School of Communication
Semester 1, Academic Year 2021/2022
YSP 524 IMC CAPSTONE PROFESSIONAL PROJECT
Research Project:
Sustainability of Specialty Cafes during Covid-19 pandemic:
A Case of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters
Name Matrics No.
Ooi Zi Shan P-KOM0023/21
Supervisor:
Assoc Prof Dr. Shuhaida Md Noor
Second-Reader:
Dr. Nurzali Ismail
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Table of Content
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Case of Study 2
1.2 The Market of Specialty Coffee 4
1.3 Research Problem 6
1.4 Research Objectives 11
2.0 Research Method & Design
2.1 Desk Research 12
2.2 Intensive Interview 13
2.3 Survey Study 16
3.0 Fieldwork / Data Collection 21
4.0 Data Analysis 24
5.0 Data Presentation
5.1 Demographic 28
5.2 Descriptive Statistic – Dependent Variables 33
5.3 Logistic Regression Analysis 40
5.4 T-Test Analysis 44
5.4.1 T-Test Analysis (Comparing Individual Items) 50
5.5 Descriptive Statistic – Consumers’ Expectation 53
6.0 Discussion
6.1 Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the specialty
café business in Malaysia 54
6.2 The challenges and opportunities for the specialty cafe
business landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic 54
6.3 The factors that will influence a consumer in patronizing a café 56
6.4 Digitalization for business sustainability of specialty cafe 57
7.0 Conclusion & Practical Implication 58
8.0 Reference 61
9.0 Appendix 65
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Case of Study
Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters was born and bred in Penang since 2015 and has
everything a coffee enthusiast is looking for. Started humbly at Penang Udini Square as
a micro roastery café, Frank Laurent Coffee Roastery serves and specializes in roasting
its own coffee beans from different origins such as Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Guatemala
etc.
Aside from consumers, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters supplies its own roasted
bean, to both consumers and cafe businesses. The roaster has also tapped into retail by
selling home use and commercial use coffee equipment as part of the business areas.
In terms of menu options, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters served only light food
such as waffles, muesli, and cakes at the beginning. The menu was then expanded to
include more hot food options such as bagels, paninis, pastas, appetizers, and bites.
Besides that, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters has added two sub-brands under its
Picture 1: Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters at Udini Square, Penang
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umbrella, which are Morley Juice that sells cold-pressed juice and Frosley Gelato that
specialized in lesser fat of frozen desserts.
Along the years, the roasters had opened few branches and joined pop-up store
collaboration with other brands. To the date of this writing, the roasters have three outlets
in Penang, and are extending their footsteps to Kedah with the opening of Sungai Petani
outlet and soon in the state capital, Alor Setar.
The marketing communication platforms that the roaster currently focusing are
website, its own Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters mobile application, Facebook, and
Instagram. On the website (https://franklaurent.com/), it introduces the services and retail
of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters and indicates all outlet’s information such as address
and operating hours. The website has also added a new tab for online ordering and users
will be led to a new microsite called order.franklaurent.com to place their food online for
self-pickup and delivery. While for the mobile application, it is designed to be a more
engaging platform with the customers. As there are contest and reward redemption that
can be done on the mobile application, any latest promotion and announcement is notified
via pop-up notification. Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters also organizes coffee workshops
on different brewing methods as well as providing professional barista courses, be it
group classes or one-to-one training.
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1.2 The Market of Specialty Coffee
The third wave coffee is used as the indication of specialty coffee development. It
rides on the growth in high-end market for artisanal foods and products (Fischer, 2018).
Unlike the previous wave of coffee that overwhelmingly emphasize on Arabica coffee,
third wave coffee encompasses different range of coffee beans and origins that are from
“micro-lot” coffee farm. In other words, the coffee farms are from smallholding former
scales and usually grown at high altitudes single farm. What makes this wave of coffee
more special is about the 100-point cupping scale that set by Specialty Coffee Association,
coffee origin that scores above 80 is labelled as third wave coffee and 90 above is labelled
as specialty coffee. Of course, prices vary from the farms, origins as well as the scores.
Boaventura et al. (2018) further discussed the third wave coffee on the
consumption side. The mushrooming of cafes that stresses the uniqueness of “micro-lots”,
variety and expertise of coffee roasting and brewing process brought this wave of coffee
even further. In this movement, consumers have shifted to value co-creation, as they are
more active in understanding the coffee production and consumption process, therefore,
helping to increase consumers’ willingness to pay for the coffee with higher production
cost.
In Malaysia, the second wave of coffee was about creating fancy latte arts on the
beverages with the mention of where the beans come from. While in the third wave, the
Picture 2: Coffee Cupping Scale by Specialty Coffee Association
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focus is placed on the “behind-the-scenes” factors (Ragavan, n.d). The essence of the
third wave is about “educating” the consumers at every step of production - from farmer
to baristas, from bean to cup. The style of beverages is also no longer emphasized on
the swills and ice-blended drinks, but rather single-origin brews with nothing, no sugar,
no milk, no flavored syrups, and no whipped cream. By serving the brewed coffee plain,
coffee connoisseurs will describe the coffee in terms of aroma, body, and after-taste with
words like floral, acidic, nutty etc., use food and fruits references to match their sensory
experiences, then there will be a tasting note for the consumers to have a guideline on
what the coffee offers and how different coffee beans can be relatable to each other.
Azavedo and Gogatz (2021) suggested that characteristics in third-wave coffee
are the concern of rising scientific understanding, the technological improvement which
includes roasting profile and water treatment for quality consistency. Other than that, the
coffee presentation, customer service, supply chain from seed to cup ensure the business
sustainability and equity. However, the presentation in the third wave couldn’t be
underestimated in both coffee and the premises. The presentation ranges from the latte
art, ceramic coffee mug, interiors, and exteriors of the premises such as materials,
typography and colour that lies in the design. The catchy presentation, or now more
commonly acceptable minimalist interior, are believed to be an attraction for customers
and grab many eyeballs on Instagram (Azavedo & Gogatz, 2021).
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1.3 Research Problem
2020, was a year with crisis and challenges, as worldwide everyone is fighting
against the same enemy, and the “fighting war” is still lasting until today. The enemy is
no longer strange in the community, it is the COVID-19 virus. The quick spread of virus
has made World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it as a pandemic on 11
March 2020 (Umair, Waqas & Faheem, 2020). In Malaysia, the local government
enforced mitigation measures in the mid of March 2020 due to the spikes in the confirmed
cases in the community. Two weeks of movement control order (MCO) was imposed from
18 March 2020 to 31 March 2020 initially and it had been kept extending till 12 May 2020,
but business sectors were resuming by stages since 13 May 2020 when the cases were
getting lower.
After several months of fighting the virus, Malaysia recorded the first zero local
transmission case on 1 July 2020 (The Straits Times, 2020). However, the number of
local transmission cases bounced back after the Sabah state election in September 2020
and also the neglect of standard operating practices (SOPs) by the public. The country
went into the second stage of MCO in January 2021 for certain states only, and a full
lockdown is implemented again to date from 1st June 2021 onwards due to the cases
being on a new high again.
The MCO served as a purpose to reduce the crowd in public space and flatten the
curve of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Therefore, activities that involve the mass are
prohibited, education institutions are closed, social activities are banned, businesses are
disallowed temporarily except for essentials such as supermarkets and public markets,
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grocery stores that sell necessities. Undoubtedly, the food and beverages (F&B) industry
are allowed to operate during MCO. However, the pandemic impacted the industry as no
dine-in is allowed, consumers are encouraged to do drive-through and take-away instead.
Lim (2020) discussed that the reduction of footfall in the F&B industry during the pandemic
has pushed the foodservice operators to put more effort into executing change, from dine-
in to delivery and then to self-pickup. All these were speeding up especially for the few
prominent fast-food chains to create the experience of from table to home.
Sin, Lo and Mohamad (2021) discussed that consumers' behaviours have
changed and become more comfortable with food services that provide online ordering
and delivery services due to the movement control and social distancing engagement
during the pandemic. A Nan Yang fusion modern coffee store located at Petaling Street;
Kuala Lumpur was forced to engage with a third-party food delivery service for the first
time when the pandemic hit. Alwin Chan, the co-founder of Luckin Kopi mentioned in a
live webinar that his business is located at the Golden Triangle of the city and has
attracted the white collars of office buildings nearby to have lunch daily prior to COVID-
19 (Qlic Solution, 2020). The pandemic switched Luckin Kopi’s business model from dine-
in to online delivery service, be its own re-purposed talents or outsourcing to third-party
delivery service to make the business sustain in the midst of hardship, as Luckin Kopi
relied on footfall to the stores a lot.
However, not every business could sustain its business by engaging third party
delivery services. The food delivery service marketplace is flooded with different brands
and competing options, as well as with high commission charges which cause minimal
margin for the food businesses (Jacobs, 2020). Jalil (2020) reported that a lockdown
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forces businesses to go online, for those who don’t have the capital to pay high merchant
fees to third-party delivery services would go for their own mile in doing delivery.
