More Than Just a Cup of Joe: Neuromarketing Tips to Boost Customer Experience

Introduction

Today, more and more retail companies are recognizing the need to create the ultimate customer experience in-store. Neuromarketing research has made considerable ground in investigating how customers behave and make purchase decisions based on their experiences. Notwithstanding biases from cultural factors, physiological states, and spending power, results from neuromarketing consumer research have given indications of what elements are likely to stimulate positive thoughts and behavior among consumers. Coffee shops all over the world are some of those that have gained from such studies.

The business of coffee is a multi-billion dollar industry all around the world. Both international brands and local brands have thrived in their own spaces and communities. Experts agree that it’s more than just the beans and the brews that bring in customers and grow loyal patronage. It’s a combination of different factors including the store atmosphere, employee service, drink quality, pricing, and past experiences that delight customers and keep them coming for more. 

The Sensory Coffee Experience

The aroma of freshly roasted beans carefully brewed into a wonderful drink that gets you all pumped up and energized. The welcoming pipe-in music that hits just the right notes. The friendly low-key banter all around that makes you comfortable and gives you a sense of community. The beaming smiles from the service crew that tell you that it’s going to be a nice day. All of these elements meld together into that holistic customer experience that coffee shop customers want to come back to over and over again.

Neurophysiological measures from research studies can help coffee shops identify specific parts of the customer experience to focus on so that they can create unique coffee experiences for their own customer base. Although there might be similarities in the kind of experiences that customers are looking for when they visit coffee shops, it’s important to find that ‘formula’ that would differentiate your own coffee shop business and make you stand out among your competitors. It’s that unique sensory coffee experience that will make your customers choose to go to you because only you can make them feel that way when they get their coffee fix.

The Business of Coffee

The coffee industry all over the world generates about $400 billion in revenue, with the US market accounting for about $80 billion in 2023. As far as market size goes, the industry is valued at over $200 billion and is projected to grow to nearly $300 billion in the next 7 years. More and more coffee shops are opening up mostly in the metropolitan areas in North America and in the Asia-Pacific regions.

Source: https://www.maximizemarketresearch.com/market-report/global-coffee-shop-market/113030/

Even if coffee sales dipped by nearly 4% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revenues are now picking up and growing steadily, especially with new innovations in coffee preparations and store offerings. But even so, more than half of independent coffee shops are projected to close within five years of starting their operations. Statistics show that for a huge chunk of these closures, the reason for closing shop doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of their coffee. In a 2019 study, the top three reasons given for closing are ownership issues, inadequate brand experience, and poor location. Not far behind are responses on competition, lack of capital, and bad customer service.

This underscores the need for coffee shop start-ups to put more work into quickly building their brand by making sure that they offer coffee experiences that not only attract but also delight customers trying them out for the first time. Using neuromarketing techniques in consistently providing these experiences and surprising customers with “wow” moments will boost their brand, get word of mouth going, and generate in-store traffic and sales—keeping their business afloat and thriving for the long haul.

Coffee Brands That Delight

The most popular international brands are known for the consistency of their branding, product offerings, and store atmosphere in their different locations. They have the advantage of already having an established image and brand equity. Everyone recognizes Starbucks’s green logo and Dunkin’s hot pink and orange palette. The sight, smell, and sounds of their interiors likewise conform to their brand identity.

Anywhere in the world where you walk into a Starbucks store, you see the same interiors and organic-looking art. You hear the same relaxing, often alternative music. You get a good whiff of that warm coffee aroma. And you can lounge about in comfortable seats and casual couches. Psychologists believe that customers are drawn to this coffee shop because of the experience of pleasure and comfort that they get. Even if blind test studies reveal that coffee drinkers actually prefer Dunkin’ over Starbucks, customers still patronize Starbucks because of the coffee experience and not the coffee itself.

Brands with positive associations from customer experiences tend to be preferred by consumers. A coffee shop study in 2024 that made use of a combination of mystery shopping and Brand Association Reaction Time Test (BARTT) methodologies showed that the entirety of the customer experience—including service quality, employee attitude, and store atmosphere, among others—influences consumption and patronage. Delightful coffee experiences create positive associations, encourage engagement, increase visit duration, and promote loyalty. These are elements that even coffee shop start-ups can work on and build their businesses with.

Brewing the Best Experiences

Taking a cue from neuromarketing studies, here are some quick tips on how marketers can brew in-store customer experiences that form lasting impressions and build enduring relationships:

1. Know your customers. This is a basic marketing principle. You have to know who you want to serve your coffee to. Taking it further, you have to know the customers who walk into your doors. Greet them with a smile. Remember their names and their order from a previous visit. Make them feel welcome and at home. Make the customer experience personal.
2. Work on your ambiance. Again, this is a combination of elements to delight the senses. It’s a holistic feel that you want to achieve with your lighting, music, and seating, among others. In any retail store, people linger and tend to purchase more when they feel happy and comfortable. Create an ambiance that makes them want to stay or visit more frequently.
3. Surprise your customers every once in a while. Psychological studies mark surprise as a strong human emotion. When people are pleasantly surprised, they tend to magnify the positive perception in a manner that makes people want to share the experience with others. Some of these delightful surprises include freebies, personalized notes when the staff notices that the customer needs more than just caffeine for a perk-me-up, and a special sampling of a new drink.
4. Pay attention to what your customers want. Not all customers will tell you what they like or dislike about the experience—but they will definitely tell others. Make sure that the stories they tell about your brand are nothing less than praises.

Putting Your Customer at the Center of Your Marketing Efforts

Neuromarketing goes beyond the 5Ps of marketing and focuses on the most important person for your business—your customer. Your product, pricing, promotion, place, and people should all come together to create the ultimate customer experience. Put in the effort to get to know your customers more and find out what kind of experience they’re looking for when they visit you, consume your products, and interact with you.

Key Takeaways:

• Build a positive brand perception by delighting and surprising your customers every time they come for a visit. Create an atmosphere of familiarity. Make every visit feel like a reward for your customers.
• Be attentive to feedback (both verbal and non-verbal) from your customers. Catch negative reactions right away and work on a quick recovery.
• Use pricing and promotions that match your customers’ purchase behavior and capacity. The best pricing, however, doesn’t mean charging rock bottom for your coffee. The real value that customers attach to your products goes beyond their intrinsic value. People are likely to enjoy something if they perceive it to be better.