The coffee market leader would like to achieve the same success as its rivals by launching a blended fruit drink called Vivanno. Ironically, not so long ago everyone sought to imitate Starbucks. The beverage market has changed radically and now Starbucks has extended its offer of coffee to fruit smoothies. Vivanno smoothie consist banana, milk and an orange-mango-blend juice along with whey protein and fiber powder. By getting into smoothies, Starbucks is just doing what other companies are doing. Such a move isn’t helping to refresh deteriorating brand image.

According to Starbucks research a cool, healthy drink certainly is a good fit to their menu. The company is confident about this introduction and received very positive response from their customers. Overall, sales of smoothies are hot and expects to rise in the coming years. This only confirms the current trend of consumers wanting to eat and drink healthy. However, the price plays a significant role in the success of the smoothie introduction, especially in the current economic downturn. Each company should take this into account when launching smoothies. The right price is very important.

In the past couple of years, as the growth in coffee sales started declining, Starbucks began to enrich its offer with food and this strategy aims to enlarge the sale. The challenge for the coffee powerhouse now is to attract new customers and get existing customers to come back for more. But the risk is that existing customers can switch from coffee to smoothie purchases without a change in company earnings. Of course, Starbucks is aiming higher. It hopes to not just attract a new customer who is health-conscious, but also to steal market share from the rivals. Such a strategy would definitely hinder the development of individual smoothie bars and their owners will have to try harder to succeed.