The food and beverage industry worldwide are struggling. According to report by
Durai (2021), about 17% eateries in United States are forced to close since the outset of
pandemic, while in Malaysia, a conservative estimation of 25%-30% of eateries closed
their doors due to the direct consequences of pandemic. Following the total lockdown
announcement in the country on 1st June 2021, the country entered endless lockdown
restrictions especially at the heart of the country, Klang Valley was under Enhanced
Movement Control Order (EMCO) in July as the situation was getting worsen. Former
Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin unveiled a four-phase National Recovery Plan to chart
Malaysia’s journey in fighting the pandemic. The transition of plan is determined by three
key thresholds, which are vaccination rate, daily cases, and the public healthcare
system’s capacity (Yusof, 2021).
Based on the National Recovery Plan, the states are in Phase 3 are allowed for
dining in and inter-district travel. However, merchants were not at comfortable to resume
to the normal as the situation back in August were still worrying. On 14 September 2021,
the government announced to re-open more economic sectors with strict standard
operation procedures. The confidence of businesses bounced back higher when the adult
vaccinated rate reached 90% on 10th October 2011, at the same time government
announced inter-state travel is allowed starting from 11th October 2021.
Although things have started to re-open, the president of Malaysia-Singapore
Coffeeshop Proprietors Association Wong Teu Hoon said eatery businesses are still slow
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due to the limitations of tables due to the rules and standard operating procedures, but
they are optimistic on the recovery and the return is better than those time where only
take away is allowed (Gimino, 2021). Meanwhile, Malaysia Consumer Index (MYCI) was
once at the lowest in the past two years, which was 92 points in second quarter 2021
(Oppotus, 2021). The index figure recovered and recorded at 109 points in third quarter
2021 since most of the states in Malaysia has moved into third and fourth phase of
National Recovery Plan today.
According to the founder of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, surviving a cafe during
the COVID-19 pandemic has been 10 times tougher compared to the pre-COVID-19 era.
According to Frank Ee, the man behind Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, the cost of
running a cafe is high and there wouldn’t be not much cash flow in hand for day-to-day
operation. The high cost of operation includes rental, salary, cost of goods, and cost of
disposal. When the pandemic hits, it definitely has added the burden of operating costs
as the cafe has to spend on disinfectant and daily cleaning to ensure the cafe hygiene.
For a cafe like Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, the extension of MCO from March
2020 to May 2020 brought a sudden downturn in sales. Back then before the pandemic,
its sales had less than 5% in takeaway and delivery, the majority of the sales skewed
towards dining in. At the initial phase of lockdown, the public had the fear of going out,
the total sales dropped drastically. 30% of its low sales came from the takeaway, the rest
came from delivery. When dining in was allowed later, the dining rate bounced back to
85%.
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Research proved that engaging with third-party delivery services helps in
sustaining the demand capacity, increasing sales and brand exposure with minimum work
and back-end preparation (Sin, Lo & Mohamad, 2021). Despite this, Frank Laurent Coffee
Roasters doesn’t see this is able to sustain in the long-term, as customers’ spending
pattern does change during the pandemic. According to Frank Ee, consumers are looking
for something affordable and more cautious in their spending. To extend the brand
exposure and sustain the business in the pandemic, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters
decided to take the lead in the digital transformation by making its coffee affordable and
accessible for its customers base, despite travel restrictions and social distancing practice
during the lockdown.
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1.4 Research Objectives
Anand (2020) reported that about 280,000 new businesses registered in Malaysia
between March and September, with fresh startups in the sectors of food and beverages,
online retail, fitness, and education. Registration of business in Malaysia is less hassle
now, but to sustain during this hard time is another story. Hence, this study would like to
understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the specialty cafe business
in Malaysia. With less footfall in the brick-and-mortar store, this study is also aimed to
identify the challenges and opportunities for the specialty cafe business landscape
during the COVID-19 pandemic. After discussed with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters,
there are a number of cafes that started their business during the pandemic. Thus, this
study would also study if the mushrooming of new cafes poses an impact on the existing
cafe. According to Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, consumers’ spending patterns
changed after the pandemic. Consumers tend to look for something more affordable.
Hence, this research would also aim to identify the factors that will influence a
consumer in patronizing a cafe. Aside, COVID-19 and the worldwide lockdowns trigger
the turning point for digital transformation. Businesses and consumers are “going digital”,
services and goods are available at the end of fingertips, the e-commerce share of global
retail trade was also recorded at 17% in 2020, a growth of 3% from 14% in 2019 (United
Nation Conference on Trade and Development, 2021). Therefore, this study’s objective
is to examine how digitalization would help specialty cafe continue towards
business sustainability.
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2.0 Research Method & Design
To achieve the objectives, two research designs will be adopted in this study, they
are exploratory design and descriptive design. In the research, Frank Laurent Coffee
Roasters is used as the subject of study. The aim of the study is to explore the
phenomenon of specialty cafe business landscape from the research subject. Wimmer
and Dominick (2011) suggested that exploratory research is intended to search for data
indications, and it helps to answer “what is happening” in a phenomenon. Thus, this
research needs two methods under exploratory research design to understand and
identify the impact, challenges, and opportunities of the specialty cafe industry during the
pandemic.
2.1 Desk Research
The first method of exploratory design that is used to explore the struggles of the
specialty cafe businesses in Malaysia is secondary research, also known as desk
research. In this study, secondary research is conducted to achieve the first objective and
to further furnish the research results with real case studies on specialty cafe
sustainability. Besides that, the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a new situation, there
is a variety of research that has been conducted globally especially regarding the food
business and digital transformation. With the aid of secondary research, this study will
highlight the pandemic situation with different perspectives and form a strong foundation
for the study itself. As Hague et. al. (2016) suggested, desk research usually helps to
Desk Research
Intensive
Interview
Survey Interview
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build a complex jigsaw from scattered information, as desk research is a goldmine of
intelligence that can be easily ignored by the researcher and proceed to survey research.
Hence, it is useful in this study to help examine the cafe businesses’ marketing
environment, market size and structure to build a clearer foundation of study before
proceeding to other data collection methods.
Besides that, secondary research data would help to validate research problems
of the cafe business landscape in Malaysia, challenges of food businesses during the
COVID-19 pandemic, business digital transformation and business strategies. To
maintain the data validity, all secondary data would be saved as a copy for further review.
Most importantly, the evaluation is vital to make the secondary data meaningful to the
research. As Hague et. al. (2011) suggested, the data validation should be cross-
checking by using more than two sources and also to understand the source and
methodology of the data. The research shall also integrate all data into a meaningful
whole instead of scattered pieces of information. In this study, the researcher will look for
linkages and patterns that can be connected with other sources of materials. This data
collection method will be conducted before carrying out primary research, to first build a
foundation and concept to the study before the interview and survey are conducted.
2.2 Intensive Interview
The second method of exploratory design that will achieve the objective is an
intensive interview. According to Wimmer and Dominick (2011), an intensive interview is
generally detailed and contains a wealth of information. Hence, the intensive interview
will be conducted in with the research subject, Frank Ee who is also the founder of Frank
Laurent Coffee Roasters. Frank Ee started his barista journey back in 2010 learning about
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specialty coffee from farm to cup, coffee farming, processing, roasting, brewing,
extracting and machinery since then. He founded the first Frank Laurent Coffee Roaster
in 2015 and opened over ten outlets or kiosks over the years, unfortunately, half of them
were closed. Frank Ee is chosen as the subject as he has more than 10 years experiences
in the Malaysia coffee industry and his experiences as a start-up founder is believed to
help in achieving second and third objectives. He is expected to provide an explanation
of the cafe business phenomenon and elaboration of the situation such as business
impact, operation difficulties and new opportunities in the market. As introduced in
previous section, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters has stepped into digitalization by
engaging online ordering system and mobile application. Therefore, intensive interview
session with Frank Ee would also help to understand the role of digital in specialty café
business. Following Mann (2016) guideline, an interview has been categorized into three
different degrees of structures, they are structured, semi-structured and unstructured.
A structured interview usually is prepared and piloted before the interview; a semi-
structured interview would often rely on a guide but there is room for further discussion
during the interview; while an unstructured interview relies on a few key open-end
questions and interviewees are encouraged to talk at the length that significance for the
research. In this study, the semi-structured interview will be conducted with Frank Ee by
providing him with a list of main questions. The rationale behind this is semi-structured
interview has a sense of reassuring structure and no pressure to stick to a pre-set script
as structured interviews. Most importantly, the subject interview will have more room for
discussion and more expansion of responses will be obtained as the semi-structured
interviews are less formal, non-directive and conversational (Mann, 2016).
