Dutch Bros. Coffee Case Analysis

Customer Association Trumps Customer Saisfaction

Companies consistently stress the significance of customer satisfaction, but oftentimes, the emotional appeal of a product to the consumer is overlooked. However, the article “An Emotional Connection Matters More then Customer Satisfaction” focuses on how a consumer’s appeal to a particular product is an interactive experience, involving how the customer responds to the brand, merchandise, and promotion of a company, and how this can beneficially impact a company (Leemon, Zorfas, 2016). This implies that the consumer appeal to a product is more so a personal, emotional experience than a simple goal of customer satisfaction that can be accomplished by strategy. It is inevitable that providing

One company that exhibits extraordinary understanding of how to emotionally cater to its’ target market is Dutch Bros. Coffee. Dutch Bros. is a drive-through coffee shop that promotes ideas of enthusiasm, positivity, and prosperity in its’ company’s mission statement (Dutch Bros, n.d.). Dutch Bros. places a strong emphasis on personally connecting with the consumer through its’ employees and product. Not only does Dutch Bros. have an incredibly high customer satisfaction rate, but its’ customers consistently return because of the positive emotional experience they receive during their interaction with the company. Dutch Bros. Coffee depicts the success a company can have when it takes the time to carefully listen to and invest in its’

Oftentimes, what a consumer says they want is motivated by outside factors and incorrectly communicates to a company how to emotionally invest in their target market (Leemon, Zorfas, 2016). The challenge in marketing strategy lies in being able to provide consumers with what it is they tell the company they want, while aligning it with what will emotionally drive them to purchase the product (Leemon, Zorfas, 2016). For example, a customer may tell a company something he truly needs, such as a weight loss meal plan, but may be discouraged to purchase the product because it carries a negative personal connotation, such as having to commit to a healthy lifestyle change. When evaluating an effective marketing strategy, companies must be attentive to how emotional appeals will be responded to by its’ target audience.

Article Critique

This article is well-written and concise, and creates a compelling argument for why companies should emotionally appeal to customers instead of simply focusing on customer satisfaction. This article is thought-provoking because it causes the reader to reflect upon their own experiences as a consumer and when they felt emotional appeal toward a product or company. I would recommend this article to others because I believe it addresses valid points that would benefit both the buying experience of the consumer and the success of a company.