Beyond Stimulation: A Motivation-Based Segmentation of Coffee Purchasing and Drinking Behaviour

Abstract

This study aims to segment Turkish coffee consumers residing in Northern Cyprus by their motivations for coffee consumption and to examine how these segments differ in coffee attributes, information sources, consumption and purchasing behaviours, and socio-demographic characteristics. Data were collected using a structured online questionnaire and purposive sampling between April and June 2025. A total of 649 valid responses were analysed. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to identify underlying motivational dimensions of coffee consumption, followed by hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis to classify consumers into homogeneous segments. Five distinct motivational consumer segments were identified. Chi-square tests and ANOVA results revealed significant differences among these segments in preferred coffee attributes, information sources, consumption occasions, purchasing behaviour, consumption frequency, and socio-demographic characteristics. The findings demonstrated that motivations for coffee consumption in Northern Cyprus are multidimensional and strongly associated with behavioural and demographic profiles. Although coffee consumption has been widely examined in global literature, limited research has addressed it from a motivational segmentation perspective within a Mediterranean cultural context. By providing a comprehensive characterisation of consumer segments, this study contributes to the literature on coffee consumption and purchasing behaviour from a consumer psychology perspective.