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
2
Section A:
You need to 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:
You must 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.
