Consumer Coffee Consumption Preference in the Netherlands - Research Proposal Example

On average, the Dutch consume 3.2 cups of coffee per person everyday according to 2006 statistics making them the second largest coffee consumers after Scandinavians, and although the average is 13 percent lower compared to a decade earlier in 1996, the approximate coffee consumption is significantly high compared to other countries (de Bontridder). Coffee is substantially popular beverage in Netherlands, making a study into factors influencing the popularity, consumption, and preferences important especially for marketing groups wishing to segment the market.

Compared to other countries, the Netherlands coffee consumption average is second to Scandinavian countries drinking approximately 4.3 cups of coffee per day between 2002 and 2006, with Finland topping the coffee consumption list at 5.4 cups a day (de Bontridder). In the same period, 2002-2006, eastern and southern Europe registered the least coffee consumption, with southern Europeans drinking approximately 1.9 cups per day a factor associated to higher tea consumption and preference. Various reasons exist, influencing people towards coffee consumption in the western countries, with the two primary factors according to Gelder, Buijsse, Tijhuis, et al being the psychoactive stimulation affect of caffeine content in the coffee and improvement of cognitive performance (Gelder et al 226).

Most people in the western countries begin their day with a fresh cup of coffee, essentially to be fully awake for the rest of the day, and be able to maintain coherence in thought because coffee stimulates their brains. Notably, the association of coffee and better cognitive functioning is attributed to the caffeine factor, which enters the blood stream and acts as a stimulant causing alertness in body and mind.In a study conducted over a ten-year period assessing whether coffee consumption influences the cognitive decline in elderly men, the researchers identified variables that influence coffee consumption, which included education, height and weight, gender, physical activities, age, and lifestyle with participants from Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands.

Considering age as the relevant variable in this discussion, the findings showed that age was inversely associated with the amount of coffee consumed (Gelder et al 228). The highest consumption was more than 4 cups per day, associated with people aged 74.8 years with a deviation of 0.4, which was the youngest group among the elderly participants, while the least consumers were aged 77 years (Gelder et al 230). In the same study, the Dutch came up as the highest consumers, whereby out of the 336 Dutch participants, 202 drank more than three cups per day compared to 77 of the Fin participants.

Another study that shows agreement with the study by Gelder and colleagues is by Luciano, Kirk, and Heath et al, investigating the genetic and environmental influences on tea consumption and finding a common relation with those of coffee consumption. The study participants were 1796 Australian identical twins and 2013 non-identical twins aged 16 to 87 years. The study tested the number of cups of coffee and tea the participants took in a day, and the results showed a negative association of age with coffee preferences but a