Segmentation of Coffee Shop Customers based on Organic Coffee Choice Motives

Abstract

This study investigated organic coffee choice motives from a coffee shop market segmentation perspective in order to understand the potential importance they may have upon attitudes and behavioral intentions to buy organic coffee. A factor-cluster segmentation approach was used for this study. An exploratory factor analysis identified five organic coffee choice motives: "Sensory", "Environment", "Trust", "Health" and "Price". Based upon these five choice motives, cluster analyses classified all respondents into three homogeneous subgroups: "Highly motivated", "Moderately motivated" and "Unmotivated". Analysis of variance tests indicated that attitudes and intentions to purchase organic coffee were significantly different among the three clusters. In particular, two cluster groups representing "Highly motivated" and "Moderately motivated" were found to offer the most utility for further organic coffee market segmentation research. Especially, due to perceptions about high price premium of organic coffee, the "Moderately motivated" group had higher positive attitudes, although, their intentions to buy organic coffee were not higher than those of the "Unmotivated" cluster. Findings support previous research propositions that high price could be the strongest barrier for people to purchase organic products including the organic coffee business context. This will assist to market and promote pricing strategies for cafes and restaurants to optimize organic coffee sales revenue. Implications for all cluster groups regarding unique socio-demographic characteristics and behavioral intentions are discussed. Organic coffee marketers can apply these findings towards the development of effective target market strategies.