Background
Statement of the Problem:
Being a frequent customer of Starbucks, I sometimes question who Starbucks targets for their primary consumers. Do they choose to target people of a certain
gender, religion, or ethnicity? Does their advertising cause certain groups of people to visit Starbucks or even other groups to avoid Starbucks and go elsewhere, like Caribou Coffee or
Dunkin’ Donuts? How do extraneous factors like weather or time of day affect who visits particular a location? For my study though, I plan to study a sample of Starbucks visitors to determine whether more males or more females visit the local Starbucks in North Olmsted, Ohio during a particular hour. From gathered data in fifteen minute intervals, I plan to see whether more males or females visit this particular store and comparing each day’s samples, I can see how an extraneous factor like weather could potentially affect the busyness of a local coffee shop.
Background:
Prior to gathering data, I wanted to know whether or not any previous studies or observations were carried out on the gender of Starbucks’s customers. I began my search on Google, where I found a couple of pages that provided insight on the demographics of Starbucks. Students at Franklin College published a summary of Starbucks's marketing plan in
2006, which gave a thorough description of the
company's history and how it has grown since its first location
opened in 1971. In 2002, the customers that began to visit Starbucks
were majority male, at 55% of the population. The population was
also described to be for young, affluent, tech-savvy customers.
However, since the data is fairly old, the population
characteristics may have shifted and could now be different from the
statistics gathered in 2002. Being a large company with
nearly 7000 stores open in the United States alone, I figured the
company must have conducted a survey of their customers. I then
emailed the company through their website and ask if they had done
such a survey before and if I could obtain a copy of the data they
collected.
They responded a day later and said "due to the volume of student
requests we receive, we're unable to grant interview or survey
requests or provide information about the company beyond what we
make publicly available." It seems that even if they had conducted
any studies about the demographics of their customers, they would
not enclose it to a student. However, they did recommend a few links
to find any other background information about the company. I then
checked one of the recommended sites, www.scaa.org however the
studies and surveys they have on the website were available for
purchase only and didn't seem to be essential to this study. The
other website given was www.businesswire.com , which also didn't
yield any helpful data or statistics.
So, maybe I was being too specific; I then searched for information
about coffee drinkers in general, not specifically about Starbucks.
65% of all coffee is actually consumed during breakfast, which may
affect the size of my data since I will be gathering it at night
when less people will be purchasing coffee. I am unable to visit
Starbucks in the morning to conduct my study, thus my sample sizes
could be rather smaller. On the same website, it is stated that
women drink coffee to relax but men state that they drink coffee to
complete jobs, which could also skew data; if someone needs to get
work done, they would most likely make their visit in the morning
when most people go to work. Based off this statistic, one would
think that more men would visit in the morning and more women would
visit later in the day or afternoon. The chosen hour is fairly late
in the day, but I doubt this will greatly impact the study to any
large extent.
Being a frequent customer of Starbucks, I sometimes question who Starbucks targets for their primary consumers. Do they choose to target people of a certain
gender, religion, or ethnicity? Does their advertising cause certain groups of people to visit Starbucks or even other groups to avoid Starbucks and go elsewhere, like Caribou Coffee or
Dunkin’ Donuts? How do extraneous factors like weather or time of day affect who visits particular a location? For my study though, I plan to study a sample of Starbucks visitors to determine whether more males or more females visit the local Starbucks in North Olmsted, Ohio during a particular hour. From gathered data in fifteen minute intervals, I plan to see whether more males or females visit this particular store and comparing each day’s samples, I can see how an extraneous factor like weather could potentially affect the busyness of a local coffee shop.
Background:
Prior to gathering data, I wanted to know whether or not any previous studies or observations were carried out on the gender of Starbucks’s customers. I began my search on Google, where I found a couple of pages that provided insight on the demographics of Starbucks. Students at Franklin College published a summary of Starbucks's marketing plan in
2006, which gave a thorough description of the
company's history and how it has grown since its first location
opened in 1971. In 2002, the customers that began to visit Starbucks
were majority male, at 55% of the population. The population was
also described to be for young, affluent, tech-savvy customers.
However, since the data is fairly old, the population
characteristics may have shifted and could now be different from the
statistics gathered in 2002. Being a large company with
nearly 7000 stores open in the United States alone, I figured the
company must have conducted a survey of their customers. I then
emailed the company through their website and ask if they had done
such a survey before and if I could obtain a copy of the data they
collected.
They responded a day later and said "due to the volume of student
requests we receive, we're unable to grant interview or survey
requests or provide information about the company beyond what we
make publicly available." It seems that even if they had conducted
any studies about the demographics of their customers, they would
not enclose it to a student. However, they did recommend a few links
to find any other background information about the company. I then
checked one of the recommended sites, www.scaa.org however the
studies and surveys they have on the website were available for
purchase only and didn't seem to be essential to this study. The
other website given was www.businesswire.com , which also didn't
yield any helpful data or statistics.
So, maybe I was being too specific; I then searched for information
about coffee drinkers in general, not specifically about Starbucks.
65% of all coffee is actually consumed during breakfast, which may
affect the size of my data since I will be gathering it at night
when less people will be purchasing coffee. I am unable to visit
Starbucks in the morning to conduct my study, thus my sample sizes
could be rather smaller. On the same website, it is stated that
women drink coffee to relax but men state that they drink coffee to
complete jobs, which could also skew data; if someone needs to get
work done, they would most likely make their visit in the morning
when most people go to work. Based off this statistic, one would
think that more men would visit in the morning and more women would
visit later in the day or afternoon. The chosen hour is fairly late
in the day, but I doubt this will greatly impact the study to any
large extent.