Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the research

1.2 The importance of the research

1.3 Background about Starbucks in Taiwan

1.4 Aims and objectives

1.5 Structure in the dissertation

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Starbucks experience

2.2 Consumer behaviour

2.2.1 Definition of consumer behaviour

2.2.2 Conscious behaviour

2.2.3 Unconscious behaviour

2.3 Customer satisfaction

2.4 Customer loyalty

2.4.1 Factor that affect brand loyalty

2.4.1.1 Social surroundings

2.4.1.2 Task definitions

2.4.1.3 Trust

2.4.1.4 Commitment

2.5 Customer relationship management (CRM)

2.5.1 CRM strategy of Starbucks in Taiwan

2.6 Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

2.6.1 Customer orientation:

2.6.2 Employee orientation:

2.6.3 Environment orientation:

2.6.4 Economy orientation:

2.6.5 Community orientation:

2.7 CSR strategy of Starbucks in Taiwan

2.8 Differences of Coffee Consumption Culture in Taiwan

To what extent CSR can be a motivating factor for customers’ satisfaction and loyalty behaviour on Starbucks in Taiwan.  

Chapter 1 Introduction

This chapter provides and introduction to my dissertation, which include research background, the value of research as well as research aim and objectives. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate “To what extent CSR can be a motivating factor for customers’ satisfaction and loyalty behaviour on Starbucks in Taiwan.”

1.1 Background of the research

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world and is considered a healthy alternative to alcoholic beverages in social gatherings (Cristovam, Russel, Paterson, and Reid., 2000). In modern society, people drink coffee habits have been very popular in daily life. Every day businessmen, workers, or students and others will drink more than one cup of coffee, whether it is to boost the spirit, or by tasting delicious coffee to enjoy life. Coffee has become one of the indispensable things in people’s lives. The number of people buying coffee has been going beyond the number of tea between 2001 and 2014 (Richard, 2016). According to statistics from Richard (2016), people around the world the frequency of coffee every week increased by up to 5 percentage points. People drink coffee compared to the frequency of tea or chocolate drinks have a significant increase in the rate. Moreover, Heyden (2017) also claimed that people who have the habit of drinking coffee have a chance to prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke mortality. To sum up, coffee has become an indispensable part of modern people’s life, whether it is social factors or beneficial health factors and so on. People’s demand for coffee also has a growing trend in the future. With the popularity of people for the trend of coffee, more and more cafes began to open around the world.

The most direct impact of this shop boom is how the Starbucks attracts customers and enhances their customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ko, and Chiu also claimed that customer satisfaction and loyalty have been an important factor in the successful development of coffee shops. In this dissertation, the researcher will study the customers’ impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty behaviour in the café industry. And set the target for Starbucks customers in Taiwan.

1.2 The importance of the research

The study goes into the background of international marketing. It is important to undertake this research and study the customer point of view for different reasons. There have been many studies on the relationship between the cafe and the customer, however, these studies did not take into account Taiwan’s consumer environment. On the other hand, the satisfaction and loyalty behaviour between the cafe industry and the customer can also be seen as a consumer behaviour and relationship marketing in the international marketing module. This dissertation is a good opportunity to study the incentives of Taiwan-based coffee shop leading companies who are Starbucks and their customers with satisfaction and loyalty behavior. As this area contains many rich and complex factors, the researcher will focus on research projects on corporate social responsibility and consumer relationship management.

Customer relationship management(CRM):

More and more business managers are aware that it is important to retain the right customers for the success of the organization (Herhausen & Schogel, 2013). In 2013, researchers survey that 72% of business-to-consumer (B2C) companies listed the customer as the primary goal (Verhoef & Lemon, 2013). Organizations need to retain useful customers are driving some of the current investment in business information systems. Information systems help companies collect data and manage customer relationships (Johnson, Clark, and Barczak, 2012; Oztaysi, Sezgin, & Ozok, 2011).

Corporate social responsibility(CSR):

In a highly competitive market environment, corporate social responsibility (CSR) represents an important concept that many companies have strategic values. More than 90% of the Fortune 500 companies have implemented CSR strategies (Kotler & Lee, 2008; Drumwright & Bridgette, 2004). Marketing research points out that CSR has a huge impact on the customer’s outcomes (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Indeed, CSR directly or indirectly affects the consumer’s response to the product or service (Brown, 1998).

