As the society’s income level rises and its interest for health increases, more various functional food products are being developed. This social trend is allowing green tea to gain a lot of popularity as it has proven to be beneficial for maintaini...
As the society’s income level rises and its interest for health increases, more various functional food products are being developed. This social trend is allowing green tea to gain a lot of popularity as it has proven to be beneficial for maintaining good health in addition to being delicious and aromatic. The amount of green tea consumption is increasing. Even though green tea has less market size than coffee or carbonated drinks, it seems that its market size will continue to grow since the social and cultural environment considers anti-aging important. Therefore, it is necessary to study about how the actual customers of a green tea store perceive the products and also about their status of usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of the customers’ perception and usage of green tea stores and to seek an efficient plan for popularizing those green stores. Survey questionnaires were made based on the results of the previous studies about the customers’ perceptions and preferences about green tea and other traditional drinks and the factors that affect their selection of take-out stores and also the results of group-centered interview. 100 college students were surveyed and a pre-survey investigation was conducted. Then, 200 customers of green tea stores in the age group of 20’s and 30’s and 200 non-customers were surveyed online.
The users of green tea stores showed a higher recognition of green tea and its stores than non-users. The users of green tea stores prefer the taste of the green tea more than the non-users and they perceive that drinking green tea frequently will help them with their thirst. Also, women believed more in the nutritional benefit and safety of drinking green tea than men, and married people recognized more positively about the fact that drinking green tea will help their thirst.
The customers of green tea stores recognized more positively about the atmosphere, familiar taste, good quality, freshness of food, good service, excellent taste and various menu of a professional green tea store. Males perceived he fact that green tea is ‘good for health’ more than females. There was no difference in the perception of green tea stores by the marital status. Also, analyzing the difference in the perception of green tea stores according to whether the people’s residential area has a green tea store or not, the customers who are living in an area without any close green tea store perceived the price of the provided menu as more expensive than the customers who are living close to a green tea store.
Regarding the popularization plan of professional green tea stores, the customers of green tea stores felt more of a need for a tea sommelier than non-customers, and females thought more seriously about having a tea sommelier, who would provide a chance to taste various tea products and develop a green tea menu that considered nutrition and health than males. People that are not married felt more necessity for having a place to have comfortable rest, taste a variety of tea products, and have a chance to experience tea culture.
When selecting a green tea store, the quality of materials and cleanliness of the store were considered to be important, and the important factors in selection were not shown to be statistically different among the users and non-users. It was shown that females were more influenced than males by the cleanliness, quality of food materials, tastiness of the provided menu, the transportation process of the food menu that helps with health, the variety of menu, the take-out options, and the number of franchise. Also, the non-married people were shown to consider the prices more important than married people. The customers living in an area that has a green tea store were shown to be more influenced than the customers who do not by the green tea provided, green tea cake, and traditional Korean snacks, when selecting a green tea store.
Examination of the status of usage in green tea stores and its problems shows that the customers became aware of those stores by an introduction from their peers and they were using them for a place of meeting and visiting the store with many friends. The adequate price of the drinks provided from the store was 3000 won or below and between 3000 won and 3500 won. The problems were shown to be a lack of marketing effort and expensive price. The factors affecting the intention of recommending a green tea store were the taste and the price of the menu, and the factor that affect the re-visit of a green tea store was the quality of the food material provided from the store.
This study has significance in that it demonstrated the perception and status of usage in the customers and non-customers of green tea stores. Also, in the current situation lacking the studies about professional green tea stores, this study can be utilized as basic data for establishing the business and marketing strategies for a green tea store.