Preference between Starbucks and Costa Coffeehouse - Research Paper Example

PREFERENCE BETWEEN STARBUCKS AND COSTA COFFEEHOUSE RESEARCH Name Contents Introduction Consumption of coffee in the world has been on the rise and so has it in the United Kingdom. Producers of coffee are mainly African countries (Kenya and Ethiopia) and Brazil in South America. Coffees from those countries are exported to countries like England and the rest where they are refined to meet the client’s expectation as far as taste is concerned. Here in United Kingdom there are many coffee brands and shops/stores, but in this paper only Costa and Starbuck will be discussed. The basis of the discussion is to find out consumer preference over each other and why exactly. Costa is a British multinational coffee house with approximately 1,755 outlets in the United Kingdom and 1,106 outlets in other countries. Starbuck is still a multinational coffeehouse based in the United States of America. It has 12, 356 stores world, but fifty percent of the stores are found in the united states, in United Kingdom there are only 808 stores as per early January 2015. The paper will determine the superior rival among the two coffeehouses. Research question/topic Costa and Starbucks coffeehouse have been operational for long and still there are rivals but manage to deliver quality service to their respective clients. The basis of this research set a question that needs to be addressed only through the research. The research question is to determine the preference between Starbuck and Costa. Research objectives and aims To ensure the research question is achieved through the research, it will require identifying the objectives. The objectives are to act as guideline in the research process. The following are the objectives 1. To find out if the taste from the two coffeehouses influences preference 2. To find out whether service delivery influences preference. 3. To find out whether accessibility influence preference. A seventy percent margin indicates superiority in the attribute being tested. Literature review Stores that prepare food or drinks have the capability of transforming quality in the product or service they provide. The service or product being produced can be diversified to create a sense of uniqueness for its brand. According to (Bivins, 2011), developing a brand is not an easy task as coming up with a child’s name. He further emphasized that skills need to be exploited in the production process that will give the product an X quality to withstand competition within the industry. It has been debated over years consumers are the drivers of the market and I tend to concur with (Khodzhaev, 1978) when he suggested that consumers are like a king anything they want is their choice only argue with them at your own peril. He went further and argued that convincing a predetermined client is same as chasing the wind. However, (Kim, 2004) disagreed with his view on a predetermined client, because some customer relation or sales agents have the capability of “sweet talking.” This, therefore, means that they can influence a client to change the choice taken for the benefit of the organization. Both Starbucks and Costa coffeehouses have sales agent who market the brand name for their respective coffeehouse. Being expertise in the field of sales and marketing, it is expected arrival of new clients as the year progresses. Restaurants and accessibility are intertwined in the sense that one need to spot a restaurant whenever food or drink urge arises. Therefore, locating any business one should consider the flow of population within that locality. There is no point of setting up a restaurant, where only few people can be spotted on a day that is a busy working day. Mentzer, (2001), pointed out that food joints are not “underground” business and, therefore, the locality should be accessible for all people conveniently. This ideology has been a pillar for Starbucks, as it is evidenced in the number of outlets opened globally as opposed to Costa. Coffee is a distinct cash crop, and thus it has a noble value. Players in the coffee industry have tried their best through research to buffer the quality and production process for coffee. Coffeehouses add different ingredients when preparing coffee to give it the fine taste that will make a consumer “captive” in their stores. This is the reason one will hear from people saying coffeehouse Y has the best coffee that refreshes my day. Research methodology The method that will be applied in this research is descriptive methodology since most attributes to be measured depends on one’s consideration. The attributes to be discussed are more of quality than quantity. With this consideration, it will be therefore, prudent to use a descriptive methodology in this research study. Population A research cannot be conducted to cover all people in the globe, but rather it is scaled down to focus on a certain group of people. The group of people being referred here is the population. Population in research means element (people or feature) that have the same characteristics and a research is being conducted on them (Mason, 1996). The population is narrowed down to the target population. For this research, the population is people who are regular coffee consumer at any of the two coffeehouses (Costa and Starbucks). The research will be conducted in London and, therefore, the target population will be coffee drinkers in London. Sample size It is absolutely impossible to conduct research on all coffee drinkers in London; therefore, a sample size will be required for the data collection. A total of fifty people will be used in this research. Selection of the sample will be done using simple random sample selection method. Data collection Data is the pillar of a research since it is from the data where the conclusion and