1.3 Background about Starbucks in Taiwan

Starbucks is a multinational chain coffee shop from the United States, but also the global scale of the coffee chain business. Starbucks’ unique brand concept is “Every day, we go to work hoping to do two things: share great coffee with our friends and help make the world a little better.” (Starbucks, 2017). Interbrand (2017) display the Starbucks brand to be worth $7490m in now’s market with 16 %in their brand values. Starbucks has successfully defined his unique brand value, which is becoming a leader of the coffee brand around the world (Buss, 2017). Starbucks president of Mr. Hawthorne operates coffee business emphasizes humane character and quality persistence (Starbucks, 2017). He also emphasizes respect for customers and employees, and insists on purchasing the world’s highest quality coffee beans baking production, providing consumers with the best coffee products and the most comfortable places of consumption (Starbucks, 2017). As a result, Starbucks success process is generally respected by all scholars, the success of the process is also known as the legend of the Kingdom of coffee. Starbucks officially opened its first branch in Taiwan in 1998. (Starbucks, 2017). Starbucks through joint venture with Taiwan’s Uni-president enterprises corporation and jointly set up Starbucks Taiwan stores. Uni-president enterprises corporation is one of Taiwan’s representative enterprise groups, and its fields include food processing, retail, logistics and so on. Moreover, Uni-president enterprises corporation also has many international brands of Taiwan operating rights such as Mister Donut, Cold stone(Uni-president,2017). For a long time, Uni-president enterprises corporation as well-known local enterprises in Taiwan and quite familiar with the Taiwan consumer market environment and trends. To sum up, Starbucks has successfully entered the Taiwan chain coffee market through cooperation with Uni-president enterprises corporation and has become the most famous chain of coffee brands on the market.

In the highly competitive coffee market, each brand enterprise will have a group of customers to support their products. The number of customers with high loyalty is closely related to the sales of the brand. For Starbucks, how to build close relationships for their loyal customers will be a very important strategy. Including the strategy of customer relationship management has also been adopted by Taiwan Starbucks. Customer Relationship Management is basically defined as creating relationships that can create value for the company (Kumar,2010). Taiwan Starbucks has used the strategy of customer loyalty in the field of customer relationship management (Starbucks, 2017). Starbucks use “My Starbucks Reward” to motivate customers for their brand loyalty and purchase frequency (Starbucks, 2017). Consumers can raise their own card levels and get higher rewards at the purchase price. On the other hand, Starbucks also attaches great importance to its corporate social responsibility. In recent years, Starbucks has made a lot of effort to protect the natural environment, such as encouraging customers to use their own cups to replace the plastic cup (Starbucks,2017). Starbucks also through the moral procurement of coffee beans to protect the interests of coffee farmers (Starbucks, 2017). In addition to using the CAFE specification process, Starbucks also strictly complies with the contents of the Fair Trade Agreement. To sum up, Taiwan Starbucks and customer relationship marketing among the corporate social responsibility has a very close relationship. Taiwan Starbucks corporate social responsibility and customer satisfaction and loyalty of the key factors will be worthy of study. As a result, the next section summarizes the aims and objectives of this research.

1.4 Aims and objectives

Therefore, this research is aiming to further understand about what extent CSR can be a motivating factor for customers’ satisfaction and loyalty behaviour on Starbucks in Taiwan, the research object what are the main motivations for confirming Starbucks customer loyalty, investigating what factors are discouraging customer moving to other coffee brands, studying Starbucks’ customer relationship management strategies in Taiwan for keeping their satisfying customer satisfaction, comparing Starbucks popularity in Taiwan, and seeing what Starbucks has Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy?

1.5 Structure in the dissertation

The research will be divided into six main chapters.

Chapter One – Introduction: This chapter provides an introduction to the research which provides research background and identifies research aim and objectives.

Chapter Two – Literature Review:

Chapter Three – Research Methodology:

Chapter Four – Data Analysis:

Chapter Five – Discussion of Key Outcomes:

Chapter Six – Conclusions:

Chapter 2 Literature Review

This chapter will introduce past academic literature on research of Starbucks experience, consumer behaviour, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer relationship management(CRM), corporate social responsibility(CSR), and Taiwan’s coffee consumption culture and approach.

