MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS:
The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the
finance, operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate
their functioning in the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well
you understand this integration. This assignment will be dealing with STARBUCKS and has 2
parts.
Listed below you will find some WEAKNESSES and THREATS for Starbucks, read them
carefully then proceed to answer the questions that follow:
Starbuck Weakness:
1) Customers not willing to wait in long lines at stores during morning rush hour and
lunch hour.
2) Coffee dominant business with a poor reputation for creativity around new product and
companion product development.
3) Too dependent on word of mouth to create brand awareness.
Starbucks Threats:
1) Better value offered by local coffee house shops and national companies like Dunkin
Donuts and McDonalds McCafe.
2) Downturn in the economy can decrease customer traffic and spending.
PART I : MARKETING ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
1). Assume you are the Vice President of Marketing for Starbucks. Select 1 Weakness and 1
Threat from the list provided above, and explain how you would recommend taking that
selected weakness and turning it into a strength and the selected threat and turning it into an
opportunity.
Part 2:
Provide 2 explanations as follows:
2a) Explain how the weakness turned into a new strength would impact the
disciplines of Marketing, Finance, Management and Operations.6
2b) Explain how the threat turned into a new opportunity would impact the
disciplines of Marketing, Finance, Management and Operations.