recommendations are drawn (Jha, 2008). The primary data is to be collected from the fifty residents of London. To collect data from the sample population, questionnaires will be administered to them. Blind test will be used to ascertain which brand of coffee the respondents prefer. Data analysis Analysis of the data will be conducted by the research question and objectives. Attributes to be analyzed will be mean, and percentage of coffee consumer between the two coffeehouses. Ethical consideration Research just like any profession should be guided by profession ethics. Some of the ethics that while conducting this research will include. Conceal identity of the respondent, voluntary filling of the questionnaire, and data will not be manipulated to favor the outcome on anyone side. Findings and analysis Attributes Starbucks Costa Percentage Starbucks Costa Clients preference 31 Gender F: 13, M 18 19 Gender F; 6 M; 13 (31/50 )*100=62% Gender F; (9/31)* 100 = 29% M; (22/31) * 100 = 71% (19/50)* 100 = 38% Gender F; (13/19) * 100 = 68.4% M; (6/19)* 100= 31.6% Those comfortable with services being offered 30 15 (30/31) * 100 = 96.8% (15/19) *100 = 78.9% Those uncomfortable with services being offered 1 0 (1/31) * 100= 3% (0/19) * 100 = 0% Those who enjoyed the coffee taste without problem 28 19 (28/31) * 100 = 90% (19/19) * 100 = 100% Those who are happy with the stores accessibility 26 17 (21/31) * 100 = 67.7% (17/19) * 100 = 89.5% Age group of 16-28 yrs 24 13 (24/31)* 100 = 77.4% (13/19) * 100 = 68.4% Age group of 29 yrs and above 7 6 (7/31)* 100 = 22.6% (6/19) * 100= 31.6% Blind testing Two set of coffee of the same quality from both Starbucks and Costa were given to respondents along the Kings road in London. The shots were given to the 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th and 50th respondent and asked to determine what of coffee they preferred. All the five of them preferred Costa over Starbucks. Analysis The finding above can be analyzed but generally from the research conducted the three aspect set as objectives for this research were considered highly by the respondents. All clients for both coffee houses were indeed happy with the service level. A record of above seventy-five percent was collected from each coffeehouse loyal consumers. However, Starbucks coffeehouse has the best service level as compared to Costa by a margin of 8.2% (87.1-78.9) Figure 1- Chart showing the percentages of preference for the companies Taste of coffee from the two coffeehouses pleased their clients that were administered questionnaires. However, some of the clients of Starbucks coffeehouse felt the taste can be enhanced. As for Costa all clients were satisfied with the taste of the coffee. Figure 2 Chat showing levels of satisfaction among the customers Figure 3- Char showing the level of satisfaction with the coffee taste Accessibility of different stores within London took center stage in the research. 89.5% clients of Costa were satisfied with the locations of Costa stores which ease the accessibility. The results surpass the inference level (70%) for this research in measuring different attributes by 19.5% (89.5-70). Contrary to this Starbucks did not meet the inference level and fall short by (67.7 – 70) -2.3%). Figure 4-Chart showing how the customers are satisfied according to the accessibility of the store Most of the clients who regularly visited the coffeehouses were the youth of age between sixteen and twenty-eight years. Costa tries to market its products to the older generation as evidenced in the margin of 9% (31.6-22.6) between Starbucks and Costa of clients above 29 years visiting its stores. Figure 5-Chart showing the variation of customer age at Starbucks Figure 6-Charts showing the variation of Customer age at Costa To find the overall performance for the two coffeehouses the mean has to be calculated for the three critical attributes. Starbucks coffeehouse (87.1%+ 90%+ 67.7%)/3= 81.6 Costa coffeehouse (78.9%+ 100% + 68.4%)/3= 82.43% During the blind testing, all the respondents preferred Costa coffee over Starbucks coffee. Conclusion The performance of the two coffeehouses as, indicated in the analysis, is exemplary, but Costa has best performance than Starbucks. The factor resulting to this final conclusion lies in the accessibility of store for the two coffeehouses. It can therefore, be concluded preference over the two coffeehouses solely depends on accessibility, service level, and coffee taste. From this research conducted in London it can be concluded that Costa Coffeehouse is preferred by most inhabitants in London. It was also noticed that despite the said preferences, the correspondents were not able to identify the type of coffee during the blind test. The trend of the customers in their preference can be attributed to brand loyalty in that people stick to brand due to loyalty rather than taste. APPENDIX Questionnaire for Costa and Starbucks preference Instructions; tick yes or no and indicate your age. Are you a coffee drinker? (if no terminate the session) Age Sex Which store do you prefer? Are you satisfied with accessibility of the store? Are you satisfied with the taste of the coffee from the store? Are you satisfied with service level? Thank you for your information. References Bivins, T. (2011). Public relations (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Jha, N. (2008). Research methodology. Chandigarh: Abhishek Publications. Khodzhaev, A. (1978). The Problem of Satisfying Consumer Demand. Problems of Economic Transition, 73-90. Kim, R. (2004). Construction of Preferred Product Profiles and Product Differentiation. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 85-97. Mason, J. (1996). Qualitative researching. London: Sage. Mentzer, J. (2001). Consumer accessibility and sales. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications Read More