2.1 Starbucks experience

Starbucks originated in the United States of Seattle in 1971, known for selling high quality coffee. The company only sells high-quality coffee beans and coffee equipment at the beginning, and later offers more services and products in addition to coffee. The definition of the brand comes from the customer’s attitude towards its products (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2013). For Starbucks customer, Starbucks experience is not just a cup of daily coffee, it is about a day from the trouble of a politically right cultivated shelter soak (McDowell & Cuneo, 1996). Starbucks brand core concept for “To inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup and neighbourhood at a time” (Starbucks, 2017). Starbucks expects to create a warm coffee culture and a sense of belonging for consumers. Moreover, Starbucks expects to create a third place other than home or office, where their customer can chat and meet with their friends. In order to enhance ultimate customer satisfaction, Starbucks adopt a success strategy that they create a comfortable dining environment such as setting up relaxed sofas and high-speed free internet (Tepper, 2013). Furthermore, this strategy makes consumers feel Starbucks have an atmosphere of home life. On the other hand, Starbucks also provide the wide range of products in response to different customer needs such as muffins, cakes, and sandwich (Starbucks, 2017). For example, different consumers have chosen to go to Starbucks because they can also buy products other than coffee over here. Moreover, Starbucks has used a number of strategies to attract customers, such as creating value for consumers or fully aware of their needs. For example, brand association are used to construct one’s self or to communicate one’s self to others (Moore & Homer, 2008). Starbucks provides convenient and personalized service which is beneficial to the consumer. Starbucks coffee master will be based on the customer’s personal preferences to produce a cup of personal characteristics of the coffee drinks (Collins 2009). For consumers, the value of such customized services is much greater than the cost of money they pay. At the same time, customers for Starbucks brand satisfaction will be greatly improved. Indeed, Starbucks creates an overall atmosphere for consumers to encourage them to buy, regardless of the price higher. For some consumers, more specific atmosphere is more influential than the product itself is in the purchase decision (Milliman, 1986). Everyone can simply buy a cup of Starbucks coffee while enjoying the environment in Starbucks and creating their own good coffee memories. “It was realized that apart from coffee, people came to Starbucks for the ambiance- the music, the comfortable velvet chairs, the smells and the hissing steam (Verma, 2005). Consumer psychology may also be affected by the memories of the past, such as miss the memories of the past and so on (Kaplan, 1987). These factors may also drive people willing to go to Starbucks drink a cup of coffee. Starbucks has one of the most representative policies to reward membership cards (My Starbucks Reward Card). Customers can purchase a physical gift card and continue to use the gift card and accumulate points for consumption. Eventually the highest level of consumers will be able to get personalized gift cards. The higher the grade gift card will be able to get more favourable prices and extra birthday cake every month (Starbucks Rewards, 2016). Starbucks also collects customer data when they are frequently consumed in the store. This information is used to send notifications to consumers by moving the application or by e-mail (Halzack, 2015). With the advancement of science and technology, mobile phones are increasingly used in daily life. Starbucks recently developed a way to allow consumers to buy coffee through mobile apps. Mobile payment applications can make payments easier, and shorten the customer waiting time. In addition, customers can also check their reward (Hof, 2015).

2.2 Consumer behaviour

Based on Kolter(2016), the market is constantly changing because of the evolution of market technology, the environment, and the tools. Moreover, customers also want to achieve their expectations and constantly changing. The customer’s consumption patterns and their expectations and brand relevance are also rapidly changing. Brand marketers must develop strategies that meet consumer needs to adapt to changing market demands, because they understand that the brand can affect the behaviour of consumers, including the decision-making process of consumers.

2.2.1 Definition of consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour is to study how customers buy, use and goods, services, ideas or experiences to meet their needs and requirements (Kotler, 2016). Kotler defines the basis of consumer behaviour and explains that consumer behaviour is an important factor in marketing research. Moreover, understanding of customer behaviour can help brand organizations develop strategies that meet consumer needs (Solomon, 2014). Based on Kotler (2012), The customer’s purchase decision may be influenced by groups, social settings, self-awareness, etc. These effects may change the consumer’s final choice of purchase target. In addition, consumer behaviour can be divided into two parts which is conscious or unconscious.

