Comparing the Young People's Coffee Shop Perceptions with Their Senses of Taste

Abstract

Today’s coffee shops, have emotional and social functions beyond food and beverage consumption. The abundance of perceptual factors that are thought to be effective in consumers' coffee shop preferences leads to the questioning of the level of rationality in these choices. "Are basic elements such as taste, purity, and aroma of coffee the primary determinants of consumer decision-making? Or the variables that are more effective in consumer preferences are various perceptual elements?". With the field research conducted within the scope of these inquiries, young consumers were clustered according to their primary coffee shop preferences. Afterward, some perceptual differences of these clusters were measured and compared with each other, as well as their reactions to different branded coffees which they experienced through a blind tasting test. The findings show that there are differences between consumer clusters in terms of perceived quality of life impact, brand loyalty, customer-brand identification, and repurchase intention. In the blind tasting test, it is observed that only global branded coffee differs in terms of flavour and both global and national branded coffee differ in terms of repurchase intention. Key Words: Coffee Shop, Young Consumer, Blind Tasting JEL Classification: M31