The Coffee House* is a local coffee roaster providing a range of coffee products and drinks in
Leicestershire. Under the present leadership of Peter James the company is aiming to become
truly innovative. What’s more, the company has recognised a growing need for coffee pods.
Recently, Peter James has noticed a shift in consumer thinking – he had noticed that
consumers are becoming more interested in drinking coffee at home or at work. He had also
noticed that competitors are introducing coffee pods with different flavors and variety of
coffee beans, that are designed to be used in existing coffee machines, meet the different
tastes of consumers and make the coffee-making process at home/work quicker and easier.
The Coffee House is constantly looking for ways to meet consumer needs by growing the
business and expanding its product portfolio. However, Peter James has little real knowledge
on coffee pods that are currently dominating the market. He has read articles around the area
and he knows it has become the target of debate. So far, he has noticed a great concern
among the public and knows that if the shift towards coffee pods and the adoption of a quick
& easy coffee-making lifestyle continues these trends will impact the company. Peter James
knows that he cannot disregard the recent shift in consumer thinking, he needs better
information if he is to plan for the future properly. The organisation wants to know if they
should invest their innovative efforts in introducing a new range of coffee pods and whether
it should be a core part of their positioning.
In light of the above, Peter James would like you to conduct marketing research, which will
help the development of a strategic plan and move the business forward.
*Coffee House is a fictitious/imaginary name
Section A:
Conduct secondary research into the UK coffee industry, in particular coffee
pods, and consumer lifestyles in order to identify key patterns influencing the sector – in
order to provide a thorough and focussed overview and analysis of the sector. Secondly you
are required to identify blogs/forums where this topic is discussed by individuals (UK) and
provide a solid analysis into consumer’s attitudes and perceptions towards coffee drinking
lifestyles, preferences and behaviours within the sector.
Section B:
Carry out 2-3 semi structured interviews with customers as part of Section B as
your chosen method of research. All students should then carry out their primary research
and analyse their findings.
Based on your findings in Section A – you will write a brief proposal for your qualitative data
collection.
a) Write three objectives.
a. Each objective must be clearly explained and justified.
b) Indicate where and when the data collection will take place.
c) Explain and justify your sampling approach.
d) Develop a suitable qualitative research instrument in order to gather data on some of
the issues noted above – this must be explained within the report, however all students
are required to submit a FULL research instrument within the appendices.
e) Indicate and justify your data analysis techniques.
Section C
Analyse and interpret the key findings from the data. What key
themes emerged – you must provide suitable evidence i.e. excerpts from the transcript to
support your discussion. Finally, all students must outline specific recommendations for the
Coffee House based on their findings.
Key Guidelines for Report
Your assignment should be 2,500 words maximum in length (+20%). (This excludes the
list of references and appendices). Students that ignore the word limit may be penalised.
Section A: Secondary Analysis (Approx. 800 words).
This needs to be clear, with logical explanation and commentary. Use paragraphs. Show any
quotes from online forums. Give clear, referenced sources for all the points made.
Section B: Proposal (Plan) for primary research – based on Section A (Approx. 700 words).
The proposal needs to include: research objectives; sampling, explanation of the proposed
data collection, analysis methods and execution. You will also need to explain the objectives
of the interviews in detail and outline and explain the dimensions of your research
instrument. Finally, all students must clearly state how their data will be analysed.
Section C: Findings and Recommendations (Approx. 1000 words)
The findings and analysis must be coherent – in line with the research objectives, with logical
commentary and supported with relevant excerpts from transcripts.
Format of Report: The report should include:
a) Title Page,
b) Contents Page,
c) Introduction (short 50 words max),
d) 3 Main Sections as above:
Section A: Secondary Research,
Section B: Proposal Plan,
Section C: Key Findings and Discussion.
e) Summary,
f) References,
g) Appendices.