2.2.2 Conscious behaviour

Many studies try to show that consumer behaviour is rational and conscious. According to Martin & Morich (2011), customers have a rational buying behaviour that will affect their decision-making, and they will consider product quality or price during the purchase process. Indeed, customer may make informed decisions when exposed to information about the product, and the customer will be aware of other valuable alternatives on the market (Jha, 2015). Moreover, many consumers tend to use their own interests as a priority option to judge the quality of the product, and make conscious decisions when buying new products or services in any industry (Martin, & Morich, 2011). In general, the customer will carefully evaluate all the possibilities of the purchase results before making the final decision to get the best choice for their choice in the marketing market. The consumer’s conscious decision-making process can be divided into five steps which are “Recognize needs of products”, “searching the information about the products”, evaluating the alternatives of the products”, “making purchase decision” and “post-purchasing behaviour” (Lamb, Hair, & McDaniel, 2013). These five stages of the theory can help the brand organize the consumer’s conscious behaviour and develop the appropriate sales strategy. Based on the theory from Lamb et al (2013), the first step in a product purchase or service consumption is to understand your own needs, which can happen when the consumer’s needs are different from the real world. The trigger condition is when the consumer is exposed to internal or external stimuli. Internal stimuli are usually physical needs such as hunger or thirst. External stimuli are usually defined as sources of external influences such as a person’s recommendation for a cafe or an attractive TV commercial. Marketers can refer to consumer behaviour to develop influential marketing strategies (Lamb et al.,2013). In combination with the above two requirements, consumers who are stimulated internally and externally will collect different product information. To sum up, careful assessment, analysis, and selection process will be of great influence in the decision-making process. Furthermore, Consumers to compare and analyse product information, will use the purchase intention and make the consumer choice. Finally, consumers will make shopping options that meet their expectations. however, consumer satisfaction still depends on the value of the product or service itself (Lamb et al., 2013). After the purchase of consumer behaviour may also affect customer satisfaction. This behaviour can not only help consumers to confirm the attitude of the brand, it may increase their chance to repeat the purchase of the product, and ultimately may affect the purchase of other consumer’s intention (Lamb et al., 2013). Indeed, Consumers prefer to perform conscious buying behaviour to get the best buying decisions, however, unconscious buying often occurs. Consumers will not always perform a conscious act of purchasing a product or service.

2.2.3 Unconscious behaviour

Based on the theory of Freud, most consumers cannot fully understand their motivation to buy a product or service. As a result, consumers often make unconscious consumer behavior when buying a product or service (Kotler, 2016). In general, ordinary consumers will not want to buy more expensive products, such as daily necessities. At this point the consumer may skip the product search information in their purchase decision-making process (Kotler, 2016). For example, when customers face personal needs such as shampoo, they will try to solve the problem, but less search shampoo information, so they will go to a nearby supermarket or convenience store to buy the product. Consumers who make decisions in the absence of other external stimuli are defined as unconscious consumer behavior (Kotler, 2016).

Moreover, Maslow’s theory also shows that people must meet their physical needs such as hunger or desire, and then safety and social needs will be taken seriously (Kotler, 2016). For example, a hungry person will only focus on filling his stomach, rather than spending too much effort to listen to a beautiful concert. Newell & Shanks (2014) also claimed that the external environment drives consumers to carry out unconscious consumer behavior. Most consumers usually do not know their own ideas before making a purchase decision. However, there are still many external environmental factors can lead to the customer’s unconscious consumer behavior. Woodside & Brasel (2011) claimed that marketers need to analyze the factors of unconscious consumer behavior, and then can control, predict and improve the consumer’s desire to buy products.

