An Exploratory Study on the Customer Perceptions of Coffee Shops: Focusing on Franchise Coffee Shops vs. Independent Coffee Shops
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Park Ryeong-Ji , Cho Na-Won , Cho Hye-Jeung 
Published: June 2018

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perceptions of coffee shop image in Korea. In specific, this study seeks to obtain a deeper understanding of customer perceptions of two different types of coffee shops: franchise coffee shops vs. independent coffee shops. Past research on coffee shops and coffee shop customers mostly focused on identifying or comparing determinant attributes, based on quantitative approach, and their influences on customer satisfaction and revisit behaviors. The current study attempts to expand the scope of research on coffee shops by investigating how franchise vs. independent coffee shops are perceived by customers in terms of store image. It also intends to explore whether customers choose to visit different types of coffee shops for different reasons. In order to explore consumers’ innermost thoughts and feelings expressed in their own words, the study employed a qualitative approach and conducted face-to-face in-depth interviews with 24 young female coffee shop customers. Multiple projective techniques (e.g., word association, sentence completion, image association) were also incorporated into the depth interviews.
The results show that customer perceptions of franchise vs. independent coffee shop images are related to distinctively different attributes and characteristics. For example, consumers perceived franchise coffee shops to be associated with the characteristics such as access, familiarity, trust, high price, and noise, while they perceived independent coffee shops to be associated with the characteristics such as warmth, unique personality, quietness, and uncertain product/service quality. In an image association task, the interviewees were asked to pick a pictorial image that represents the image of franchise vs. independent coffee shops metaphorically. The result shows that the metaphoric image of franchise coffee shops is related to the image of a big city, a factory, and natural areas with large open spaces, while the image of independent coffee shops is related to the image of a unique place, soft lighting, and relaxation in nature. In addition, a music association task, where the interviewees listened to two different pieces of music and asked to indicate the fit between different coffee shop types and the style of each musical piece, revealed that people perceived different types of coffee shops to be associated with different styles of in-store music (e.g., franchise coffee shops with fast-tempo, lively music vs. independent coffee shops with slow-tempo, relaxing music). The study also found that customers tend to visit franchise coffee shops more for utilitarian reasons, while they tend to visit independent coffee shops for hedonic reasons.
The current study contributes to the literature by enhancing our deeper understanding of customer perceptions of franchise vs. independent coffee shops by employing various qualitative research techniques. It also provides marketing managers important managerial implications by offering valuable insights into better understanding the strengths and weaknesses of franchise vs. independent coffee shops seen from the customer’s own point of view and improving their differentiation strategy that should vary depending on the type of store and their target customers. Limitations and implications for future research are also discussed.