
They explained that the bonds involve emotions and geographic setting which can vary in scale such as home, street and community. Section snippets Review of related literatureĪltman and Low (1992) defined place attachment as the bonding of people to places. Finally, the study paved the ground to understanding a new set of framework in managing and designing community-oriented public gathering places. Paralleled to these strategies is a need for a solid brand positioning that would mark the competitive advantage and at the same time enhance the customers’ coffee shop experience. Benefits accrue to the management of coffee shops in revitalizing its efforts to create marketing strategies that would sustain the Philippine coffee industry. Within the context of this study, coffee shop is a public gathering place, locally managed and owned where coffee is served to customers either as a main item from a wide list of coffee concoctions or as part of the company's food and beverage products list. Specifically, the study aimed to analyze the dimensionalities of attachment by Filipinos to coffee shops. Altman and Low (1992) defined attachment to a place as a set of feelings that emotionally binds a person to a place. This research was designed within the framework of place attachment and its dimensionalities. In the Philippines, the market for coffee shops was estimated to be at least PhP 2.6 billion in 2004, deemed to sustain its growth of an average of 10–20% yearly for the next three to five years (Omaña, 2006). While instant coffee is considered to be a local household drink due to accessibility and convenience (Henson, 2008, Omaña, 2006), the proliferation of coffee shops contributed to consumers’ increasing awareness and appreciation for coffee. Valued by most of the world's population, the International Coffee Organization reported that world coffee exports amounted to 8.79 million bags or its equivalent of 527,400,000 K on March 2010 (EECD, 2009 Up until now, coffee is considered as one of the Philippines’ top ten agricultural products in terms of value (Alava and Lorenzana, 2004, Statistical Watch, 2009 Within the growing popularity of coffee drinking in the country, Filipinos have become more discriminating in their preferences for coffee. It has full-bodied taste with distinctly pungent aroma that earned its glory in the world market particularly for the specialty coffee niche (Nuguid-Anden, 2003). In fact, the country became one of the world's top producers of premium coffee particularly Liberica or locally known as Kapeng Barako (Nuguid-Anden, 2003). The mix temperate weather, the fertile soil and the vast mountainous areas made coffee a viable commodity in the Philippines. Only three countries including the Philippines are located in a narrow zone called the “coffee belt,” and countries within this zone experience two seasons in a year, wet and dry. In 1740, a Spanish friar turned the highlands of Cavite, a province located at south of Manila, into coffee plantations (Juan and Francisco, 2007). The history of coffee in the Philippines was brought about by the colonization of the Spaniards more than two centuries ago. Paralleled to these results is the need for capacity maximization in creating marketing strategies that would accelerate the company's revenue growth and thus enhance customers’ coffee shop experience.Ĭoffee drinking traces its roots in the 16th and 17th century upon the introduction of coffee. The study provides a new perspective of how Filipinos view coffee more than just a product but as an experience, or both. Data also showed that most of the characteristics of a third place are typified in the coffee shops surveyed. Interrelationships among indicators and dimensions of attachment together with characteristics of a third place were measured through bivariate and canonical correlations.įindings revealed that physical and social dimensions defined the respondents’ attachment to the coffee shops. Emotions and attitudes were considered in measuring the extent of attachment or non-attachment by the respondents to the coffee shops.

Using random sampling, 272 respondents from seven coffee shops within the Greater Manila Area were selected to participate in the survey.

Cuppa coffe series#
Discussions elicited from a series of focus groups and insights from interviews with key players of the Philippine coffee industry served as reference in developing the survey questionnaire and in analyzing the survey results. It also measured how the characteristics of a third place, with home being first and workplace as second, are typified in the local coffee shops. This study primarily sought to examine whether Filipinos who frequent local coffee shops experience place attachment within the context of physical, social, cultural and environmental dimensions.
