Effects Of Involvement On The Loyalty Of Specialty Coffee Consumers

Abstract

With continuing maturity of the coffee market, consumers have gone beyond the need for caffeine consumption and begun paying attention to coffee varieties, specific tastes of coffee from different places of origin, and information transparency in place-of-origin labels. This trend has not only changed the entire coffee market but also given birth to specialty coffee. In contrast to fast brewing coffee products available in convenience stores, specialty coffee emphasizes the acquisition of coffee expertise from an experiential activity. Notably, levels of customer involvement vary largely between individuals, greatly affect consumers’ willingness to purchase and loyalty following such experiential activities. Few studies have explored this difference. Therefore, this study targeted specialty coffee consumer and explored the relationships between experiential marketing, consumer involvement, and consumer loyalty. The data collected using a questionnaire were processed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 for statistical analyses. The results revealed significant positive relationships between experiential marketing, consumer involvement, and consumer loyalty. Consumer involvement increased when the coffee sellers had sufficient knowledge of specialty coffee. This in turn led to increased customer loyalty. In sum, coffee suppliers are recommended to pay attention to every detail of experiential activities and continually improve product quality, thereby enhancing their profits.