Krishna (2012) also indicates that sensory marketing is triggered by five subconscious sensations of hearing, hearing, smell, taste and touch. A successful strategy may be to improve the consumer’s influence. For example, the Swedish grocery retail chain, ICA Sverige AB, has recently decided to adopt more sensory labels for their produce section. The company believes that the use of sensory labels can inspire their customers to buy more products such as food and vegetable This strategy not only through visual stimulation to improve consumer motivation to buy, but also produce a strong sense of the product (Krishna, 2012). As a result, Krishna claimed that visual stimulation is the easiest way for customers to generate unconscious buying behaviour, because visual features are usually the most likely to be perceived by consumers, such as eye-catching markers, or eye-catching text content. To sum up, unconscious consumer behaviour must still be concerned by the brand’s marketer.

2.3 Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is usually divided into two ways, which are Specific transaction satisfaction and post-consumer satisfaction (Olsen & Johnson, 2003; Oliver,2014). After the 20th century, many marketers believe that customer satisfaction comes from the customer after the purchase of the product or service for the overall judgment (Johnson, Anderson & Fornell, 1995). Oliver (2014) also claimed that customer satisfaction is defined as a mixture of emotion and cognition defined as a “consumer response”. Customer satisfaction is also considered to affect its intention to repurchase and behaviour, but also with the brand organization’s income and profits are closely related. For customer, the satisfaction of the brand depends on whether or not the desired result is obtained when they purchase the product or service (Oliver, 1980). Many researchers also define customer satisfaction as a customer’s sense of interacting with the experience of a brand organization before they conduct business practices. According to the theory from Chougule et al., (2013): The level of customer satisfaction is closely related to the interaction between the brand and the customer. Cumulative customer satisfaction is the sum of the experience of the customer and the brand company after a period of time (Chougule, Khare & Pattada,2013). Pantouvakis and Bouranta (2013) also believes that the cumulative impact of customer experience on brand organizations on many social images has more impact on their brand organization’s satisfaction. For example, higher customer satisfaction levels lead to increased revenue from brand organizations and increased customer re-purchase intent (Oakley, 2012). There are many commercial studies that have pointed out that customer satisfaction has become the priority of brand organizations to enhance the goal (Williams & Naumann, 2011). Baumann, Elliott & Burton (2012) also found that customers with high satisfaction are willing to pay more for their branded products or services, or even accept higher prices (Baumann, Elliott & Burton, 2012). Taking the catering industry as an example: consumer satisfaction may be affected by products, services or the environment (Bitner, Booms & Tetreault, 1990). For consumers, the choice of food products to buy and consumption is a complex process. Indeed, the product price, location, brand attitude is one of the most important factors and play a great influence. However, with the constant changes in the modern marketing environment, marketers are also aware of the basic price and product or service quality has been unable to fully meet the basic needs of customers (Muller, 1991). However, Bowen and Shoemaker (2003) point out that satisfied customers may not repeat the purchase of the brand’s products or services, and will not promote a positive word of mouth spread to other customers. Because the brand organization did not provide the customer really want something or service (Roig, Garcia, Tena & Monzonis, 2006). Moreover, Woodruff (1997) claimed that customer satisfaction measurement cannot achieve customer perceived value, in fact, cannot meet customer expectations. As a result, in addition to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty may also change the consumer’s purchasing decision-making process.

2.4 Customer loyalty

Jacoby and Kyner (1973) propose that customer loyalty can be divided into behavioral and psychological aspects of brand loyalty. It is defined as a consumer after a period of time, similar products or service portfolio in particular brand preferences. This is also the consumer decision-making evaluation The results of the process. Reynold and Gutman (1984) measured consumer loyalty as a measure of brand loyalty, arguing that brand loyalty meant that consumers would continue to buy on the same brand at similar times at any time. Dimitriades (2006) argues that customer loyalty is a positive attitude towards brand organization, as well as the performance of repeated buying behavior, and will recommend the brand to others, and then to affect the purchase behavior of others. Park et al. (2011) argue that consumer loyalty refers to the fact that consumers are affected by the environment and that marketing incentives may change the behavior of buying, but loyalty to high consumers to their favorite products or services to repeat the purchase behavior still does not change. Kotler (1996) pointed out that brand loyalty can be divided into four values:1. The cost of attracting a new consumer is about five times the cost of keeping existing consumers;2. Attract new customers to the door, with brand loyalty consumers will create a good reputation, and will recommend with others, and attract more new consumers;3. Provide the brand organization with the same nature of competitors to do a strategy to counter the buffer time;4. Brand organizations can provide sales outlets to sell high loyalty products and then increase profits. Gounaris and Stanthakopoulos (2004) argue that brand loyalty should include three factors: customer buying behavior, consumer attitudes to brand affection and social norms. Brand loyalty level is based on the extent of these three factors. They also believe that social factors should also be considered in the process, because of the behavior of loyalty in the process, not necessarily focus on the actual purchase of the product behavior. Batterg and Neslin (1990) developed the theory of brand loyalty, including

