Consumer Behavior and Coffee Grades

This assignment examines the impact of coffee grading on consumer purchasing decisions. It delves into consumer behavior theories, highlighting factors like cultural influence, social group perceptions, and previous purchase experiences. The research involves two experiments: one where consumers rate familiar coffee grades based on past encounters and another where they rate unfamiliar grades purely on smell. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between previous experience and consumer preference for coffee grades.

Running head: APPLIED MATHEMATICS 0
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
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APPLIED MATHEMATICS 2
Literature Review
The behavior of consumer on the consumption of coffee is defined by the previous
purchase reactions of the customers. The consumer reaction is the process of researching what
the consumer will choose, how they will use it, the reason for the purchase and the disposal of it
after the usage (Montana, 2013). According to Kotler et al, he suggested that the behavior of the
consumers denote the purchasing behavior of the final consumers (household and individuals
who purchase services and goods for private consumption) and thus the combination of the
consumers is referred to as consumer market.
But in reality, most individuals shows a distinguishing reactions as well as a
psychological character since they are sometimes pretentious by different national culture
(Demlert, 2011). Therefore, the behavior of the consumers and their psychology are treated as
the most two significant direct elements to effect the buying decision of the consumers (Motori,
2012). Nonetheless, it is simple for the marketers to distinguish the consumer characteristic
behavior for the psychological peculiarity. In most cases, it becomes very difficult to tell what
the consumer thinks about a given product and why he or she may prefer the product to other
supplementary goods. Depending on the part of the world the consumers are, some individuals
from a given country will have a different consumption characteristic than others.
A very significant factor which will actually influence the purchase of coffee by
consumers is basically how the coffee is graded. Grading will basically speak a lot to the
consumers before they make the decision on which type of the supplementary good to purchase.
Culture sometimes may influence the decision of the consumer on the good to purchase as well
as motivating them on the purchase of a specific commodity (Naftalli, 2012). Most significantly,
the culture difference influences the consumer behavior in self-construal.

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Another strategic factor which will influence the consumer purchase of coffee is the
social group. To be more precise, social group is viewed as a large and formal which entails
more connections and individuals (Nkuka, 2011). In the social group, the communication of
others about coffee will offer them more information about coffee and make them to either buy it
or not. And this will be entirely dependent on the previous encounter with the product. If the
pre-purchase of the product impressed the consumers then will talk good about the product
(advertise). But if they had the worst encounter then they will even discourage the other
consumers from purchasing the products.
Another factor which can influence the purchase of coffee is the marketing strategies.
For the marketing strategies, the consumers can switch from a given type of behavior to another.
And during this process it only the marketer who fathom which level the consumers are so that
the marketers can put and implement some key strategies to attract the consumers to the given
product. The marketing mix which is referred to as the 4Ps (price, product, place, and promotion)
is a strategy employed by these marketers to attract more potential buyers. And this will be
possible with the implementation of the corresponding models 4Cs (communication,
convenience, consumer, cost) which is from the consumer’s point of view (Otare, 2014).
Methodology
The grading of coffee was done in terms of the sizes of the coffee seeds and of different
varieties with the smallest sizes being 8 inches and the largest being 20 inches. Some of the
varieties which the consumers were exposed to were Mocha, Mundo Novo, pacamara. The
consumers who have previously consumed this coffee were allowed to smell these values and
give the rating. Because these individuals have a previous taste on the coffee (Montana, 2013).

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So they will rate them according to their encounter. The rating of the coffee out of 5 were 4.5,
4.5, 4.7, 4.8, 4.8, 4.7, 4.9, 5.0, 4.3, 4.6.
From the above data, we can obtain the average rating of the consumers based on their previous
encounter
Rating = 4.5 ,+ 4.5+ 4.7+4.8+ 4.8+4.7+ 4.9+5.0+4.3+4. 6
10
Rating = 4.68
And for another experiment , the consumers were allowed to smell the coffee and give their
rating out of 5 and ntheir rating were as below 1.2,1.6,1.9,1.9,2.0,1.5,1.4, 1.4, 1.6,1.7
Rating = 1.2+1.6+1.9+1.9+2.0+1.5+1.4 +1.4+1.6+1.7
10
Rating =1.62
The previous grades to customers’ preferences were actually very important and from the
analysis above, it is so clear that for the rating of 4.68 indicates that the consumers were actually
pleased with the type of the grade they had to have encountered with previously. While for the
rating of the consumers of 1.62 illustrates that the consumers did not like the coffee grades.
Therefore the previous encounter will hence influence how the consumer will purchase a given
grade of coffee in the market.

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References
Demlert, D. (2011). Application of mathematics in real life scenario. London: Wily and sons.
Montana, D. (2013). How to analysis the applied mathematics. Manchester: CRC.
Motori, K. (2012). Applied mathematics: Analysis of data in real life. Havard: Springer.
Naftalli, I. (2012). Grading of coffee: Sizes, varieties, and countries. Hull: CRC.
Nkuka, B. (2011). Branding of coffee grades. Colorado: Adventure press.
Otare, P. (2014). Applied mathematics for the marketers. Toronto: Canadian press.