Investor Relations

Annual Report:
Starbucks' Fiscal 2006 Annual Report is a slick marketing piece. The company incorporates bright colors and a variety of pictures, including those of employees and customers. The annual report dedicates numerous pages to an experience entitled "My Starbucks." In this section, Starbucks is defined by its customers, employees, and coffee farmers. Each group or individual tells of their experience with Starbucks and describes the company's importance in his or her life.

The company posted it's annual report in sections due to its size. Starbucks did not simply post its annual Security and Exchange Commission 10-K filing, but created a fabulous annual report which seems personal to its shareholders. Not only does the annual report include peoples' personal experiences with the company, but some of the experiences are handwritten to give the annual report a more personal touch.

Starbucks uses its annual report to tell its story, not just to simply comply with government regulations. The company takes full advantage of the opportunity and makes it the best annual report that it possibly can.

Letter to the Shareholders:
Starbucks incorporates a number of messages in its use of the letter to the shareholders. The key messages include:

1. Continued growth in the business
2. Customers in new and existing markets continue to embrace the company
3. Partners are at the heart of the Starbucks Experience
4. Coffee expertise distinguishes Starbucks in the world of fine coffee purveyors
5. Starbucks has a passion to try to improve the world
6. Innovation is central to the way the company does business
7. Looking ahead, the company continues to be extremely confident about future growth and success

The tone of the letter to the shareholders from the Chairman and CEO is positive and hopeful. Starbucks claims to be extremely grateful for the way it has been embraced worldwide. In my opinion, the letter seems credible because of the way in which Starbucks present itself in all other aspects, particularly community relations. The company prides itself on innovation and its passion for trying to make the world a better place.

Latest News Release:
The company's latest news release, in my opinion, is relatively easy to read. The main points about the company's earnings are bulleted, which allows readers to separate ideas rather than trying to unjumble a bunch of numbers. The news releases is divided into sections and reports on: fiscal 2007 targets, performance remains strong in the U.S. and abroad, international financial achievements, strong results in consumer products group, overview of fiscal 2006 accomplishments, and success due to doing business differently. If there are any terms that may be difficult to understand, they are easy to look up because of the way in which points and information is separated. The only downside is that the news release includes very detailed information that could be confusing.

Story About Latest Earnings:
A story about Starbucks' latest earnings from Yahoo!Finance is helpful in clarifying what is included in the earnings news release. Although the news release was relatively easy to understand, the story is much shorter in length and only mentions the highlights. Instead of providing all numbers, the story simply sums up the information that the news release provides. The numbers that the story includes are quite simple to understand and provides a little bit more information about what is going on within the company. For example, Starbucks said it signed Paul McCartney as the first artist to its new record label and he plans to release his next album on the company's new Hear Music label in June.