance

Indirect Competitors: Restaurants that serve coffee, desserts, & food items McDonald’s Bertucci’s Cornwall’s Boca Grande Restaurant Island Creek Oyster Bar Eastern Standard Uno Chicago Grill

Off-Campus Competition

Field Research: In-store Observation To better understand why BU students choose to visit or

not visit this Starbuck location, I spent 3 hours in Starbucks to observe customer & staff behaviors.

In-Person Survey I asked 15 customers who visited the chosen location to

fill out a short survey that will help gain insights into their reasons for coming and not coming to this Starbucks.

I then went to the Starbucks at 700 Commonwealth Ave. and asked students to fill out the same survey.

Research Methods

Survey Results(1-6)B&N 700 Comm.

Ave.

Yes 6 13

No 9 2

2013 3 2

2014 1 2

2015 1 2

2016 7

1. Are you a full-time BU student? (15 total)

2. Do you like coffee beverages? (15 total)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Yes 15 13

No 2

3. How often do you drink coffee? (15 total)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Once a week 2 2

Several Times a week

3 6

Once every day 4 1

Several Times a day 5 5

4. What do you drink coffee for? (multiple choice)

1 B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Taste 6 9

Habit 4 7

Energy 5 7

Health Benefits 1

Other 1 1

6. Ho did your food/beverage taste compared to other Starbucks at BU? (15 total)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Better 2 3

Worse 1

No difference 12 11

Other 1

5. What beverage did you order today?

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Beverages:• Flavored latte x 2• Tea • Iced or black

coffee/Espresso x 8• Flavored Mocha x 2• Carmel MacchiatoFood:• Multi-grain bagel • Roast beef sandwich• Chocolate brownie

Beverages• Tea Lemonade x3• Flavored Latte x 4• Latte• Iced/hot or straight Coffee

x4• Tea x 2• Frappes x 2

Survey Results (7-8)

8. Please rank the following elements to help us understand what motivate you to visit this Starbucks location instead of others Starbucks at BU? (Please rank on a scale of 1-6)

Ranking Convenient Location

Food/beverage selection

Staff attitude

Product quality

Atmosphere

Other

B&N “700”

B&N “700”

B&N “700”

B&N “700”

B&N “700”

B&N “700”

1 4 12 1 2 1 2 2 5 2 2 1

2 3 3 4 1 2 1 2 1 2

3 3 3 1 3 4 2 1

4 2 1 1 5 7 3 1 1 3

5 1 3 2 3 1 2 1 3 2

6 2 1 5 5

7. How often do you visit this Starbucks location? (15 total)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Once a week 9 7

Several Times a week

6 6

Once every day 1

Several Times a day 1

Survey Result (9-11)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Very likely 3 1

Likely 1 8

Neutral 10 5

Unlikely 1

Very Unlikely

9. How likely are you to recommend this Starbucks to a friend or family member? (15 total)

10. Why wouldn’t you visit this Starbucks more often as compared to other local or franchised coffee shops? ( multiple choice)

B&N 700 Comm. Ave.

Inconvenient location

3 6

Food/beverage selection

1 3

Produce Quality 2 1

Staff attitude 1

Price factor 1 5

Other 5 3

11. What would you like to see improved in this Starbucks location?

• B&N• More group friendly setting• More plugs for laptops (x2)• More food selections• Make espresso comes out much otter and

increase the quantity• Taste is not as rich as other franchises

when it comes to coffee• The drink that I get tastes weird compared

to any other Starbucks locations• Good as is/doesn’t need improvement (x4)

• 700 Comm. Ave.• More seating x 5• More cashier• Starbucks in general is expensive for the

poor quality• Have more on-campus Starbucks accept

dining points• Cheaper price• More Tea Options• Good as it is• More customized selections for beverage• Should serve bagels

1. 60% of the surveyed customers at this location are not BU students2. 86.7% of the surveyed customers at both locations drink coffee regularly (more than once

a week); 60% of customers surveyed at B&N, BU drink coffee at least once everyday, while only 40% of those at 700 Comm. Ave. drink coffee at least once everyday.

3. Taste, energy, and habit are the top three motives that drive surveyed customers to drink coffee. Very few people choose to drink coffee because of health benefits

4. More surveyed customers ordered food at the B&N location than those at 700 Comm. Ave.5. The most popular type of beverage for surveyed customers at the B&N location is iced or

black coffee while surveyed customers seem to order a wider variety of beverages6. Most surveyed customers find products served at different Starbucks location on BU

campus to be similar7. Surveyed customers at both locations visit Starbucks on similar frequency pattern8. Surveyed customers at the B&N location consider atmosphere (5 customers) and

convenient location (4 customers) to be mostly attractive features; Surveyed customers at 700 Comm. Ave. location are mostly attracted by the location being convenient (12 customers)

9. 2 out of 3 surveyed customers feel neutral about recommending the B&N location to others- only 4 people are likely or very likely to recommend the location. On the contrary, 9 of the 14 customers who answered this question at 700 Comm. Ave. would recommend this location, with 5 customers feeling neutral

10. Price and location are the two largest barriers that stop surveyed customers to visit more often

11. Suggestions provided by customers reflect that customers want to have a better meeting/ working environment in Starbucks (with outlets and sufficient seating area), better selection of food, and cheaper products available.

Survey Key Insights

1. Store renovation: adopt the vibrant, clean, and modern look and match Starbuck’s online brand image

2. Train employees to connect with customers beyond the shallow surface of niceness3. Setup a blog or at least a Facebook/Twitter/Yelp profile for the location, get customer

feedbacks and act on them4. Develop ways for customers to engage with the location on a more personal level.

Some ideas are: 1. Ask customers whether they like their beverages/food (be proactive)2. Take a personal interest in the customer (without being creepy or too nosey)3. Host micro events at different times of week, encourage customers to interact with each other4. Install some outlets for customers with laptop. Many people like to visit Starbucks for meetings and personal work

hours, but they can’t stay if they can’t get plugged in.

5. Create better signs and posters to highlight Starbucks’ presence in the book store

Recommendations Based On Field Research Results

(See additional attachment)

Deciding on the research methods It was a bit difficult at first to decide which research methods to use. After thorough

considerations, I chose to conduct on-site research and in-person survey because I wanted to collect data that are the most relevant to the specific Starbuck location.

Designing the survey It’s challenging to design a short survey that would not look too intimidating/time-

consuming to survey takers, while being able to collect useful data to help make strategic decisions I noticed that some of the survey takers were confused by question 8 as I processed the

data. It would have been better if I stated cleared what each number represent in terms of the scale

I wish that I have broken down the demographic into more detail for customers who are not BU students. It would have been helpful for the strategic teams to know who are visiting the location more often

Conducting the Survey at 700 Comm. Ave. I didn’t encounter too much problems surveying people at B&N, but it was difficult to

get customers at 700 Comm. Ave. to fill out the survey. Almost 1/3 of the customers I asked rejected my request at 700 Comm. Ave., while I had only 1 of 15 customers at B&N who said no to taking the survey

Challenges & Lesson Learned

Questions?