Client Name
Tapal Tea Private Limited
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Nida Aslam Khan, Assistant Professor and Chairperson - Marketing Department, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi
SBS Thought Leadership Areas
Behavioural Studies
SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification
Our ELP is located at the intersection of Entrepreneurship and Innovation with Behavioral Studies but its falls more under the domain of behavioral studies. This project involved understanding coffee consumers through their behavior and preferences in order to strategically plan a strategy for entering the coffee market, developing a new product, designing it, and creating a sub-brand Tapal would ‘shadow endorse.’ All of this encompassed strategic positioning, defining consumer needs, and developing a multi-channel go-to-marketing plan. Insights from this project, combined with the strategy, contribute towards innovation in the business model and extension of the brand in emerging markets.
Aligned SDGs
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Aligned SDGs Justification
We address SDG 8 by developing Brew Coffee, a sustainablity-focused, locally rooted coffee brand that seeks to foster sustainable business development and job opportunities. Through product design that aligns with the habits of young professionals and students, we hope to create local demand stimulation and therefore, the growth of the local FMCG and retail industry.
SDG 9 is also aligned with our project with our focus in understanding the consumer behaviour and on innovation in product formats, branding, and distribution for the neglected coffee market of Pakistan. Our focus was to focus on all of these aspects and to serve previously ignored consumer segments with modern, affordable, and functional coffee products accordingly. This project involved expanding in the company into another category (coffee) of the drinking industry through the innovation of a new coffe product and by changing the architecture of the Tapal brand.
NDA
Yes
Abstract
Through our Experiential Learning Project (ELP) with Tapal, one of Pakistans top fast-moving consumer goods firms, we got the chance to study and understand the changing consumer bheaviour and preferences in the coffee market and provide a strategy for the brand according to the consumer research insights.
During stage one we focused on primary research, running focus groups, in-depth chats, coffee-shop interviews, and retail store audits to see how customers behave, what they like, and what are gaps in the current market. The main takeaway was simple: people drink coffee for a energy to get them through the day and companionship. The consumer are asking for options that don't cost alot, are convenient, and come in tasty flavors. To ease fears about Tapals tea image, we proposed a strategy including a shadow-endorsement plan rooted in behavioral theory and brand-extension thinking.
In phase two we crafted a full-market launch strategy that focus on 2 product format under a new sub-brand-Brew Coffee, proposed the pricing according to the consumer insights and outlined a multi-channel campaign. This research and its insights allowed us to craft an efficient marketing plan for the brand without diluting it's main taget audience and core association and in the same time enter the coffee market efficiently.
This ELP project is a perfect example of how consumer based research can help a brand expand into new categories and introduce new products without bringing a damage to its current positioning according to the research insights.
Document Type
Restricted Access
Document Name for Citation
Experiential Learning Project - Understanding the new coffee concept in the urban centers
Recommended Citation
Khan, S. Z., Javaid, M. A., Kazmi, H. R., & Riaz, A. F. (2025). Understanding the New Coffee Concept in the Urban Centers. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/sbselp/7
COinS
Notes
Since some of supplementary/additional files out of presentations deck, excel sheets, survey form, different interviews's audio and its transcription were too large and could not be uploaded, for your ease we have attached the links of all the additional/supplementary documents which you can find in the end section of the report.