Starbucks Marketing and Advertising expenses

Marketing and Advertising costs of Starbucks 2007-2018

Traditionally, Starbucks is known to have relied less on advertising gimmicks for growth. Most of its marketing was based on the brand's popularity arising from great quality and flavor of its coffee, unmatched customer service and an excellent store environment. These things have always created more than sufficient favorable buzz for the brand. However, it started investing in advertising and marketing since 2007. Since then its marketing budget has grown more than treble and still it is much lower than what most celebrity brands spend.  Its entire marketing budget has not crossed even half a billion. The competition in the QSR industry is intense but for Starbucks marketing begins from its stores and products. Its total marketing budget in 2016 was 378 million dollars which was 27 million dollars higher than that of 2015. Starbucks advertising expenses for 2017 and 18 were $282.6 millions and $260.3 millions respectively.

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Sources:

Starbucks 10 K.