Starbucks Advertising Position on advertising spiral Starbucks is a well known company which entered an already mature market and has competed with the use of differentiation which has been aided by the advertising it has undertaken. It may be argued that the current position of Starbucks on the advertising spiral indicates that the reliance on advertising is likely to be increasing. The advertising spiral is a model which corresponds to the product life cycle. The model has three stages; the pioneering stage, competitive stage and the retentive stage (Lane et al, 2007). To assess the position of Starbucks each stage be considered, the pioneering stage corresponds to the product life cycle introduction stage and has the aim of stimulating the primary demand (Lane et al, 2007). Starbucks is well established so has passed the stage. The next age is that of the competitive stage, similar to the product life cycle market growth stage, where the market is growing and there is an emphasis on selective demand; Starbucks has passed the stage which was seen during the early 1990s. The last stage is that of the retentive stage, this corresponds to the product life cycle maturity decline stages and sees an increased emphasis on name advertising with the aim of maintaining market share (Lane et al, 2007). Starbucks has been facing some problems and needs revitalization; therefore Starbucks most accurately placed in this latter stage of the advertising spiral. Target market and audience The target market Starbucks is part of the problem. The core target market in the past have been office workers over the age of 25, with middle to high incomes