With
continuing maturity of the coffee market, consumers have gone beyond the need
for caffeine consumption and begun paying attention to coffee varieties,
specific tastes of coffee from different places of origin, and information
transparency in place-of-origin labels. This trend has not only changed the
entire coffee market but also given birth to specialty coffee. In contrast to
fast brewing coffee products available in convenience stores, specialty coffee
emphasizes the acquisition of coffee expertise from an experiential activity.
Notably, levels of customer involvement vary largely between individuals,
greatly affect consumers’ willingness to purchase and loyalty following such
experiential activities. Few studies have explored this difference. Therefore,
this study targeted specialty coffee consumer and explored the relationships
between experiential marketing, consumer involvement, and consumer loyalty. The
data collected using a questionnaire were processed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS
24.0 for statistical analyses. The results revealed significant positive
relationships between experiential marketing, consumer involvement, and
consumer loyalty. Consumer involvement increased when the coffee sellers had
sufficient knowledge of specialty coffee. This in turn led to increased
customer loyalty. In sum, coffee suppliers are recommended to pay attention to
every detail of experiential activities and continually improve product
quality, thereby enhancing their profits.
