In 2016, the next step in our research journey was to develop a quantitative study and survey a larger number of consumers to validate what the preliminary qualitative research was telling us. SCAA hired a third-party research firm, Marketing General Inc. (MGI) to conduct a specialty coffee consumer survey. This 2016 survey is the first quantitative research on specialty coffee consumers in SCAA history. The findings of this survey showed similar results to the qualitative study, but with deeper insight. Research objectives included:

• Determine specialty coffee consumers’ characteristics, habits, and preferences related to specialty coffee.

• Determine specialty coffee consumers’ purchase behaviors and motivators related to specialty coffee.

• Explore what the term “specialty” means to the specialty coffee consumer.

• Identify generational preferences and patterns of specialty coffee consumers ages 18 and up. Generations were defined as follows:

Millennials: Ages 18-35

Younger Millennials: Ages 18-25

Older Millennials: Ages 26-35

Generation X: Ages 36-50

Boomers: Ages 51 and above

• Gain a deeper understanding of two pre-identified segments: The Super Specialty consumer and the Specialty Adopter consumer, and delineate the differences between the two groups.

• Identify opportunities for growth for each of the defined segments.