Research Paper on:
Proposal for Assessing the Market for a New Soft Drink

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shop in Pike Place in 1971. When Howard Schultz joined and eventually bought the company he had a vision of coffee hops that he was able to develop into the  large company that is seen today with more than 15,700 stores across the globe made up of company owned stores, franchised stores and stores developed with strategic alliances. In recent  years the firm has started to suffer decreasing levels of sales. Measures have been taken to reduce the losses, closing loss making stores and returning to core competences and well  as seeing Howard Schultz return to the position of CEO in order to help reinvigorate the brand and the sales. The reason for the drop in sales and the difficulties  in multifaceted, the poor economic climate is a major factor, lower levels of disposable income result in lower amounts spent on non essential items, such as gourmet coffee (Nellis and  Parker, 2006). There is also the potential for lifecycle issues and the brand matures, and the environment has seen a shift towards healthier alternatives to coffee, such as water and  fruit juice drinks. If Starbucks want to survive and carry on attracting new customers they need to adapt and change with the times. As the firm has a core competence  in beverages it is logical that if the firm is looking at renewing and increasing sales by adding to the product line that the product should be an alterative beverage.  With increased demand for drinks that are perceived as healthy, such as water and fruit juice (Grocer, 2008), the assessment of a potential new liner of fruit juices will  help the firm to assess their potential. Before undertaking the research the firm needs to determine who the target market will be, so that the sample used for the