Brand Concept Drives Loyalty Toward Starbucks: Concept, Product, Place, and Staff in Japan

Abstract

Purpose: Design and UX are effective means of embodying value, but if marketers couple these with an ambiguous concept, the product/service loses its uniqueness. Starbucks exhibits strength in creating value based on concepts. Various studies report factors that contribute to brand loyalty, but the underlying idea remains unexplored. This study comprehensively verifies the contribution of four factors to Starbucks’ loyalty in Japan: concept, product, place, and staff. Methodology: Using an online survey, a question was framed about the brand image to identify loyalty-related factors, since consumers form brand image through brand experience. To avoid bias, the responses were based purely on recall. The contribution of each derived factor to loyalty was evaluated using structural equation modeling. Findings: When asked about the Starbucks brand image, respondents mostly recalled its products (related words), but the brand concept was the most effective factor for loyalty. In addition, places were more significant than products. However, product superiority was confirmed in terms of both frequency and contribution compared to place. Implications: Companies should reaffirm the importance of brand concepts. Thus, emphasis should be placed on the index of concept recall in brand management.

Analysis of Starbuck's Future Development

“…From doing the online survey, the result revealed brand concept as the most important factor to attract customers. Therefore, Kato suggests Starbucks put more effort not only into product quality but also into a brand concept to form a better brand image [5]. Liu identifies that Starbucks has many competitive factors based on its concept, product, and management.…”

“…The data shows that this app contributed a lot to Starbucks' revenues during the pandemic, which is the key that fostered Starbucks to go through this difficult period. The CEO of Starbucks Kevin Johnson has said: "In every industry, there are periods of disruption that create a great opportunity for those businesses that adapt to the disruption, invest in relevant ways, and strengthen their differentiation and competitive advantage" [5]. Just like what Kevin said, Starbucks took this awful time and turned it into a new opportunity and minimized the impact the pandemic could have brought to the company.…”

Examining the Mechanism of the Attitude-Behavior Gap in Ethical Consumption and the Concept of Creating Value from Ethical Factors

“…コーヒーを対象としたロイヤルティに寄与する要因としては， ブランド (Han et al, 2018;Kato, 2022;Kim & Lee, 2020), 商品品質 (Lee, Moon, & Song, 2018;Suhud, Allan, Wibowo, Sabrina, & Willson, 2020), 販売チャネル (Dhisasmito & Kumar, 2020)…”