Marketing and all things related

Just last week, Starbucks rolled out its $1 coffee and free refills program showing early efforts to lure customers from competitors like McDonald's gourmet coffee.  Today, the next step in Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) repositioning strategy has been revealed.  Say goodbye to breakfast sandwiches to go with your Starbucks latte.

Starbucks will no longer offer breakfast sandwiches.  The strategy is meant to reposition Starbucks as the specialty coffee destination.  Will it work?  That remains to be seen, but franchisees will feel the effects immediately.  It seems that breakfast sandwiches added $35,000 to each franchisee's bottom-line.  Now, we'll have to wait to see how Starbucks' existing customers react to the change.

Next on Starbucks' list of retooling - opening fewer shops than originally planned in the United States and more internationally than originally planned where the company expects the bulk of its growth opportunities to reside.  Starbucks currently operates nearly 16,000 locations around the world.  As the shift from a U.S. growth focus to an international one becomes a key success factor, 2009 will mark the first year the company will open more stores internationally than it will in the United States.