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The list of questions guide is drafted according to the Interview Refinement
Protocol Framework by Milagros (2016). According to the framework, there is a four-
phase process before conducting the interview. First of all, the interview questions need
to be aligned with the research questions and objectives, in this case, the interview
questions to Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters will cover the three research objectives which
are i) the impact of pandemic on businesses, ii) the opportunities and challenges as a
specialty café and iii) digitalization strategy for café business sustainability.
Then, the interview questions will be designed into four categories, starting from
introductory questions, transition questions, key questions and closing questions as part
of the protocols to prepare an inquiry-based conversation. Before testing out the
questions, the list of questions will be submitted to supervisor for review to make sure the
structure of questions is good and smooth in transition, questions are designed without
judgmental, no double-question in one sentence, the length of interview questions in
appropriate and easy to comprehend. Then, the interview questions will be tested before
real interview session to be conducted.
Type of questions Context
Introductory Questions - Checking on the changes on business before and
after the pandemic
- Observation on the changes of consumers
spending behavior
Transition Questions - To understand the opportunities of a café business
- The challenges of running a specialty café
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Key Questions - The opportunities of café businesses other than
serving coffee
- Strategies for business sustainability
- Digitalization approach to sustain the business
Closing Questions - The coffee industry in the post pandemic
- Consumer’s knowledge and acceptance towards
the specialty coffee

2.3 Survey Study
Aside, a descriptive research design will be also adopted in this study. According
to Dulock (1993), descriptive research serves the purpose of describing a fact, illustrating
a phenomenon, discovering new meaning, and identifying associations and relationships
between selected variables. To apply in this study, the descriptive research design is
adopted to discover the factors that influence consumers on patronizing the chain and
specialty coffee stores, especially in the pandemic era. The result of the research may
suggest Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters adjusting their offers to consumers.
Survey population and sampling
In the study, the sample for the survey will be selected based on convenience
sampling method. Convenience sampling which is part of the non-probability sampling
doesn’t follow the guideline of mathematical sampling. Convenience sampling is also
known as non-probability sampling that is a data collection method from readily
accessible subjects (Wimmer & Dominick, 2011). The data collection focuses on the
population that is Malaysian adults 15 years old and above who drinks coffee. The survey
Table 1: Construct of Interview Questions with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters
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questions will be asking questions related to coffee drinking, coffee spending in-store as
well as online. Therefore, the population of the survey focuses only among coffee drinkers
who are aged 15 years old and above. The minimum number of respondents was
expected to be 200. In this research, this sampling method would help to draw the
conclusion from the survey results without biased as each subject selected independently
of the other members in the population. The reason being of setting the sampling criteria
and method is to reduce the restrictions on the criteria and increase more participations
from wider samples.
Survey instrument
The respondents’ feedback helps to explain what consumers value the most in a
cafe business. To achieve the aim, a survey questionnaire is an ideal option. Due to the
pandemic and contactless practice, an online survey will be conducted. The online survey
will be both cost and time-efficient and able to provide market measurement (Hague et.
al., 2016).
The questionnaire design is drafted as below:
Section Question Type Item
Demographic &
Psychographic
- Classification & Behavioural
Question
(Close-ended Questions)
- Gender
- Age
- Occupation
- Income Level
- Coffee drinking consumption
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- Cafe patronizing frequency
- Cafe patronizing budget
range
Patronizing
factors to the
preferred type of
coffee stores
- Attitudinal Questions
(Likert Scale Options)
- Construct development for
items that cover menu
options and quality, café
interior and cleanliness,
customer service and overall
ordering experience,
reviews, and media
coverage, Instagrammable
Online Delivery
Behaviour from a
Cafe
- Attitudinal Questions
(Likert Scale Options)
- Construct development for
items that cover menu
options and quality, overall
ordering and delivery
experience, convenience of
online delivery services,
brand familiarity, e-WOM/
online reviews
Consumers’
Expectations and
Recommendation
s
- Attitudinal Questions
(Likert Scale Options)
- Construct development for
items that cover food
delivery, menu options,
promotions, pricing,
cleanliness, retail
Table 2: Construct of Survey Questions
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The questionnaire is mainly divided into three sections. The first section is to
identify the profile of the respondents and their behaviour on coffee drinking and café
spending. According to Vyncke (2002), lifestyle approached activities, interests, and
opinions (AIO) approach helps to make sense of what people do, why they do it and what
it means to them and others. In the survey questionnaire, there are questions asked on
the respondents’ coffee drinking behaviour such as how frequent they drink; their interest
and preference like how they like their coffee do being served and opinions on what
specialty coffee means to them. This approach helps to segmentize the respondents into
several homogenous groups with similar interests, needs, and desires which makes
target marketing easier and more accurate.
The second and third section mainly explore the factors that will influence
consumers to patronize a coffee store and ordering coffee online. Hauge et. al. (2016)
suggested that the Likert scale works well in attitudinal questions. Although the Likert
Scale can only illustrate the likelihood of behaviour, it is still useful to show who are the
targets of a particular market or product. Each question will be measured with the Likert
Scale anchored by 1 – Strongly Disagree to 5 – Strongly Agree. The four section is
designed to study the customers’ expectation towards a cafe business during the
pandemic and seeks feedback from the respondents on what are their suggestions for
the cafes to refine the business offerings and strategies. It is also applied by questions
with Likert scale options and open-ended for respondents to further elaborate on their
expectations.
After collecting data from the survey, another round of interview will be conducted
with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters to further discuss on the insights collected from the
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consumers. This step is to share with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters about the opinions
of coffee consumers to ensure the marketing strategy is planned based on the customers’
needs for business sustainability.
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3.0 Fieldwork / Data Collection
As discussed above, three data collection methods were conducted, namely desk
research, in-depth interview, and survey. All data collections were handled by the
researcher alone, with a certain control mechanism to ensure the data quality and
reliability.
Due to the pandemic and social distancing practice, the interview with the founder
of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, Frank Ee was using the online video call method.
There were two rounds of interviews being conducted by the researcher on 7 May 2021
and 29 November 2021 respectively using video conferencing tool Microsoft Teams and
Zoom. During the interview session, Frank Ee was introduced by the researcher with the
objectives of the study and then followed by introductory questions that focused on the
situation of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters during the COVID-19 pandemic. The flow was
similar to the structured questions as planned, with few sub-questions in between to
clarify on certain points. The interview was ended with closing remarks by thanking Frank
Ee’s participation.
For easier transcript and data analysis, the sessions were recorded. Shone (2020)
explained that the recording could also help to collect the full context of the interview,
such as tone of voice and hand gestures. Instead of the validity and reliability of the
interview content, Wimmer and Dominick (2011) mentioned that an audit trail should be
provided to build the credibility of interview data. The audit trail recorded the whole
transcript of the interview to allow external examination of the thought process involved
in the research work as well as to assess the accuracy of the research conclusion.
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However, the reliability of research could not be solely based on an interview, thus,
multiple methods of data collection are recommended by Wimmer and Dominick (2011)
to go along with the use of the interview.
To increase validity, a survey was conducted from the end consumers to study the
factors that influence their patronizing of chain coffee stores and specialty cafes. Hague
et. al. (2016) highlighted that the use of statistics can help to derive the importance of
factors that are rated in customer experience and satisfaction surveys. These derived
factors are important to help a brand win in the businesses as it shows where
improvements will raise the overall customer satisfaction score. There were few steps
taken for a quality questionnaire design. First, the researcher formulated the questions to
meet the research objectives, and ensure no misleading, biased and confusing questions
in the questionnaire. Next, the researcher arranged questions according to the standard
questionnaire layout, to keep the flow logical and make sense to the respondents. Then,
the researcher was conducting piloting to test the draft questionnaire. In the pilot testing,
researcher was looking for feedback in terms of comprehension, languages and phrases
used, ease of answering flows, practicality, and length of the questionnaire.
The questionnaire was reviewed by research supervisor and Frank Ee from Frank
Laurent Coffee Roaster to gather academic and industrial input. The questionnaire was
also distributed for pilot testing and managed to gather 20 responses. The researcher
edited phrases and grammar error as per the feedback from the pilot testing. There were
feedbacks on the length of questionnaires and the logical reasoning behind the questions.
Revision was made based on the feedback with the approval research supervisors as
well. The survey questions were then distributed online to approach anyone who is readily
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to answer. Apart from that, the questionnaires were also posted in some coffee lovers’
closed group to gather more responses. The data collection period was started from 25
October 2021 and closed on 23 November 2021.
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4.0 Data Analysis
In this study, there are two types of research methods used which are qualitative
and quantitative. The qualitative method in this study is the in-depth interview session
with the founder of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters. To present the data collected from
the interview session, organization, analyzing and making sense of all information are
necessary to examine the qualitative research. In this study, the inductive method will be
used in data analysis. According to Wimmer and Dominick (2011), the inductive method
refers to data collected from the interview that will be grouped into suitable categories,
and then a new concept and idea will be derived from different data categories.
