Thais and Koreans attitudes and consumer behavior towards premium coffee

The objective of this study is to understand about the relationship between the consumer and the brand image of Starbucks Coffee. The author chose to study "Starbucks" because of the "Starbucks" is an American coffee shop, which is worldwide well-known. Starbucks offers the unique with distinctive patterns decorating, the coffee flavors, and impressive service. Drinking coffee in Thailand and Korea originally had a culture of elites before. Later it was spread to the middle classes and to the ordinaries. The coffee shop happens a lot in that time until the happening of another coffee culture came to Thailand and Korea rapidly. Such as shop “Starbucks” were selected as case studies with qualitative analysis methods, using the questionnaire by in-depth interviews as samples which are 40 people in Thailand divided 20 for Thai respondents and 20 for Korean respondents. The results showed that both Thailand and Korea, most of respondents have the main purpose of buying coffee from to refresh the body and drowsiness during work or study until the coffee becomes part of everyday life. While drinking coffee at the store, there are other activities such as reading or internet chatting through mobile phones. Modern and tasteful definition is that the respondents said when asked what Starbucks indicates the identity of the consumer.本研究旨在探究消费者与星巴克（Starbucks）咖啡品牌形象之间的内在关联。作者选择以星巴克为研究对象，缘由在于其作为美国连锁咖啡品牌，在全球范围内享有广泛知名度。星巴克凭借独具特色的门店装潢风格、多元且富有辨识度的咖啡风味，以及令人印象深刻的服务体验，打造出专属的品牌体验。此前，泰国与韩国的咖啡饮用文化最初仅为精英阶层所专属，随后逐步传播至中产阶层乃至普通大众。在此背景下，咖啡店业态迎来快速发展阶段，直至另一种咖啡文化迅速席卷泰国与韩国市场。本研究选取星巴克门店作为案例研究对象，采用定性分析方法，以40名受访者的深度访谈问卷作为研究样本，其中泰国受访者与韩国受访者各20名。研究结果显示，在泰国与韩国，多数受访者购买咖啡的核心目的为缓解工作或学习过程中的身体疲劳与困倦感，咖啡也逐渐融入大众日常生活。而在门店内饮用咖啡时，受访者通常会伴随阅读、通过手机进行网络聊天等休闲活动。当被问及星巴克所承载的消费者身份象征意义时，受访者普遍认为其代表着现代、精致的生活格调。