An analysis of consumer buying behaviour in the coffee shop industry
Authors
Cassidy, Keith
Issue Date
2009
Degree
MA of Business Administration
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
Abstract
This dissertation attempts to address the question of consumer buying behaviour in the coffee shop industry. The researcher feels that although much research is done on the subject of consumer buying behaviour in general terms, there appears to be a gap focusing this topic specifically on the cafe industry. The cafe's role in Irish society has grown significantly with the number of units opening over the past ten years. Irish society has adopted the coffee shop not only as a premium coffee retail option but also as a social meeting space. The research attempts to develop key criteria in the consumer's choice of cafe. The scope of the research will focus on the Dublin city centre market due in main to the diversity in product offerings and demographic spread of the population. It attempts to extrapolate key buying behaviour of coffee shop frequenters. It was found that there exists two distinct types of consumer; take-away and sit-in and as such each consumer type placed different emphasis on the product offerings. It was found that sit-in consumers focus on the experiential aspects of the cafe environment. Alternatively the take-away consumers rate speed of service as the principle factor. The study represents a good foundation for future, more in-depth analysis of this market. The findings are limited by the sample size and geographic constraints of focusing on the Dublin market alone. It is the belief of this researcher that a similar research applied nationally could yield more information.