In this research, the interview session was transcribed into a script and select data
that can be used in the research and further describe, then followed by fully
conceptualizing the data for easier understanding. During the data display and data
reduction stage, the researcher assigned the data into different categories as this is an
effective style for reporting qualitative findings (Thomas, 2003). Therefore, the data from
the interview session is divided into cafe business challenges, pandemic impact, business
opportunity, business transformation, digitalization and define the category with further
elaboration. Then, elaboration of every category shall be supported by the quotation and
findings from the interview.
Based on the guideline by Braun & Clarke (2016), thematic analysis in qualitative
analysis should be fulfilled through six steps which are transcribe, generate initial codes,
searching for themes, review the theme, define the theme, and produce the report. These
steps have followed in this research. First step was to transcribe the interview recording
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and familiarize with the available data. After that, generating the initial codes from the
date to identify a feature for each and every data. In this research, coding was used to
divide the broad data into different segments of data. It was followed by searching for the
themes and review it. This is to make sense of the data by sorting of different codes into
potential themes and consider how different codes may be able to form a relevant theme.
After devising a list of themes, the list of themes was reviewed and refined to make sure
the data are good fit together within the theme and able to tell the story and answer the
objective of the study. Then, the themes was renamed to be more concise and easier to
make sense from readers’ perspective. Finally, the report will be written based on the set
fully worked-out themes.
While for the survey, data collected will be analyzed using descriptive analysis, T-
test and logistic regression analysis. Descriptive analysis will be used to analyze the first
section of the survey question which is the demographic part. There are questions asking
on the frequency of visiting a café and amount of coffee spending, it will be suitable to
analyze using measure of central tendency such as mean and median (Loeb et. al, 2017).
Central tendency is one of the useful statistical tools for data description and it is simple
and compelling in describing the measure of interest.
Aside, logistic regression was used to predict the factors of consumers choosing
a specialty café, both patronization to a physical store and ordering online. According to
Yeung & Yee (2011), logistic regression can predict the dependent variables from a set
of binary independent variables. To apply in this research, the data that was analyzed
using this technique helps to describe if a set of predictive factors that potentially affects
the respondents’ patronizing to a specialty café and chained coffee store. The accuracy
26
of the predictive factors and the significance of the overall model was tested by using the
statistical software, SPSS.
There are two sets of models, the first dependent variable is the patronization to
cafe with five independent variables: menu options and quality, café interior and
cleanliness, customer service and overall ordering experience, reviews, and media
coverage, and Instagrammable. While in the second model, the dependent variable is the
online ordering from a café with five independent variables: menu options and quality,
overall ordering and delivery experience, convenience of online delivery services, brand
familiarity and online reviews. To test the individual independent variables, the estimated
coefficient of the variables was assessed from the equation table provided by Wald test
in logistic regression run from SPSS. If the independent variable has p value lesser 0.05,
this implies it is highly significance in predicting the dependent variable.
Besides, the dataset was also used to perform t-test that is usually known in
comparing two groups of samples where their means are not dependent on each other.
This t-test helps to illustrate if there is significant difference in the mean scores of the two
groups (Gerald, 2018). Obafami (2019) further explained that it is important to note the
sig. (2-tailed) value is less than 0.5 to support or reject the hypothesis. In this research,
the sig. (2-tailed) value is used to support the significance of the variable and then to
compare the means between 2 groups on sample (gender), to study which variable has
more significance for male and female.
In conclusion, data collected from interview with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters is
served as an indication of the positioning of the roasters in the market which helps to
27
provide a direction in the integrated marketing communication planning. By combining
with the consumers data, it was more able in making sense which factor comes first when
they are selecting a café to patron or to order online. Customer’s preference data and
insights are useful to act as an additional guideline in designing promotional materials
that meet the needs of Frank Laurent Coffee Roaster to refine their cafe offering and
strategies for business sustainability in post COVID-19 pandemic.
28
5.0 Data Presentation
5.1 Demographics
The first section of the survey questions was to collect the respondents’
demographics to obtain the basic information of the consumers’ background and their
spending behaviour towards specialty coffee. There were in total 200 responses collected
within 3 weeks of data collection. Based on the data collected, 70% of the respondents
are female and 87.5% of the respondents are between 20 to 34 years old, accounting for
most of the research population. 53.5% of the respondents are students, thus the income
range for the respondents were skewed to lower range, which is below RM 1000 to RM
2,500. 40.5% of the respondents only drink coffee occasionally and followed by daily
drinker, 34%. There were 19% of the respondents like their coffee to be served in black
and unsweetened, 15.5% of the respondents drink coffee with fresh milk. The rest of them
have different combination of preferences when drinking their coffee.
This study was also aiming to explore the respondents’ patronization pattern to
café and spending behaviour on that. 59% of the respondents indicated that they
patronize a café occasionally while 23% of the respondents chose to visit a café once a
week. Half of the survey respondents would only spend below RM 20 per visit to café
which is about the cost for one beverage. There were 107 respondents, which is about
half of the sample, who preferred specialty café more than a chained coffee store.
Other than the patronization to a coffee store, the survey also studied the
consumers’ preferences of online ordering from a café. Out of 200 respondents, 102 of
them ordered coffee from a café during the pandemic. Among 102 respondents who
29
ordered online before, 47.1% of them only would spend less than RM20 in each online
order. 83 respondents out of 102 preferred to use the external party or platform when
doing the coffee ordering online.
Detailed demographic data is presented as below:
Student Full-time
employed
Part-time
employed
Freelancer Retired Unemployed Self-
employed
53.5% 31.5% 6% 4% 2% 2.5% 0.5%
140 / 70% 57 / 28.5%
Gender
8%
5%
7%
25%
56%
1%
40+
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
Age Range
Occupation
8%
7%
5%
16%
17%
49%
RM 7,001 and above
RM 5,501 - RM 7,000
RM 4,501 - RM 5,500
RM 2,501 - RM 4,000
RM 1,001 - RM 2,500
< RM 1,000
Income Range
Infographic 1 Infographic 2
Infographic 3
Infographic 4
30
Table 3: Coffee preference of 200 respondents
Variables Description Frequency Percentage
Coffee Drinking
Preference
Black, unsweetened
With fresh milk
With sugar
With fresh milk; With sugar
With sugar; With fresh milk
Black, unsweetened; With fresh milk
With plant-based milk (soy/oat/almond milk)
With sugar substitutes (sweetener)
Other combinations
38
31
19
11
10
9
7
6
69
19.0
15.5
9.5
5.5
5.0
4.5
3.5
3.0
34.5
N=200
Daily 3-4 times a
week
Once in a
week
Occasionally
34.0% 17.5% 8% 40.5%
Coffee Drinking Frequency
Infographic 5
31
Table 4: Consumers’ Patronization Pattern to a cafe
Variables Description Frequency Percentage
Frequency of café
patronization
3-4 times a week
Daily
Occasionally
Once a week
18
18
118
46
9.0
9.0
59.0
23.0
Spend Range per
visit to cafe
Below RM 20
RM 20 – RM 40
RM 41 – RM 60
RM 61 – RM 80
RM 81 – RM 100
Above RM 101 but below RM 200
Above RM 200
101
68
20
6
3
1
1
50.5
34.0
10.0
3.0
1.5
0.5
0.5
Preferred Type of
Coffee Store
Chained Coffee Store
Specialty Cafe
93
107
46.5
53.5
Option to Dine-In
in post pandemic
Yes
No
Maybe
99
40
61
49.5
20.0
30.5
N=200
32
Based on the question of “What does specialty mean to you”, respondents tend to
associate coffee with quality, price, and aroma. Only few of the respondents answered
the specialty coffee is uniquely sourced coffee beans with different brewing techniques.
This has indicated that consumers knowledge towards the specialty coffee is rather low,
and education for this such as consumers classes on specialty coffee is strongly needed.
Table 5: Consumers’ Online Ordering from a cafe
Variables Description Frequency Percentage
Coffee ordering
online during
Pandemic
Yes
No
102
98
51.0
49.0
Spend Range per
order online
Below RM 20
RM 20 – RM 40
RM 41 – RM 60
RM 61 – RM 80
RM 81 – RM 100
48
43
9
1
0
24.0
21.5
4.5
0.5
0
Picture 3: Snapshot of main key words from question “What does specialty coffee means to you?”
33
Above RM 101 but below RM 200
Above RM 200
1
0
0.5
0
Preferred Online
Ordering Platform
The Café’s own online order microsite
The Café’s own mobile application
External party/platform (eg: Foodpanda,
Grab Food, AirAsia Food etc)
11
8
83
5.5
4.0
41.5
N=200
5.2 Descriptive Statistics – Dependent Variables
Descriptive analysis was used to measure the mean of the samples. The mean is
served as the indicator for the measure of consumers’ interest and behaviour. The
variables were measured using 5-points Likert scale, from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5
(Strongly Agree). Findings from the analysis showed that the mean value of each variable
is above 3, detailed mean and standard deviation for every construct and variable are
presented at below:
Table 6: Descriptive Statistic for Dependent Variables (Patronization)
Variable Item Overall
Mean
Mean Standard
Deviation
Menu Options and
Quality
i. I visit my preferred café because it
serves coffee with good quality.
