 Consumer Profile and the Product Bought: Interviewed Aakriti Kharola, a 23 year old recent

MBA graduate from NMIMS, Mumbai. She is currently working with Kantar Group and is
based in Lucknow although she hails from Delhi and has a family with 4 members; her
parents, her brother and she herself. Aakriti mentions how she has recently shifted to and
purchased a new coffee brand Rage in 4 different flavours; Irish Hazelnut, Dark Chocolate,
Chai Latte and Original out of the available 10 flavours for a total of INR1800 for the kit
containing 4 jars (100gms each) along with 2 free products that she received with the coffee
jars namely a Coffee Bar and a Coffee Mug.
 Purchase Journey through the 5 stages:
Interestingly, the consumer mentions in her interview that this wasn’t an impulse decision
and was a deliberate thought process although she admits to have bought coffee brands
earlier without much thought and acknowledges it be a low involvement product category.
Looking at the journey from a lens of the 5 stages of Purchase decision process:

NEED RECOGNITION INFORMATION SEARCH EVALUATION OF PURCHASE DECISION POST-PURCHASE

ALTERNATIVES BEHAVIOUR.
Stimuli: Both internal Sources: First came the 2 of the alternatives;
and external, internal public sources which Alternatives: All Home- Country Bean and Rage The buyer mentions the
being the need to involved google search Grown brands with no were mostly similar on usage of the product to
switch to a coffee brand for plant-based coffee chicory; Rage, Country the previously be extremely frequent
that energizes her as products emphasizing Bean, Sleepy Owl, Blue mentioned attributes however considering
the consumer has on fitness and energy, Tokai and a few Turkish and thus the final that the product is
recently recovered from which led to targeted brands. purchase decision was expensive, she exhibits
COVID and thus ads on Instagram feed majorly pushed by the a resentment towards a
increased coffee of the consumer Attributes used for offers available. repurchase of the same
consumption. A (commercial sources; evaluation (listed in the product again as she
websites of brands) and order of importance Rage offered a limited
financial change also wants to try other
the eventual use of starting with most time-period offer of
comes into the picture brands and at the same
online reviews, YouTube important criteria): providing a free coffee
with the consumer time the cost of the
taste-test videos and mug and a coffee bar
having started her first product does take up a
1. Utility along with the purchase
job. External stimuli in reviews and finally huge share of her wallet
(energize) which triggered the
the form of lot of coffee recommendation from a relative to the product
2. Flavours purchase.
ads on platforms like few friends who had the category and frequency
offered
Instagram. required knowledge of of usage and thus she
3. Price Also, whilst considering
or had tried similar might not buy the same
4. Aesthetics of the opinion of her
People Involved: The home-grown coffee coffee brand every
the brand family, the concerned
need emerged more brand labels. month,
5. Innovative consumer’s mother also
individually. Product
Stage: Occurred at each Brand Name preferred the variety of
used by all the 4
of the five stages; flavours offered by
members of family but
broadly, prior to finding Rage. Thus the final
their involvement came
alternatives information decision.
in at a later stage in
helping with choosing was collected on
the alternatives and benefits of coffee and
variants to buy of the on differences between
chosen alternative. regular traditional
coffee containing
chicory and sugar v.
plant based coffee while
information on various
alternatives available
and their ingredients,
price points, popularity
among influencers and
recommendations from
friends and family were
also collected to narrow
down to a few
alternatives.
 Analysis:
- The demographics of the interviewed person are indicative of the segment she can be
put into; a young, urban girl manifesting her readiness to experiment with some new
brands even for a low-involvement product category; coffee.
- The consumer had been using the most popular and basic brands of coffee like Nescafe
and Bru prior to this purchase. Earlier, the purchase decision was solely driven by the
interviewee’s mother who preferred well-known brands and purchased coffee from
retail outlets offline in sachets as the jars ran a risk of getting moist and spoiled. Coffee
consumption in the interviewee’s house wasn’t very frequent yet for the interviewee in
particular coffee has always been associated with a holistic experience as a comforting
beverage on a chilly day, thus an associated nostalgia with the particular product
category and not any brand in specific.
- However, she has recently recovered from COVID which changed her coffee
consumption dynamically; wanted to use coffee as an energising beverage at the start
