Coffee Consumption in the World and the UK, Strategies Adopted by Spec Research Paper

Essays on Coffee Consumption in the World and the UK, Strategies Adopted by Specialty Coffee Shops to Attract and Satisfy Customers Needs Research Paper The paper â€Å"Coffee Consumption in the World and the UK, Strategies Adopted by Specialty Coffee Shops to Attract and Satisfy Customer’s Needs† is an engrossing version of research paper on marketing. Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world, there are various types of coffee products in the world consumed especially in Europe and produced in labor-intensive countries which are mostly third world countries. This analysis will focus on coffee consumption in the UK. Some aspects that will be addressed include a general perspective about coffee consumption in the UK, a focus of store relevant to the product quality, relevance of service quality especially for coffee shops, a case study example of specialty coffee shops strategies created to attract and satisfy its clientele. Primary research on key drivers for the selected stores will also be conducted in order to establish consumer behavior relative to the key drivers selected by different stores.General coffee consumption in the world and specifically the UKAccording to Commodity Briefing (2012), coffee is undeniably the most traded and valued agricultural product in the world, in the year 2011, about 7.9m tonnes of coffee were produced and 6.2m exported. With exports amounting to $23.5billion last year alone coffee provides a livelihood for 100 million people. About 1.6billlion cups are consumed worldwide daily, it is expected that the global consumption of coffee will hit 9 million tonnes by 2019 as speculated by Commodity briefing (2012). In the UK, the home coffee market is worth  £831 million with 70 % of the UK retail coffee market being controlled by Nestle, Kraft, and Proctor Gamble. The UK imports about 3.3 % of the global coffee which is about 184, 000 tonnes (Commodity Briefing 2012).Product quality and service quality for specialty coffee shopsRyding (2011) notes that customer satisfaction is considered to be an important competitive factor and a major indicator of a firm' s profit since it is directly related to the return on investment (ROI) and market value. Customer satisfaction is achieved when the customer’s expectation of the encounter is on par with the encounter. Customer satisfaction is both a process and an encounter (Monk Ryding 2007). The modern business environment has become more and more competitive and hence forcing the players to constantly change in order to remain relevant to the ever-changing market currents. The coffee market has not been left out, competition is forcing even the brands dominating the market to increase their innovation, customer experience and create a strategic partnership in order to boost their sales.Case study examples of strategies adopted by specialty coffee shops in order to attract and satisfy customer’s needsAccording to Euromonitor International (2012) since the year 2004, there has been an expansion in the UK coffee market shops; this prompted the coffee shops to expand beyond the UK bec ause of market saturation. There are three main operators which dominate the UK market, Starbucks, Costa, and Caffe Nero. Nero and Starbucks dominate the market; Starbucks leads with more than 400 outlets in the UK. The ever increasing competition has decreased its market share significantly. Competition has forced these operators to increase their value-added services and offer food items alongside drinks. Starbucks particularly targets breakfast, lunch, and snacks with careful integration of healthy alternatives and hence making it easier to expand within the market. Caffe Nero also offers food which has been essential to its core concept. Its integration of food saw its growth rate rise exponentially between the years 2001 to 2004 (Hassanien 2012). The company utilizes store ambiance as a major differentiator, it also promotes music with integrity which is enhanced via its strategic partnership with music. On the other hand, Starbucks also sells music CD compilation in the UK. As noted by Thomson Baden-Fuller (2010, p.336) since Starbucks acquired the Hear Music of Cambridge in 1999, it has produced many CDs for the company, in 2005 alone about 5 million CDs were sold in Starbucks. According to Sloane (2007), Costa Coffee has developed concessions with key partners over time, some of the partners include Abbey National banks, W H Smiths and Waterstones books sores among others. The concession is focused on offering high-quality coffee and other service experience that seeks to increase the experience of the customers visiting these partners. This additional service benefits both partners as the customer are kept busy while waiting to be served. Other aspects that are driving the coffee industry include increased innovation, reduction of cost and time to the market through the established store which provides strategic placements (Tallon 2010, p.218).