1. Repeated purchase behavior: When consumers maintain a stable purchase of a brand, the reason may be a brand loyalty;2. Accelerate buying behavior: high brand loyalty consumers in the absence of promotional activities, would still buy the brand, and in the promotion, may prompt consumers to buy or increase in advance purchase;3. The expansion of the purchase of brand needs: consumers would think that the same business belongs to the various brands are able to meet their needs.;4. Brand conversion behavior: Low brand loyalty consumers are more likely to replace the brand to buy the behavior, so manufacturers often use promotional activities to influence consumer buying behavior. From the perspective of the restaurant industry, brand loyalty has three key points: higher sales volume, premium pricing ability, and retention of customers. The great interest of the brand organization comes from the fact that loyal customers do not care whether the price of the product or service is rising and still feel that the brand can meet their needs.

2.4.1 Factor that affect brand loyalty

According to theory from Anic & Radas (2006), consumer loyalty may be related to situational factors such as social surroundings, task definitions, trust, and commitment. Situational factors can also be defined as “commercial measures to attract consumers by reducing the attractiveness of competitors’ brands” (Dick & Basu, 1994). Moreover, situational factors also explain how and why customers make certain purchase decisions and continue to support the same brand, and also based on emotions and the physical condition of the consumer (Belk, 1975).

2.4.1.1 Social surroundings

The social environment of consumers will affect consumers’ shopping behavior. It contains the consumer’s family or friends or work partners, and even everyone near the customer, “there characteristics, apparent roles and interpersonal reactions”. (Belk, 1975; Zhang, Tsang, Zhou, Li, & Nicholls, 2005). Anic and Radas (2016) also claimed that customer’s friends or family values may affect their purchase decisions, and even buy more “. The store will have a good profit. If it can attract many couples, friends or groups (Underhill, 1999). As a result, the customer’s buying motivation may be influenced by the social environment in which it is located. In other words, the sense of social identity can improve customer loyalty and reduce the possibility of choosing other brands.

2.4.1.2 Task definitions

Task definition is about reaching goals that a consumer needs to attain (Jayasankaraprasad,2010). This factor revolves around the consumer’s intention or request to decide, buy or collect information about the purchase (Belk,1975; Kenhove, De Wulf & Waterscoot, 1999). Furthermore, task definitions also related to the individual’s mind and what the motivators are when purchasing items. For brand organization, task definition is about reaching goals that a consumer needs to attain (Javasankaraprasad, 2010). To sum up, the potential goal of the consumer must also be one of the factors that the marketer considers.

2.4.1.3 Trust

Trust is a valuable social interaction, and loyalty marketing has a great influence (Keller, 1993; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Delgado-Ballester and Munuera- leman (2001) also claimed that trust is a sense of security, but also a heart of faith. The customer’s behavior is motivated by the favorable and positive intent of the product or service provider. Indeed, consolidating the loyal relationship between the customer and the supplier depends on the customer’s trust in its brand (Sahin, Zehir & Kitapci, 2011). Moreover, higher customer loyalty may come from products or services that are highly engaged or highly serviced (Chiou & Shen, 2006). As a result, when consumers buy certain products or services, may produce expectations. Whether it is to get the desired product or by buying the brand to get the feeling of peace of mind.

2.4.1.4 Commitment

“Brand commitment is a lasting expectation of maintaining value relationships” (Maheshwari, Lodorfos, Jacobsen, 2014). For brand organizations, highly committed consumer will be more efforts to maintain the relationship. Commitment can be divided into two parts; affective and continuance. The emotional commitment of the customer is related to the emotional dependence of cultivating the brand of belonging (Allen & Meyer, 1990; Bansal, Irving & Taylor, 2004). Furthermore, the ability of the customer to identify the brand is also classified as part of the commitment. Continuance commitment focuses on the part of the motivation, focusing on reducing or avoiding customer conversion costs. For example: a long-term relationship between customers and providers are like contracts or service agreements.