of the day with increased consumption. Moreover, having started on her first job
recently, she has been more open to buying a few expensive yet value-for-money
products. This triggered and primarily motivated her to buy a plant-based, energy-
boosting and fitness-oriented coffee brand.
- Important attributes considered were utility (energizing beverage), flavours offered,
price points, and the aesthetics and personalisation of experiences involved with the
brand. Rage (the product ultimately bought) is the world’s first plant-based vitamins
coffee with thoughtfully designed shots for the convenience of carrying and it thus best
solved the sought after issues. The product has no chicory or sugar and claims to be a
“turbo-charging” beverage thus fulfilling her most important motive. She acknowledged
that even though the product was used by entire family, the decision to choose a new
alternative was completely hers.
- She does not consider the purchase to be an impulsive one as this was her first
independent decision to buy a new coffee brand and she spent about a week and a half
to understand the benefits of plant-based vitamins coffee, looking for all possible brands
for the same and evaluating those on mentioned criterias before buying Rage.
- People involved: Her mother influenced the decision of the flavours to be bought, her
father influenced her choice of alternatives she considered, her friends were a credible
source of information she relied on and a few influencers and YouTubers also influenced
her purchase through their reviews.
- Information Collection (extensively mentioned in the figure above)
- Role of innovative marketing media used: The interviewed consumer prefers home-
grown brands and thus in order to support a small-business wanted to try a similar
brand even if it was a bit more expensive. She mentions that a brand’s visibility and
relatability can make it stand apart and with the amount of advertisements that came
on her Instagram feed from the brand Rage right after she searched for benefits of a
plant-based vitamins coffee on google along with the page’s aesthetics, innovative
coffee recipes, personal experiences posted, use of influncer-marketing and self-
awareness of the brand’s target and relatively higher price points and acknowledgment
of the same via instagram posts made it unique over the traditional brand-
endorsements of coffee brands done by huge celebrities.
- The Purchase Decision: The interviewee narrowed down to 4 major alternatives; Rage,
Country Bean, Sleepy Owl, Blue Tokai and a few Turkish brands on the basis of the
information collected. She evaluated these against the above mentioned attributes and
 was stuck between Rage and Country Bean. However, considering the flavours offered
by Rage seemed more interesting to her, esp the Irish Hazelnut flavours which she
associates with her favourite Nutella, and considering her mother also preferred the
flavours offered by Rage she was more inclined towards Rage. However, it was the
ultimate offer of a free mug and coffee bar that triggered the final decision in favour of
Rage
- Coming to the platform, Aakriti went ahead with buying the coffee from Instagram
>>company’s website; Rage’s Instagram page that had the link to its website. When
asked about the difference from a platform like Amazon or Big Bazaar, she sighted
convenience and innovativeness as the two reasons for using Instagram. She often buys
other products from Instagram as well as she feels that a one-stop shop for receiving all
the marketing communication for the product, with ink to its website that offers product
info and link to the Instagram page that offers all the reviews, messages from influencers
and a history of a brand and how it has grown adding a personal touch to it. Moreover
the convenience to directly share a product with a friend via Instagram Direct Message
facility also helps in collecting recommendations from friends.

Summary (pertaining to the views of the consumer interviewed)

 Coffee consumers can be a bit price-sensitive however an assurance of

a blend of appropriate flavours, a differentiating ingredient (here the
energizing claim) and a promise to deliver a good experience can
ensure quality for that price.
 For spirited, up-to-date, imaginative and young/urban buyers,
Instagram marketing along with the targeted communication and
usage of offers may help to increase the sale of a product.
 Home-grown labels are also being seen gaining more importance.
 Most reliable sources of information include WOM from friends and
family and online reviews.
 Marketers may view and position a product like coffee not just as a
commodity rather an experience.
 Factors that guide the purchase decision here were a mixture of
emotional nostalgia, personality traits, morals and psychological
beliefs of the customer.
 Brand Loyalty in case of a coffe brand cannot be established here.