4.028
4.23
4.24
0.5376
0.843
0.740
34
ii. I visit my preferred café because it
serves tasty food with consistent
quality.
iii. I visit my preferred café because it
serves coffee and food at an
affordable price.

iv. I visit my preferred café because it
provides bundle deals for food and
coffee.
v. I visit my preferred café because
its menu options are different from
other café.
4.23
3.68
3.76
0.768
0.913
0.915
Café Interior and
Cleanliness
i. I visit my preferred café because it
has a comfortable seating
environment.
ii. I visit my preferred café because it
has an aesthetically pleasing
architecture design.
iii. I visit my preferred café because
the space within the coffee store is
neat and clean.
iv. I visit my preferred café because
the seats are sanitized after every
customer leaves.
4.2425
4.39
4.05
4.37
4.17
0.5445
0.656
0.785
0.635
0.796
35
Customer Service
& Ordering
Experience
i. I visit my preferred café because the
barista is knowledgeable in providing
recommendations to me.
ii. I visit my preferred café because
the service crew attends to my
requests politely.
iii. I visit my preferred café because
my coffee and food are served within
acceptable waiting time.
iv. I visit my preferred café because
the overall ordering experience is
pleasant.
4.1475
3.83
4.24
4.21
4.31
0.5168
0.829
0.659
0.654
0.623
Reviews and
Media Coverage
i. I visit my preferred café because I
receive recommendations from my
friends and families.
ii. I visit my preferred café because I
am convinced by the customers’
reviews on Google.
iii. I visit my preferred café because it
is featured by media and advertorials.
3.6233
3.83
3.55
3.50
0.7710
0.835
0.965
0.962
Instagram-
worthiness
i. I visit my preferred café because the
interior and architecture are worth
paying for a visit.
3.5350
3.54
0.9248
1.084
36
ii. I visit my preferred café because
the coffee and beverages have good
presentation.
iii. I visit my preferred café because
the food and dessert are appealing to
appear on my Instagram feed.
3.75
3.32
0.919
1.155
According to table above, the overall mean for menu options and quality was,
M=4.028, SD= 0.5376. As the midpoint value of the mean is 3, the mean value has
defined that the respondents agreed that menu options and quality is the important factor
that influenced them in café patronization.
While for café interior and cleanliness, the mean value of 4.2425 and SD= 0.5445
has proved that this is an important factor to the respondents when come to patronize a
café. By looking at the individual construct, comfortable seating environment and clean
space have higher mean values which showed that respondents are very much
concerned on these two factors before patronizing to a café.
In terms of customers service and ordering experience, M= 4.1475 and SD=0.5168,
the respondents agreed that this factor will influence their decision to visit a café.
Especially, the waiting time for food to be served is one of the key influences on their
decision. Meaning to say, they would not have good impression to dine-in in a café if it
takes longer time than expected for the food to be served.
According to the data collected, reviews and media coverage has an overall mean
of 3.6233 and SD= 0.7710. Compared to other factors, the reviews and media coverage
are less significance in influencing the respondents to choose a café to visit.
37
Similar to reviews and media coverage, Instagrammable has the overall mean
value of 3.5350 and SD=0.9248. The respondents somewhat agreed that
Instagrammable has significance to the decision in patronizing a café, but it is not as high
as the menu options, café interior and customer service.
Table 7: Descriptive Statistic for Dependent Variables (Online Ordering)
Variable Item Overall
Mean
Mean Standard
Deviation
Menu Options and
Quality

i. I order from a café online because
it serves coffee with good quality.
ii. I order from a café online because
it serves tasty food with consistent
quality.
iii. I order from a café online because
it serves coffee and food at an
affordable price.
iv. I order from a café online because
it provides bundle deals for food and
coffee.
v. I order from a café online because
its menu options are different from
other café.
4.1118
4.25
4.25
4.25
3.98
3.84
0.55048
0.696
0.750
0.776
0.879
0.841
38
Overall Ordering
and Delivery
Experience
i. I order from a café online because
the delivery platform is easy to
navigate.
ii. I order from a café online because
the whole ordering process is
smooth.
iii. I order from a café online because
it has secured payment gateway.
iv. I order from a café online because
my food arrives in good conditions
with secured packaging.
v. I order from a café online because
the delivery speed is within the
expectation.
4.1588
4.14
4.24
4.24
4.16
4.03
0.55031
0.661
0.632
0.706
0.767
0.777
Convenience of
online delivery
service
i. I order from a café online because I
can enjoy my coffee without stepping
out from home.
ii. I order from a café online because
I can enjoy my coffee without
distracting myself from work.
iii. I order from a café online because
I can enjoy the same experience as
dining into a café at home.
iv. I order from a café online because
I can get in touch with the customer
service easily.
3.8529
4.20
4.11
3.57
3.54
0.73656
0.890
0.843
1.165
0.992
39
Brand Familiarity
i. I order from a café online because
it is well-known in the community.
ii. I order from a café online because
I personally know the café.
iii. I order from a café online because
I am satisfied with their past delivery
services.
4.0556
3.90
4.01
4.25
0.6484
0.970
0.928
0.767
e-WOM/Online
Reviews
i. I order from a café online because
of the positive Facebook and Google
Reviews.
ii. I order from a café online because
it is covered by online food articles or
blogs.
iii. I order from a café online because
it has high ratings.
3.5752
3.44
3.51
3.77
0.85745
0.981
0.982
0.994
The above data presented the overall mean value for five variables that influence
the respondents in choosing to order from a café online, including the mean value of
individual construct. Similar to gourmet enjoyment, menu options and quality online has
overall mean value of 4.1118 and SD=0.55048 which illustrated that the respondents
agree this factor will make them to consider from the café online.
40
Next, the overall ordering and delivery experience has the overall mean value of
4.1588 and SD=0.55031. The respondents agreed that they are concerned on the smooth
ordering experience with secured payment gateway when ordering from a café online.
While for convenience of online ordering service, the overall mean value is 3.8529
and SD= 0.73656. Based on the mean value, respondents somewhat agreed that
ordering from a café online is due to conveniency, but it’s not as high influence as other
factors.
As for brand familiarity, it has the overall mean value of 4.0556 and SD=0.6484.
This has shown that the respondents would only order from a café online if they have
certain degree of association to the café, especially their past delivery experience is very
important in influencing their decision.
When comes to online ordering, respondents have less concern on the online
reviews about a café. The data collected has shown that the e-WOM/Online Review has
overall mean value of 3.5752 and SD=0.85745, this indicate that the respondents slightly
agreed the significance of reviews in making them to consider ordering from a particular
café, but the influence is not as high as other factors such as menu options and overall
ordering experience.
5.3 Logistic Regression Analysis
In this section, logistic regression was used to predict the factors of consumers
choosing a specialty café or a chained coffee store. To predict the factors that the
respondent will consider when choosing to visit a specialty cafe, the dependent variable
was encoded as 0= chained coffee store, and 1= specialty café. Below table summarizes
41
the p-value of independent variables towards the respondents’ choice of specialty café
that was assessed by Wald test.
Table 8: Logistic Regression (Patronization to a specialty café)
B S.E Wald df Sig. Exp(B)
Menu options and
Quality
0.981 0.357 7.541 1 0.006 2.668
Café Interior and
Cleanliness
-0.678 0.366 3.429 1 0.064 0.508
Customer Service
and Ordering
Experience
-0.400 0.377 1.127 1 0.288 0.670
Reviews and Media
Coverage
0.036 0.236 0.023 1 0.878 1.037
Instagrammable
-0.134 0.198 0.461 1 0.497 0.874
Constant 1.079 1.423 0.575 1 0.448 2.942
To predict the factors that the respondent will consider when choosing to order
online from a specialty cafe, the dependent variable was encoded as 0= chained coffee
store, and 1= specialty café. Below table summarizes the p-value of independent
variables towards the respondents’ choice of specialty café that was assessed by Wald
test.
Table 9: Logistic Regression (Online ordering from a specialty café)
B S.E Wald df Sig. Exp(B)
Menu options and
Quality
0.635 0.523 1.471 1 0.225 1.887
42
Overall Ordering and
Delivery Experience
-0.558 0.525 1.128 1 0.288 0.573
Convenience of
online ordering
services
-0.371 0.325 1.307 1 0.253 0.690
Brand Familiarity 0.02 0.409 0.000 1 0.996 1.002
EWOM/Reviews
-0.253 0.283 0.798 1 0.372 0.777
Constant 2.242 1.882 1.419 1 0.234 9.415
Based on the table 8 and 9, the p-value for online menu options during
patronization (dine-in) to a specialty cafe has less than 0.05, which is 0.005. This has
indicated that the factor is highly significance in influencing their patronization decision to
a specialty café. The menu options include the individual constructs of good quality of
coffee and food, and with affordable pricing. However, there is no significance factor
influencing their decision when they order online from a specialty café.
