Buyer Behavior No. 2 (15A)
Finding Out Buyer Behavior No. 2
In interviewing new members of my market segment, I learned about what makes certain coffee shops attractive or unattractive and for what reasons. In all my interviews I wanted to know how much people are willing to pay for a standard latte so I could start to gauge some of the prices I would set at The Mount. As a standard, I asked each person what they thought of paying roughly $4.50 for a grande latte at Starbucks. I also asked what factors determine the quality of coffee they are looking for. And lastly what kind of coffee shop environment they prefer: homey or modern, quiet or loud.
My first interview, Shannon said that she thinks a $4+ latte is pretty expensive but she still pays for it anyway, mostly out of convenience, at least for starbucks. Shannon usually drinks coffee in a social setting so as long as the environment is lively it doesn’t really matter what it looks like. In my second interview with Alex, he said that he doesn’t mind paying $4 or more for coffee but it should be craft coffee and he prefers it to be sourced from fair trade growers. So, he frequents more craft coffee shops than say, Starbucks. Environment wise, he likes to study at coffee shops in more of a cabin-like feel so if it’s not too loud he’ll study inside but if not he likes to study outside if weather permits. Lastly, Bayli said that she also likes to study and camps out at coffee shops for long periods of time and usually buys whatever is cheapest so quality doesn’t matter as much as does a good working environment.
My customers had a few different needs but the main things I took away that I would like to implement at The Mount coffeehouse are:
1. An outside space with tables and chairs for good weather days
2. Quality craft coffee sourced from fair trade and/or local roasters
3. An environment that is homey and at times, quiet enough for studying
In conclusion, this segment showed me that many customers expect a few different things but I can fit my desires to theirs by segmenting my own space into socializing and studying environments. All the while, sourcing my coffee from ethical and local producers.
Hi Juliana, I like the points you made in this post. Buyer behavior can be impacted by ethical and local choices. Many of my vegan friends look for ethically-sourced goods, and like to go to farmers markets to buy their groceries. Having a coffee shop where both can be possible, is a sure way to bring in all kinds of people.
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Chloe
Hi Juliana, after a long and very relaxing spring break it is nice to come back and read a well laid out post like you have done this week. Now this post to me was a learning experience because I am not a coffee drinking nor are any of my friends. Now for my post I talked about the people that would be opposed to my cooking club idea and, it was easy to formulate my thoughts because I already understood the culture of my craft and have been doing research on it for a while. With that being said I thought that you gave a great in dept look at what could hold back a coffee shop from succeeding. Great post!
ReplyDeleteIt seems that your customers value experience over product, which is interesting because it gives you the opportunity to focus on creating an experience based product using things such as an interesting aesthetic and strong customer relations to draw in customers. I know my idea, which involves trading items also relies on this sort of experience based product to some degree and so it is interesting to see how this will play out in your case.
ReplyDeleteJuliana,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great quality coffee shop that you are going to be working on. I wish more coffee shops were focused on how they can please their audience and be conscious for a convenient price instead of just searching for the quickest and easiest way to make a dollar. If I had the opportunity to make a recommendation, I would say to try and make your coffee shop two stories, one of the floors can be a quiet study area to ensure they cannot be disturbed. This also gives potential for a cozy balcony, which everyone is a fan of.