Lecture Description
Marketers have realized the value of researching human motivation in consumer behavior. We combined Netnography – the online observation of the consumer, and Means End Chain Analysis (MECA) to research the home brewing habits of coffee consumers. Trained teams of 2 or 3 observers/interviewers observed 30 coffee consumers brewing their coffee at home using their customary or preferred method (i.e., drip brew, pour over, Aeropress, French press, espresso, capsules, etc.). They then interviewed them about their brewing method and habits using a laddering interview technique that opened with the question “Why do you use this method to brew your coffee?”, and followed with a series of “Why is it important to you that…?” questions.
Netnography accessed critical innovation levers such as triggers of use (i.e., to wake up or as a break in the day), user customization (i.e., light or medium roasts preferred for full flavor expression and less bitterness; type of sweetener or creamer added if any), interactions with the user’s environment (i.e., adjusting to local water composition), intangible attributes of the method (i.e., comfort from the brewed cup), and most importantly for breakthrough innovation - unarticulated user needs.
MECA produced a hierarchical value map that included caffeine, convenience, flavor, less wasteful, personalized, social drinking, and cheaper as the main attributes associated with consumers’ brewing methods. Consequences of those methods were energy, saving time in the morning, pleasant aromatic properties, saving resources, controlling taste, desire to fit in, and saving money. In turn, MECA linked those consequences to such personal values as academic and career performance, enhanced productivity, enjoyment, environmental ethics, health consciousness, belonging, and financial responsibility.
This information can be used by coffee companies and manufacturers of coffee brewing equipment to optimize their offerings and design new brewing experiences.
Learning Objective:
Attendees will get unique insights into the motivations of consumers when brewing coffee at home across a range of brewing methods.
They will learn about innovative qualitative consumer research methods such as netnography (online observation of the consumer) and means end chain analysis of laddering interviews, and how those techniques can be used for product or service optimization and breakthrough innovation.
Date: Friday, June 27, 2025
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Location: Lecture Room V
This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee Geneva here.
Lecturers / Presenters
Jean-Xavier Guinard (he/him)
Porfessor, University of California, Davis
Jean-Xavier Guinard is Professor of Sensory Science and Co-Director of the Coffee Center at the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on sensory and culinary strategies for dietary change and the optimization of the sensory quality and consumer acceptance of foods, beverages (including coffee!) and other consumer products. He was an architect of the Coffee Taster’s Flavor Wheel, the Coffee Sensory and Consumer Brewing Control Chart, and Coffee Cuality™. Jean-Xavier has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications. He teaches undergraduate, graduate and lifelong learning courses at UC Davis and consults for food and beverage companies and consumer agencies worldwide.