To predict the factors that the respondent will consider when choosing to visit a
chained coffee store, the dependent variable is encoded as 0= specialty cafe, and 1=
chained coffee store. Below table summarizes the p-value of independent variables
towards the respondents’ choice of specialty café that was assessed by Wald test.
Table 10: Logistic Regression (Patronization to a chained coffee store)
B S.E Wald df Sig. Exp(B)
Menu options and
Quality
0.981 0.357 7.541 1 0.006 0.375
43
Café Interior and
Cleanliness
-0.678 0.366 3.429 1 0.064 1.970
Customer Service
and Ordering
Experience
-0.400 0.377 1.127 1 0.288 1.492
Reviews and Media
Coverage
0.036 0.236 0.023 1 0.878 0.965
Instagrammable
-0.134 0.198 0.461 1 0.497 1.144
Constant 1.079 1.423 0.575 1 0.448 0.340
To predict the factors that the respondent will consider when choosing to order
online from a chained coffee store, the dependent variable is encoded as 0= specialty
cafe, and 1= chained coffee store. Below table summarizes the p-value of independent
variables towards the respondents’ choice of specialty café that was assessed by Wald
test.
Table 11: Logistic Regression (Online ordering from a chained coffee store)
B S.E Wald df Sig. Exp(B)
Menu options and
Quality
-0.635 0.523 1.471 1 0.225 0.530
Overall Ordering and
Delivery Experience
0.558 0.525 1.128 1 0.288 1.747
Convenience of
online ordering
services
0.371 0.325 1.307 1 0.253 1.450
Brand Familiarity -0.02 0.409 0.000 1 0.996 0.998
EWOM/Revie 0.253 0.283 0.798 1 0.372 1.288
Constant -2.242 1.882 1.419 1 0.234 0.106
44
Similar to specialty café, respondents agreed that menu options and quality is
highly significance in influencing their decision to choose dining in in a chained coffee
store as suggested from the p-value of 0.006. The menu options included the individual
constructs of good quality of coffee and food, and with affordable pricing. However, there
is no significance factor influencing their decision when they order online from a chained
coffee store.
5.4 T-test Analysis
T-test that is performed to compare female and male respondents, to study which
factors that the two samples value the most when they visit a café and order online from
a café. where their means are not dependent on each other. The test results that
compared the factors in influencing the male and female to visit a specialty café with p-
value are presented in the table below, followed by mean statistics:
Picture 4: Independent sample test – Patronization to a specialty café
45
Table 12: T-test Group Statistics (Patronization to a specialty cafe)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Menu options and Quality Female
Male
4.1267
4.0587
0.51053
0.47508
0.09321
0.05486
Café Interior and
Cleanliness
Female
Male
4.0083
4.2467
0.58532
0.51742
0.10686
0.05975
Customer Service and
Ordering Experience
Female
Male
4.0500
4.1267
0.51445
0.51065
0.09392
0.05897
Reviews and Media
Coverage
Female
Male
3.6333
3.6267
0.74458
0.72485
0.13594
0.08370
Instagrammable

Female
Male
3.4667
3.5467
0.99655
0.91966
0.18194
0.10619
The test results that compare the factors in influencing the male and female to
order online from a specialty café with p-value are presented in the table below, followed
by mean statistics:
Picture 5: Independent sample test – Online Ordering from a specialty café
46
Table 13: T-test Group Statistics (Online ordering from a specialty cafe)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Menu options and Quality Female
Male
4.1818
4.0955
0.32808
0.49835
0.09892
0.07513
Online order and Delivery
Experience
Female
Male
4.1818
4.0818
0.43317
0.52530
0.13061
0.07919
Convenience of Online
Ordering Service
Female
Male
3.7500
3.7784
0.82916
0.64523
0.25000
0.09727
Brand Familiarity Female
Male
4.0606
3.9848
0.41682
0.70051
0.12568
0.10561
E-WOM/Online Reviews
Female
Male
3.6970
3.4318
0.52609
0.88507
0.15862
0.13343
Based on the data presented in table 12 and 13, café interior and cleanliness have
a significance level of 0.043 that signifies that the factor is significance in influencing the
patronization to the specialty café between male and female. As from the group statistic
table, it is shown that Female has the mean value 4.2467 that illustrated that female
agreed that café interior and cleanliness is an important factor when they choose a
specialty café to visit.
The test results that compared the factors in influencing the male and female to
visit a chained coffee store with p-value are presented in the table below, followed by
mean statistics:
47
Table 14: T-test Group Statistics (Patronization to a chained coffee store)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Menu options and Quality Female
Male
3.7333
4.0769
0.63002
0.54737
0.12125
0.06789
Café Interior and
Cleanliness
Female
Male
4.1667
4.3885
0.56755
0.51545
0.10923
0.06393
Customer Service and
Ordering Experience
Female
Male
4.0833
4.2577
0.55902
0.49994
0.10758
0.06201
Reviews and Media
Coverage
Female
Male
3.2963
3.7744
1.03086
0.68493
0.19839
0.08495
Instagrammable
Female
Male
3.1975
3.7436
0.97516
0.80314
0.18767
0.09962
Picture 6: Independent sample test – Patronization to a chained coffee store
48
The test results that compared the factors in influencing the male and female to
order online from a chained coffee store with p-value are presented in the table below,
followed by mean statistics:
Table 15: T-test Group Statistics (Online ordering from a chained coffee store)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Menu options and Quality Female
Male
4.1455
4.1294
0.62026
0.65852
0.18702
0.11294
Online order and Delivery
Experience
Female
Male
4.3091
4.2118
0.71198
0.57195
0.21467
0.09809
Convenience of Online
Ordering Service
Female
Male
4.3409
3.8824
0.64491
0.79591
0.19445
0.13650
Picture 7: Independent sample test – Online ordering from a chained coffee store
49
Brand Familiarity Female
Male
4.1515
4.1373
0.54495
0.69203
0.16431
0.11868
E-WOM/Online Reviews
Female
Male
3.4848
3.7745
1.10919
0.81946
0.33443
0.14054
Based on the data presented in table 14 and 15, menu options, reviews and
Instagrammable have a significance level of 0.10, 0.11 and 0.007 that signifies that these
three factors are significance in influencing the patronization to a chained coffee store
between male and female. As from the group statistic table, it is shown that Female has
higher mean value in these three factors, Menu options and quality (4.0769), Reviews
and Media Coverage (3.7744) and Instagrammable (3.7436). These illustrated that
female values the menu options and quality, reviews and Instagrammable of a chained
coffee store more than males.
50
5.4.1 T-test Statistic – Comparing individual item of each variable
Besides, T-test was performed to compare each item of the variable between specialty
café visitors versus chained coffee store visitors. Highlight of the data is presented as
below:
Table 16: T-test Group Statistics (Menu Options and Quality between Specialty Café and
Chained Coffee Store)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Good Quality of Coffee Chained
Specialty
4.08
4.36
1.003
0.650
0.104
0.063
Tasty food with consistent
Quality
Chained
Specialty
4.19
4.29
0.726
0.752
0.075
0.073
Coffee and Food at
affordable price
Chained
Specialty
4.22
4.24
0.806
0.738
0.084
0.071
Bundle Deals for Food and
Coffee
Chained
Specialty
3.68
3.67
0.923
0.909
0.096
0.088
Picture 8: Independent sample test – Menu options and quality
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Different menu options from
other cafe
Chained
Specialty
3.69
3.82
0.989
0.845
0.103
0.082
Table 17: T-test Group Statistics (Café Interior and Cleanliness between Specialty Café and
Chained Coffee Store)
Table 17: T-test Group Statistics (Café Interior and Cleanliness between Specialty Café and
Chained Coffee Store)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Comfortable Seating
Environment
Chained
Specialty
4.43
4.36
0.632
0.676
0.066
0.065
Aesthetically Pleasing
Architecture Design
Chained
Specialty
4.19
3.92
0.770
0.779
0.080
0.075
Neat and Clean space
Chained
Specialty
4.40
4.34
0.628
0.643
0.065
0.062
Seats are sanitized
regularly
Chained
Specialty
4.24
4.11
0.839
0.756
0.087
0.073
Picture 9: Independent sample test – Café Interior and Cleanliness
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Table 18: T-test Group Statistics (Instagrammable between Specialty Café and Chained
Coffee Store)
Mean Std.Deviation Std. Error
Mean
Great Interior and
Architecture
Chained
Specialty
3.54
3.54
1.119
1.058
0.116
0.102
Good Presentation for Food Chained
Specialty
3.91
3.60
0.855
0.950
0.089
0.092
Appealing on Instagram
Feed
Chained
Specialty
3.29
3.35
1.119
1.190
0.116
0.115
Based on the findings above, menu options and quality, café interior and
cleanliness are significance for a consumer to choose between a specialty café and
chained coffee store. compared to chained coffee store, specialty café has higher mean
value in quality coffee which indicated that consumers may choose a specialty café if it
serves good quality of coffee. While for chained coffee stores, consumers value the great
architecture and food presentation on Instagram.
