How does Starbucks' relationship with CI compare to that of its relationship with the Fair Trade Movement organizations, Global Exchange/TransFair?

    Starbucks, which is the leading company in the coffee industry, posed significant challenges for its self-interest and social responsibility. When it comes to the consumer behavior in spending their money on Starbucks, many consumers were not occasional than routine coffee drinkers. Consumers don`t just buy for the coffee itself, but also the feelings of special occasion.

               

  According to the value proposition, it is easy to find that Starbucks are not just the one who solely sell its coffee bean with high premiums. “Who” and “What” are

“Who” : Consumer group who can purchase high premium coffees.

“What” : who doesn`t just value the quality of the coffee but also value other things like the atmosphere in the coffee shop.

But in “How”, it gives Starbucks the most difficulty. They should fulfill not just the quality standard, but also other things like environmental or ethical issues.

                  It is not easy to compromise between social values and economics values. Actually, they stand in antipodes according to the traditional strategy theory.

                

  Profit consists of two parts. One is sales and the other is costs. And sales are determined by the consumer spendings which is affected by their values that they levy on. And Starbucks has found the point, what their consumers value. Through collaboration with Conservation International, they achieved both the quality standard and the environment holding position. And the logic which made it possible to achieve it is relied on ‘Clear standard’ which was made by Starbucks. As Mecklenburg noted “NGO doesn`t work for any company. They just need to maintain their independence as an NGO.” And the responsibility to harmonize diversified standard belongs to firms. So, Starbucks made the strict quality control criteria along with the conservation issues.

                  ‘The Fair Trade Movement organizations, Global Exchange/TransFair’ have a good name for advertisement. But in company`s point of view, this means just additional costs. Matching supply and demand is important and the demand for the supply not come from the political & ethical issues. Starbucks has no incentives to follow that movement, even if this seems important for tweet-obsessed people. What the true Starbucks consumer need is not the ‘Fair-trade’ logo. Fair-trade must before followed by reasons for the price.