2.5 Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management is a way of focusing on the relationship between customer and business management. Godson (2009) claimed that customer relationship management is used to attract, protect and enhance the content of customer relationships. The ultimate goal of relational marketing is to establish and maintain customer relationships with other stakeholders and to meet our customers’ needs through mutual communication and fulfill their commitments and achieve their goals (Gronroos, 1995). Gummesson (2002) believes that relationship marketing management can become an important and critical factor in the future marketing market, and will be customer satisfaction and loyalty as a primary goal.

2.5.1 CRM strategy of Starbucks in Taiwan

Customer relationship management (CRM) has become an important part of modern marketing strategy. Most commonly, CRM is performed through the use of customer loyalty programs in Taiwan Starbucks. In general, customer relationship management will follow the rules to track and strengthen customer relationships (Meadows & Dibb, 2012). At Starbucks in Taiwan, Membership cards play an important role in recording the number of sales per customer and help determine whether it is worth investing to maintain the customer. Murphy (2011) claimed that Starbucks store managers are equipped with a personal laptop, help them share their experiences with other store managers through corporate communities, and they can exchange ideas to improve customer satisfaction. Starbucks’ most representative CRM strategy for mobile applications, customers can use those applications to pay at Starbucks. Social media is also one of the important factors of Taiwan Starbucks CRM. Because they have a very strong presence on the internet such as Facebook and Twitter where they can maintain the relationship with their customers. Moreover, Taiwan Starbucks offers “My Customers’ Ideas” to let consumers share their thoughts on their official website (Starbucks 2017). Starbucks is dealing with relational marketing efficiently by creating an interactive environment similar to social media.

2.6 Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility shows the brand’s compliance with social values (Maigan, Ferrell, and Ferrell, 2005), and can distinguish between brands and competitors, and then shape the customer’s view of the brand (Swimberghe and Wooldridge, 2014). Corporate social responsibility has received more and more attention in the marketing market recently (Raub & Blunschi, 2014), while customers are increasingly concerned about corporate social responsibility is also growing. The tendency to seek public awareness of social contributions depends on the belief that consumers will support companies with strong social contributions. Research suggests that CSR can increase service staff trust, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and good sales performance (Marin, Ruiz, and rubio, 2009; Pivato, Misani, and Tencati, 2008). Corporate social responsibility is the concept of sustainable development, involving all levels of society, from environmental issues to social welfare, education issues (McWilliams, Siegel, and Wright, 2006). Corporate social responsibility can usually involve sponsorship, consider marketing, charitable activities and employee volunteer activities (Polonsky & Speed, 2001; Lichtenstein, Drumwright, and Braig, 2004). As a result, CSR is an important marketing strategy for brand organization. According to Brunk (2010), CSR can be divided into five types which are customer orientation, employee orientation, environment orientation, economy, and community orientation.

2.6.1 Customer orientation:

To provide customers with good quality services or products to prove the commitment to consumers, such as providing complete product information, continuous improvement of products or services to improve customer satisfaction.

2.6.2 Employee orientation:

Fair staff salaries and incentive systems to provide staff education and development.

2.6.3 Environment orientation:

The development of environmental protection objectives, while the actual support for environmental protection activities. The ultimate goal is to corporate image and environmental protection combined.

2.6.4 Economy orientation:

Produce products that meet social needs or provide job opportunities, develop fair prices and sell reasonable profits.

2.6.5 Community orientation:

Donate or support charities, such as sponsoring culture, sports or educational activities.

