Courting coffee cup consumers
Coffee shops are taking over high streets up and down the country; ever tightening their grip on British consumers, writes Kantar Media’s Alice Dunn – so what’s making these coffee addicts tick?
Despite the economic gloom of recent years, last year the coffee market in the UK was valued at £5.3 billion and the number of branded coffee shops has doubled since 2005.
Latest insight from Kantar Media’s TGI survey reveals 800,000 British adults visit a coffee shop at least four times a week. These coffee-shop lovers are well over twice as likely as the average British adult to fall into the TGI Lifestage category ‘Flown the Nest’ (aged15-34, married/living as a couple and do not live with relations).
They are also over twice as likely to be employed in the financial sector and be in a director or senior manager role, with an average family income of £34,000 – 13% higher than the average adult. All of this makes them not only lucrative but likely to have plenty of disposable income, not drained by dependants – a compelling proposition to marketers.
These coffee shop lovers tend to enjoy the finer things in life: they are 48% more likely than the average British adult to pay extra to personalise products to suit their taste and style and 62% more likely to go for premium rather than standard goods and services.
They are also more likely to enjoy eating and drinking in trendy places. It is this way of life and readiness to indulge themselves which no doubt prompts them to think nothing of visiting coffee shops so frequently.
However, they are also more likely to only buy products from companies with whose ethics they agree. This suggests that being perceived as ‘trendy’ will only get you so far with these coffee shop lovers: they are a discerning bunch who may well react with their wallets if unhappy with a company’s business ethos.
This goes some way to explain what is driving these consumers, but TGI’s WHY Code data goes further to reveal the underlying values of consumers as well as their conscious motivations.
The ‘Social DNA’ component of The WHY Code indicates an individual’s levels of cultural and economic capital. Rooted in accredited academic thinking, cultural capital is determined by knowledge and cultural activities while economic capital is determined by income and savings. Combinations of cultural and economic capital can vary significantly.
Coffee shop lovers are 53% more likely than the average British adult to have high amounts of both kinds of capital, with cultural dominating. This suggests that despite having plenty of disposable income, money is less of a factor in shaping their behaviour.
Corporate reputation and the provenance of goods could, therefore, play a more important role in shaping the purchase decisions of these coffee shop lovers.
WHY Code insights also reveal the factors that consciously affect consumer purchase decisions. When it comes to choosing food, coffee shop lovers are close to four times more likely than the average British adult to cite professional recommendations and reviews as the most important factor.
The manufacturer’s brand also ranks highly for this group. Tying into the importance they place on corporate ethics, as seen above, this hints at the importance of company image and reputation over price and quality.
When it comes to reaching these coffee shop lovers, they are true media all-rounders. They are 50% more likely than the average Brit to be amongst the heaviest fifth of consumers of cinema and outdoor media.
They are also a group on the go: they say they cannot live without the internet on their mobile, are more likely to be in the heaviest quintile of magazine consumers and are 47% more likely to read the financial pages of their newspaper.
Such strong views coupled with their potential spend power mean it is important for marketers to target these coffee lovers with the right messages and keep them onside.