Starbucks Marketing

Executive summary

This report aims to understand why university students choose to drink coffee over other

beverages and how to alter their behaviour in order to increase consumption. Product

knowledge is thus the area of focus that we seek to improve. Aiding the accretion of

knowledge should result in this information being tuned as to give overall support to the

product.

Secondary research has indicated that this demographic are under represented in the

marketplace. Therefore this report aims to investigate what the attitudes towards coffee

are and how they influence their behaviour.

To explore the consumer's behaviour, a number of primary research tools were used,

including surveys and in-depth interviews.

The findings from this research has demonstrated the need for advertisers to focus on the

neglected psychosocial benefits of coffee, rather than concentrating on the attributes and

functional benefits that continue to be promoted.

The failure of respondents to mention ethics and 'fair trade' coffee, has, in these

instances, indicated that these issues are unimportant. This shows that terminal values

here are not being accessed. However, the negative terminal values associated with the

health concerns towards coffee are shown to be prominent; although secondary research

has highlighted that these health concerns are unfounded and that the health benefits of

coffee should be emphasised by marketers.

Finally, it was determined that the use of accidental exposure would be a cheap and

effective way of attaining affective and cognitive stimulation.

Terms of Reference

This report has been complied with the view that it will be seen by coffee producers and

the International

Coffee Organisation (ICO) who represent coffee globally. The report is

based on research of the coffee industry and does not reflect a comparison between any

particular brands

1.0 Introduction

This report aims at discovering the attributes of coffee that university students in the

United Kingdom find appealing. After these attributes are obtained, the primary and

secondary research