2.7 CSR strategy of Starbucks in Taiwan

Taiwan Starbucks current CSR strategy includes three areas of sustainable development which are community, ethical sourcing, and environment. The areas of “community” and “moral procurement” include raising farmers’ salaries and sustainable ecological production of coffee, tea and cocoa. “Environment” areas focus on climate change and reduce the harmful environment of waste (Starbucks, 2017). Taiwan Starbucks pointed out that “enterprises will take responsible procurement behavior, protect farmers’ rights and interests and the development of a comprehensive forest protection plan” (Starbucks, 2017). Furthermore, Starbucks also protect with the environmental non-profit organization conservation international. For example, protect with the “C.A.F.E” (Coffee and Farmer Equity). This program ensures that coffee is planted to protect the environment and help the minds of social progress. These guidelines represent a measure of product quality, economic responsibility, social responsibility and environmental leadership. At present, C.A.F.E. measures are being assessed and monitored by an independent third party (Starbucks, 2017). Moreover, publishes details of plans and processes in the Global Responsibility Report. Indeed, Starbucks is using plastic coffee containers that have received the attention of the community because of the rising awareness of the world’s environmental protection. As a Taiwanese coffee market, foreign brands, Starbucks each brand strategy will be Taiwan’s social amplification view. For example, Starbucks stores in every chain store produce a lot of daily waste: cartons, milk pots, syrup bottles and other garbage. In addition, each coffee shop must produce a large number of used coffee grounds and food waste and so on are Starbucks must be properly resolved. As a result, Starbucks plans to develop better recovery systems, such as recycling packaging and front-of-store recycling bins (Starbucks, 2013).

According to Ko, Liu, and Hsieh (1994), Aboriginals belong to less vulnerable groups in Taiwan. Due to its living environment and economic capacity and other reasons, the indigenous people can use the resources are relatively limited. In Taiwan, the current number of aboriginals is about 33 million. Many studies have pointed out that Aboriginal health is worse than the general population. Aboriginal average life expectancy is even 10 years less than the average population (Ko, Liu,and Hsieh, 1994). As a result, one of the CSR strategies of Starbucks in Taiwan is to help aboriginals living in remote areas, through fundraising, charity, and so on. In 2016, Taiwan Starbucks’ fundraising target is around £ 62500, with grants, community building and food (Starbucks, 2017). In addition, If Starbucks customers donate £ 25 to the Aboriginal Donation Account, they can get a free Starbucks coffee coupon.

2.8 Differences of Coffee Consumption Culture in Taiwan

According to Lin (2012), Taiwan has always been a rapidly developing country in Asia. Pine & Gilmore (1999) also claimed that a coffee chain is one of the industries affected by an experience economy. As a result, chain coffee shop competition is very intense in Taiwan, because the Taiwan customer’s spending power has been very high. According to the operators in the coffee chain, the market size is at least £62.5million to £ 65 million annually (Hung, 2012). In general, Taiwan customer think coffee as something they can enjoy in every day, and relax or negotiate a business in a coffee shop of their choice, depending on their choice and the shop’s accessibility (Wu, 2017). In 2017, Starbucks’ main competitor in Taiwan are the other usual coffee chains which are 85 °C, Dante, Barista, and Mr. Brown Café (Tu, Wng, & Chang, 2012). For Taiwanese customers, coffee products are still a product from Western countries. In 1998, Starbucks Coffee Company opened its first retail store in Taiwan. It also brought the western coffee culture, but also enhance the consumption of coffee in Taiwan. Indeed, Starbucks has become the main coffee chain in Taiwan (Su, Chiou, and Chang, 2006). However, different consumer demand brings different brand sales strategies. For example, “85°C” is the fast growing local coffee chain in Taiwan, offering coffee drinks and a variety of desserts at an affordable price. McDonalds also expanded their “McCafe” strategy by introducing the normal priced coffee-house-style food and drink choice to Taiwan. Compared with other competitors, Starbucks sells relatively high prices of coffee products. According to Lin (2012), Starbucks high popularity in Taiwan comes from the precise understanding of the local coffee consumption culture. For example, Taiwanese consumers generally believe that buying Starbucks coffee can highlight its social status and taste, because Starbucks coffee products are very expensive and stylish. According to Douglas and Isherwood (1979), consumers express their social status through personal taste and merchandise selection. Featherstone (1990) also claimed that the habits of consumption and life may be influenced by others, as well as other people’s judgments. As a result, Starbucks successfully build high-quality brand image and seize the idea that Taiwanese customers prefer to buy high-priced brands. Moreover, Starbucks has also been successfully separated from other affordable coffee shops.