Coffee and Tea: Socio-cultural Meaning, Context and Branding

Abstract

Brands are perceptual entities which inhabit the mental world of consumers. Essential to branding success is appropriation of consumer-relevant meaning. Accordingly, brands are embedded with symbolism. This way brands become instruments of psycho-social negotiations. Brands plug into the socio-cultural meaning reservoir for this purpose. This requires understanding how a product or service fits culturally in a social system. This study attempts to explore the psycho-social role that tea and coffee play in consumers’ lives. How tea and coffee are embedded in consumer psyche and their linkages with other consumption aspects were explored using critical incident and storytelling method. Though these beverages share a lot axiomatic similarity in terms of their preparation method and usage, they differ radically in their hidden symbolism. The study found that tea and coffee have different imprints. Coffee is celebratory and tea is ordinary. Coffee consumption is uncommon and its uncommonness imbues it with a unique mystique associated with a wealthy, refined and intellectually evolved class. Coffee is not a potion for sustenance. Tea is linked to ordinariness and is ritualistic in home consumption. Tea is instrumental in bringing family together in close proximity and provides platform for sharing and caring. A certain mystique is associated with coffee. Coffee is predominantly an outside drink; it derives its utility from social, aesthetic and emotional role. Brands which violate embedded psycho-social meaning are unlikely to resonate with consumer. Accordingly, tea and coffee branding efforts cannot afford to ignore the differing hidden reality with these two beverages.