Picture 10: Independent sample test – Instagrammable
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5.5 Descriptive Statistic – Consumers’ Expectations to a Café Businesses
In the post-pandemic era, respondents very much concerned on the hygiene and
cleanliness of a café. Therefore, respondents agreed they are expecting cafes to practice
sanitization regular (M=4.52, SD= 0.634) to maintain the hygiene. Other than that,
discounts and rebate has mean value of 4.38 and SD=0.727 indicated that respondents’
expectations towards café businesses for more rewards to the customers. Third highest
expectation is menu quality maintain with no price adjustment, with mean value of 4.18
and SD=0.831 illustrated that respondents agreed café businesses should continue
remain selling price as well as the food or coffee quality.
Table 19: Descriptive Statistics (Expectations)
Mean Std.Deviation
Provides coffee and food delivery
3.93 0.905
Provides coffee set meals for breakfast, lunch,
or dinner
3.93 0.802
Provides healthy options menu such as poke
bowls, plant-based, kombucha etc
3.74 0.990
Offers discounts and rebate for orders
4.38 0.727
Maintain coffee and food quality with no price
adjustments
4.18 0.831
Practice hygiene and cleanliness by sanitizing
routinely
4.52 0.634
Expand the business to retail and e-commerce
3.86 0.825

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6.0 Discussion
This section will discuss the findings and data collected from both interview and
survey to address the research objectives.
6.1 Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the specialty café business in Malaysia
According to Frank Ee, it is noticeable that consumers have changed their
spending behaviour in the post pandemic period. Back to the time when COVID-19 was
yet to hit the country, consumers were willing to spend more in a café, such as a cup of
coffee plus a piece of cake for one pax. However, he observed that consumers are looking
for more affordable deals after COVID-19 time, as economic are slowing down. This has
caused consumers would just spend for a cup of coffee per one-time purchase or visit to
a café. This is very much tally with the feedbacks from the customers. Based on the
results collected, half of the respondents spends below RM20 per visit to the café, which
is somehow equal to the price of a cup of coffee in café. In the expectations part from the
questionnaire, consumers agreed that café businesses should provide more deals to
them, and businesses are aware of it, just like what Frank Ee has noticed from the
consumers’ behaviour.
6.2 The challenges and opportunities for the specialty cafe business landscape during
the COVID-19 pandemic
From the conversation with Frank Ee, businesses faced challenges due to the
pandemic especially specialty café that actually run with low cash-flows. According to him,
running a café during pandemic was ten times tougher than pe-pandemic time. There
was a downturn of customers as the café was heavily depended on dine-in back then.
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Although the sales slowly recovered, but the specialty café faces another threat –
mushrooming of new cafes in the industry.
The entry of opening a café is considered low which caused there are a lot of
players joined the battleground when COVID-19 hit the nation. Due to this, the existing
café businesses including Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters were affected when the
consumers were spending their quota on the newly opened cafes than those existing one.
However, Frank Ee sees the consumers trend for a new café is like a curve, the crowd
will slowly go down and back to normal when it reaches the peak. Therefore, he has his
own views on how to turn the pandemic into opportunities.
From his point-of-view, cafe owners should start doing new invention that is
beyond the existing menu. As the sales are coming from delivery and takeaway after the
pandemic, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters started to put more focus in catering the
takeaway and delivery community. They have developed menus and products that are
meant for quick serving and on-the-go to maximize the “home café experience”, rather
than just presentable food and coffee which are mainly designed for dine-in.
Other than menu crafting, Frank Ee agreed that the coffee market demand is still
low. Rather than keep pushing promotion and fighting for sales from the competitors, he
suggested that it’s better to grow the coffee market and educate more consumers to drink
coffee. In this way, only the over-supply of coffee (cafés) can meet the market demand.
Based on the data collected, respondents do not really understand what specialty coffee
is. Therefore, Frank Laurent does see the importance of incorporating coffee workshops
in the business models, to educate the consumers the knowledge behind a good cup of
coffee.
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6.3 The factors that will influence a consumer in patronizing a café
Noticing the trend of café is skewed to Instagram-worthy architecture and design,
Frank Ee explained that it is an important factor to attract customers when a café is new
to market, because interior design is easier to craft compared to menu and service quality.
However, he added that there are other factors that significance to make the customers
come back, such as menu, service quality and environment.
However, he sees that chained coffee store does have some attraction points to
gain the consumes base. For chained coffee store namely Starbucks Coffee and The
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, there is quality control system and the ability to build their
presence across locations that actually retain the loyalty of the consumers. In Frank Ee’s
opinion, consumers may go for specialty café when they would like to have something
different or new, while chained coffee store is more suitable for those who are looking for
space and internet connection for work.
In contrast with the view of Frank Ee, respondents from the survey agreed that
menu option, food and coffee quality are the most important factor among the rest when
they choose a café. While café interior and the cleanliness are more significant to female
customers as well as the Instagram-worthiness.
When comparing the overall mean value, customers service and overall ordering
experience are significance for the respondents. According to this statement, Frank Ee
agreed to this, and he added that the employees or baristas should have been trained
well before they can communicate with customers, especially they are slowly moving into
digital, employees’ assistance for customers experience are very much concerned.
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As suggested by T-test findings, quality of coffee has higher significance for
consumers to choose a specialty café over the chained coffee store. However, they will
choose a chained coffee store over specialty café for the architecture design as well as
pleasant food presentation. This has served as a guideline for specialty café to focus on
the details that can help in winning customers, presentation is as significance as the
quality.
6.4 Digitalization for business sustainability of specialty cafe
Regarding digitalization, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters has moved into its own e-
commerce retail and mobile application development, aside from the usual content
marketing on social media and engagement with third party delivery. According to Frank
Ee, the idea behind the technology adaptation in Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters was to
promote the practice of cashless payment and community engagement.
The roasters see some leaders in the industry as role model, inventing mobile
applications to turn customers into the users of mobile application to enjoy some exclusive
deals and rebates. Besides, mobile application that comes with push notifications helps
to keep the coffee community with latest updates and promotions. As of the time of
interview, the mobile application of Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters has accumulated
nearly 10,000 users. This technology adaptation aims for community growth and
engagement.
Although Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters does ride on the partnership with Grab
Food and Food Panda, but the results are not really well. According to Frank Ee, he
assumed that customers are less willingly to pay for high delivery surcharge. However,
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the respondents from the survey preferred third party delivery services than café’s own
delivery service.
Aside from this, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters’ move in digitalization includes
content marketing on social media. The content is less sales-oriented, but more to the
tone of casual and lifestyle content to share with the audiences of what is happening in
Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters. Frank Ee added that they run Facebook advertisement
periodically when there is a new product launching, but limited the geographical targeting
to only Northern region, where most of the outlets located.
7.0 Conclusion and Practical Implication
In conclusion, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted businesses especially specialty
café that is very niche in the market find it very hard to sustain. The struggle is even more
when consumers are more conservative in their coffee spending although they do drink
coffee quite frequent.
Specialty café owners like Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters are adapting technology
and stepped into innovation for creative menu options to ensure they can serve the
customers quick and create café experience at home. This has also become the great
concern to customers when they choose a café to patronize. In order to target female
consumers, café businesses may put some effort on café interior for Instagram feed
feature. The female consumers do appreciate good ratings and reviews online, café
owners can take this as indicators to ensure the service delivery has gained some good
feedback online. Customers recommended that café could offer more promotion as
appreciation, but menu quality can’t be neglected.
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Some practical implication for marketing strategies that Frank Laurent Coffee
Roasters can consider:
• Highlight the menu options and the quality: This factor is significance for most of
the respondents regardless their choice to specialty café or chained coffee store.
Therefore, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters can include the uniqueness of menu
options in the marketing strategy. This is also a good opportunity to educate the
consumers about specialty coffee.
• Partnership with external parties for win-win situation: Although Frank Laurent
Coffee Roasters have less ideal performance on the external delivery platforms,
but it is crucial to include them as part of the marketing strategy. There is creative
execution with the vendors to maximize the brand’s presence on the platform as
this is great in attracting new customers before turning them into loyal customers.
• Extend the brand visibility to nationwide: According to the recent interview session
with Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, they are planning to open new stores in other
states apart from Penang and Kedah. They can start the planning by extend the
advertisement targeting to nationwide to create the brand familiarity. Following the
opening of state borders and inter-state travel, Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters
should also extend the brand visibility and create a presence on search. This will
increase consumers’ familiarity toward the roasters when they search “Best Café
in Penang” and include Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters into their itinerary.
