Title: Happy customers means more business – a comparative study of a global food chain in COVID-19 endemic era

Authors: R.K. Srivastava

Addresses: Sydenham Institute of Management, University of Mumbai, India

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the factors influencing the happiness of customers of two global coffee food chains through qualitative research in the post pandemic era. It is a qualitative research employing sentiment analysis through 'Sprinkler Software' to assess the sentiment of customers of Starbucks and Barista followed by focus interviews through the same customers who have visited both Starbucks and Barista. The results showed that most important factors which motivate customers and make them happy to go for 'Starbucks' or 'Barista' are ambience, store location, quality of product offerings and service quality. Value for money, quality of products and service quality are the top three variables affecting the customers. This research contributes to better understanding the effects of different marketing strategies adopted by coffee chain stores and can provide direction to Barista and other coffee chains through application of SOR model.

Keywords: happiness; ambiance; coffee chain; Starbucks; barista; quality of service; variety of products; quality of products; location.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEXPORTM.2022.128749

International Journal of Export Marketing, 2022 Vol.5 No.2, pp.183 - 197

Received: 12 Sep 2022
Accepted: 15 Oct 2022
Published online: 02 Feb 2023 *