Coming from various backgrounds, we are curious to learn more about the English culture. The UK café industry is perticularly intriguing as it is very different to other countries around the world.
We had the opportunity to meet Dr Jennifer Ferreira, a senior research assistant in the Centre for business at Coventry University (who complete her PhD in 2013 with main research interest in the areas of economic geography, local and regional economic development and comparative institutional system) during a poster exhibition at Coventry University (30/06/2015), where we, as a group of marketing students, observed her poster which was particularly visual. We then spoke with her about her poster and questioned her about her findings, she answered all our questions precisely and politely.
To sum up the poster content, it highlights the café industry growth and trend in the UK. The poster is divided into four parts containing relevant market statistics, trends and references.
From a digital marketing perspective the poster is about “community” notion and it could be offline and online. Coffee, as a beverage, has generally grown in popularity in the UK with 70 million cups of coffee being consumed on a daily basis. This consumption popularity is particularly evident in the younger age-group. However, is this enough to say that this is the sole reason that coffee house have also increased in popularity? Dr. Ferreira’s research has shown that although a portion of the growth of the coffee houses has come from the increase in popularity of the drink itself, the other half of the increase is however, attributed to the fact that people are looking for a 3rd place. They don’t want to be home, they don’t want to be at work but what they do want is to be in a place where they can socially interact with people while feeling a sense of homely comforts. Which is why Starbucks’s idea of a 3rd place has caught on so well, here on the other side of the pond.
The total sales of coffee in 2014 represent £7.2 billion and “1 in 5 people in the UK visit a café every day compared to 1 in 9 in 2009” (Allegra Strategies, 2015). Furthermore, an interesting finding in Dr. Ferreira’s research is that contrary to may other European countries, Britain likes its branded coffee, this is reflected in the market share data below:
- Costa Cofee – 46%
- Starbucks – 27%
- Caffe Nero – 14%
- Independent -17%
(Thomas, 2014)
The Café industry has bravely faced the recession and is still forecasted as being a booming sector into the UK. In London, for example, every year the number of coffee shops is increasing by around 10%. Consumer have start changing their attitudes towards coffee and are treating it more as an artisan product rather than a commodity (Allegra Strategies, 2015b:212).
To read more about this research please visit:
https://cafespaces.wordpress.com/
Jennifer.Ferreira@coventry.ac.uk
@jennywrenwatts
Special thanks to Dr. Jennifer Ferreira for allowing us to use her research and poster.
The Internauts 