What’s Your Bevvy of Choice?
For most people, coffee is among the most popular bevvies of choice (1). Here are some coffee drinking statistics for you:
- Globally, a whopping 176 million 60 kilogram bags were consumed between 2020-21 (2). This doesn’t even include the ready-to-drink delights.
- The US, followed by Japan, ranks as the highest contributor to global coffee revenue coming in at $85 billion USD in 2023 (3).
I’m pretty sure that I contributed to a significant part of the US market, because coffee is my fave thing to drink.
Reasons People Drink Coffee
So why do people drink coffee? Is it just a caffeine delivery method? For me, absolutely not, but let’s look at some coffee consumer statistics to make sure I’m not alone.
Taste is #1
There are so many other ways to get caffeine, but I love the taste of coffee. There is a vast difference between not only the taste of coffee but also the feel of coffee. Tea and coffee are not equivalent in taste or texture. It's not the way that I like it made. Sure, there is coffee served at some restaurants that cater to a demographic that isn’t me, where the coffee is not as boldly brewed. It is not as … thick is the only way that I can describe it. But even though I belong to GenX, I prefer the coffee where the young people go. It’s more robust and more flavorful than even what is brewed for my ilk. (Following the young people with unnaturally dyed hair is also how I find the delicious vegan food). In my anecdotal experience, there is definitely a generational difference in brewing methods. I speak to generalities and not with any sort of actual scientific evidence. And this may just be the town that I am in. The bottom line though, is taste is the main reason that I choose coffee over other bevvies. But am I alone in liking coffee because of the taste? No. I am not.
For Americans, 83% of coffee drinkers would say it’s the taste that drives them to drink the cup o’ joe (3). Only second to that is the jolt of the joy juice.
Statistics On Who Drinks Coffee
So, who are these coffee drinkers? According to one study, they drink, on average, 14 ounces of coffee per day ((Loftfield et al., 2016). Men tend to drink more coffee than women ((Loftfield et al., 2016). In the U.S. (I’m American, which is why I’m focusing on the U.S.), coffee drinking is pretty widespread. One interesting finding was that former or current smokers tended to drink more coffee than people who never smoked (Loftfield et al., 2016). There was also a difference between those who didn’t drink alcohol or drank alcohol infrequently versus those who drank alcohol more regularly (Loftfield et al., 2016). These findings were from a nutrition study, so health factors were the aim of the study. However, if someone is a marketer, lifestyle behaviors would also be of interest.
A Look at Coffee Marketing Dynamics
One of the things that marketing strategists look for is so-called touchpoints. I’m sure you’ve heard this overused term. As a behavioral scientist, I probably use just as mockingly jargony jargon terms. Come to think of it, I’m sure I do and feel free to mock me for it when you see me using jargony jargon way too much. In any case, when you’re looking at behavior, like consumption patterns of coffee, you’re looking at what goes along with it. For a health epidemiologist, they are looking for health risk factors. For marketing strategists, they might be looking for behaviors that they can piggyback on to introduce their product into to promote their product.
Ancillary Products
So here is a product that a lot of people buy. Is it saturated already? Maybe. But, there may be ancillary products that can go along with this huge market. Coffee cups. Lipstick that doesn’t come off when you drink coffee. Toothpaste that takes off coffee stains. Dishwashing detergent that gets off coffee stains from mugs. These are just off the top of my head and are probably pretty silly. The point is that human behavior is being studied by a number of different disciplines that have gold mines of amazing information that could be helpful to business strategists.
From Coffee to Marketing: The Data Is Already Waiting
Whether you're marketing coffee or any other product, the data is out there—you just have to know where to look. I was reminded of this when I attended a marketers networking event and panel discussion recently. One of the panelists was saying that in his niche they were having to come up with the best practices because it was such a new thing that he was doing. I about lost my eyes to the back of my head I was rolling them so hard. I had just been reading some marketing science articles on his industry a few weeks before that event. So I went up to him and tried to tell him to use Google Scholar. It’s free. I didn’t introduce myself. I just said, go use Google Scholar. He thought I was trying to sell him something. After I repeated about a million times,, “Go to Google Scholar. It’s free. I’m not trying to sell you anything. I’m trying to help you. There are best practices already there,” it looked like it may have finally dawned on him that I wasn’t trying to sell him something.
Conclusion: Use Existing Data for Success
Here’s the thing. Whatever it is you do, if it has to do with people, there are loads of researchers who are studying people from loads of different perspectives. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, because there’s probably already a car that flies. Just go and use Google Scholar and look it up. If there’s a lot of jargony jargon in it, feel free to hit me up to translate the data. I speak normal people.
Citations:
https://www.statista.com/topics/5945/coffee-market-worldwide/#topicOverview)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/292595/global-coffee-consumption/
https://www.statista.com/forecasts/758662/revenue-of-the-coffee-market-worldwide-by-country
Disclaimer:
The content of this blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.