And the Coffee Beans Award goes to...

We are approaching the final stages of our hunt. After days of delicious coffee tastings, we are able to finally declare who has the competitive edge in this market. All in all, Starbucks seems to stand out from the crowd. The company has the highest market share, meets the customers' preferred dimensions, has two stores nearby and appears to have a clearly and sustainable long-term strategy that we believe it will continue throughout the future. The lack of adaptation previously mentioned as a weakness seems to have little or no impact in the company's ability to lead the market. As this is an international brand known worldwide, standardization is working, since the world is progressively becoming more global and customers, particularly in big cities such as Lisbon, tend to look for and like the same dimensions.

So, what should the other Coffee-Shops do?   

We strongly believe that Jeronymo's Coffee-Shop should reinforce and invest more in its position as THE Portuguese Coffee-Shop as to differentiate themselves since copying it is not a pursuable strategy - occupying the same space in the consumer's mind is not a good idea. Even if the lack of adaptation might not impact a big well known company, this strategy could negatively impact a small company as Jeronymo's Coffee-Shop. 

As far as Brown's Coffee-Shop, they should focus more on customers rather than on products by developing what is called a customer based strategy. They should take advantage of the opportunities they have, as they provide a diversified but still complementary offer within the same well located area (an hotel, a coffee-shop and a burger restaurant).  For example, they could easily offer crossed promotions between the coffee-shop, the hotel and the burger restaurant - if you go to the burger restaurant you get a  discount in your beverage available at the coffee-shop in front. At the same time, it is highly recommendable to invest in a website and a Facebook page that are clear and properly updated to bring awareness to the brand.