• Other than in-store education like coffee workshop have already done by Frank
Laurent Coffee Roasters, it is crucial for them to include education part in the
marketing communication. It can be through social media, such as conducting poll,
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Q&A session to test consumers’ knowledge, and designing materials for education
on social media such as infographic and videos. Consumers may appreciate more
on specialty coffee if have deeper understanding towards and may increase their
spending on that.
61
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9.0 Appendix
Appendix 1
Interview Questions with Frank Ee from Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters
1. How do consumers’ spending pattern change on café after Covid-19?
2. What do you think that strike the changes on the spending pattern?
3. Do you think consumers would prefer independent coffee or coffee-chain store?
4. If independent café, what do you think they like about?
5. Did Covid-19 affect independent café business? If yes, please elaborate more.
6. What are the challenges for independent café business in Malaysia (before and
after Covid-19)?
7. Pandemic was brought in more café business opening. What is your thought on
this?
8. How does independent café business find opportunity amidst of pandemic?
9. How Frank Laurent Coffee Roaster adapt digital/technology in the business to
sustain in Covid-19?
10. Please explain the role of social media in your business and how it helps to build
your brand presence.
11. What are the challenges in adapting technology for independent café business?
12. Other that venturing into digital, what have Frank Laurent done in adjusting the
business model in post-pandemic?
13. Compared to chained coffee-store, what strategy should independent coffee store
have for long term sustainability?
66
Appendix 2
Survey Questions
Influencing Factors on Consumers' Patronization to Specialty Cafe and Coffee
Spending
Part A - Acknowledgement & Consent
I am a postgraduate student in Integrated Marketing Communication Master Program
from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). In this survey, I would like to study consumers’
spending behaviour in coffee, the factors that influencing consumers’ patronization to a
café as well as the online coffee ordering behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This survey has 4 main sections which will take around 5-10 minutes to answer all the
questions. Your contribution is significance to facilitate the local specialty cafes & SME
businesses in enhancing their business strategies during this difficult time. Thank you!
Should you have any question or require any additional information, kindly reach out
below:
Ooi Zi Shan
School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Master of Communication (Integrated Marketing Communication)
zishanooi@student.usm.my
Supervised by,
Associate Professor, Dr. Shuhaida Md Noor
School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia
shuhaida@usm.my
My participation in the study is voluntary and I am completely free to refuse to
participate or to withdraw from this study at any time.
() I understand
Part B - Demographic
67
1. Please select the gender that identifies you as the closest.
() Male
() Female
() Prefer Not to Say
2. Please select your age range.
() 15-19
() 20-24
() 25-29
() 30-34
() 35-39
() 40+
3. Please select one from the following that describe you as the closest.
() Full-time employed
() Part-time employed
() Unemployed
() Retired
() Freelancer
() Caregiver (e.g., children, elderly)
() Homemaker
() Student
() Other: ________
4. Please select the income range that describes you as the closest.
() Below RM 1,000
() RM 1,001 - RM 2,500
() RM 2,501 - RM 4,000
() RM 4,001 - RM 5,500
() RM 5,501 - RM 7,000
() RM 7,001 and above
5. Which of the following describes the best of your coffee intake?
() Daily
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() 3-4 times a week
() Once a week
() Occasionally
6. How do you drink your coffee?
() Black, unsweetened
() With sugar
() With sugar substitutes(sweetener)
() With fresh milk
() With plant-based milk (soy milk, oat milk, almond milk etc)
() With cream
() Other: ____
7. Which of the following describes the best of your patronization to a
coffee store?
() Daily
() 3-4 times a week
() Once a week
() Occasionally
8. Please select the range that closest defines your spending as per one
time visit or dining in a coffee store.
() Below RM 20
() RM 20 - RM 40
() RM 41 - RM 60
() RM 61 - RM 80
() RM 81 - RM 100
() Above RM 101 but below RM 200
() Above RM 200
9. Which of the following types of coffee stores do you prefer?
() Specialty Cafe (Usually a micro cafe business that run in a community that
serve specialty coffee)
() Chained Coffee Store (Usually a labelled coffee store that operates within
69
retail establishment, and its name is established
internationally with a certain degree of market share)
10. In your opinion, what is specialty coffee means to you?
________________
11. Are you comfortable to do dine-in in a coffee store in the post-pandemic?
() Yes
() No
Part C - Patronization to your preferred cafe
12. Kindly rank the following factors from most important (1) to least
important (8) when you decide to patronize a coffee store.
() Menu Options and Quality
() Café Interior and Cleanliness
() Customer Service and Overall Ordering Experience
() Reviews and Media Coverage
() Instagrammable
13. Menu Options and Quality
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves coffee with good
quality.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves tasty food with
consistent quality.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves coffee at an
affordable price.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves a value combination
of food and coffee.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
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(e) I visit my preferred coffee store because it has the menu options which
are different from other coffee stores.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
14. Café Interior and Cleanliness
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because it provides a comfortable
seating environment.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because it has a pleasing architecture
design.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because the space within the coffee
store is neat and clean.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) I visit my preferred coffee store because the seats are sanitized after
every customer leaves.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
15. Customers Services & Ordering Experience
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because the barista is knowledgeable
which helps to provide recommendations to me.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because the service crew attends to
my requests politely.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because my coffee and food are served
within acceptable waiting time.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) I visit my preferred coffee store because overall ordering experience is
pleasant.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
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16. Reviews and Media Coverage
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because I receive recommendations
from my friends and families.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because I am convinced by the
customers’ reviews on Google.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because it receives coverage in the
media and advertorials.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
17. Instagram-worthiness
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because the interior and architecture
are worth paying for a visit.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because the coffee and beverages are
presentable on my Instagram feed.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because the food and dessert are
appealing to appear on my Instagram feed.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
Part D – Online Delivery from A Cafe
18. Do you order in coffee beverages via online during pandemic?
() Yes
() No
19. Please select the range that closest defines your spending as per one-
time ordering coffee via online.
() Below RM 20
() RM 20 - RM 40
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() RM 41 - RM 60
() RM 61 - RM 80
() RM 81 - RM 100
() Above RM 101 but below RM 200
() Above RM 200
20. Where do you prefer to order online from your preferred coffee stores?
() The Coffee Store’s own online order microsite
() The Coffee Store’s own mobile application
() External party/platform (eg: Foodpanda, Grab Food, AirAsia Food etc)
21. Kindly rank the following factors from most important (1) to least
important (8) when you decide to order from a coffee store via online.
() Menu Options and Quality
() Overall Ordering and Delivery Experience
() Convenience of online delivery service
() Brand Familiarity
() e-WOM/Online Reviews
22. Menu options and Quality
(a) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves coffee with good
quality.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves tasty food with
consistent quality.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves coffee at an
affordable price.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) I visit my preferred coffee store because it serves a value combination
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of food and coffee.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(e) I visit my preferred coffee store because it has the menu options which
are different from other coffee stores.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
23. Overall Ordering and Delivery Experience
(a) I choose to order from a coffee store online because the delivery
platform is easy to navigate.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I choose to order from a coffee store because the whole ordering
process is smooth.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I choose to order from a coffee store because it has secured payment
gateway.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) I choose to order from a coffee store online because my food arrives
with secured packaging.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(e) I choose to order from a coffee store because the delivery speed is
within the expectation.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
24. Convenience of online delivery services
(a) I choose to order from a coffee store online because I can enjoy my
coffee without stepping out from home.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I choose to order from a coffee store online because I can enjoy my
coffee without distracting myself from work.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I choose to order from a coffee store online because I can enjoy the
same experiences as dining into a café at home.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
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(d) I order from a café online because I can get in touch with the customer
service easily.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
25. Brand Familiarity
(a) I choose to order from a coffee store online because it is well-known in
the community.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I choose to order from a coffee store online because I personally know
the coffee store.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I choose to order from a coffee store because I am satisfied with their
past delivery services.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
26. e-WOM/Online Reviews
(a) I choose to order from a coffee store online because of the positive
Facebook and Google reviews.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) I choose to order from a coffee store online because it is covered by
online food articles or blogs.
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) I choose to order from a coffee store because it has high ratings
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
Part E – Expectations
27. What do you expect from your preferred coffee store in the post COVID-
19 pandemic?
(a) Provides coffee and food delivery
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(b) Provides coffee set meals for breakfast, lunch, or dinner
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(c) Provides healthy options menu such as poke bowls, plant-based,
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kombucha etc
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(d) Offers more discounts and rebate for orders
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(e) Maintain coffee and food quality with no price adjustments
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(f) Practice hygiene and cleanliness by sanitizing routinely
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
(g) Expand the business to retail and e-commerce
() Strongly Disagree () Disagree () Neutral () Agree () Strongly Agree
28. What are the suggestions you have for your preferred coffee store in
terms of offering and strategies?
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