The Problem Started Before the First Coffee Sip
Finding parking in Dubai can take time. Finding coffee? That is usually much easier. The UAE coffee market was estimated at around US$1.25 billion in 2025, and with more than 4,800 coffee shops across the city, customers are certainly not short of options (Eiermann 2025).
That made me wonder: how does a newer coffee brand build brand awareness when people already have so many familiar choices?That question became the starting point of my consumer research in Dubai.
The Brand Behind the Research
For confidentiality, I have changed the company name to Innovative Coffee (IC) throughout this article. This article presents selected findings and insights from an academic research project conducted for a real-world business context.
In this article, IC is a digital-first coffee brand where customers order through an app or kiosk, customise their drinks, pay digitally and collect them quickly.
The concept sounds well suited to a fast-moving city like Dubai. Yet there was one obvious challenge: many potential customers did not know the brand well enough to even consider trying it.
The Visibility Problem Was Easy to See
When I visited one of the outlets, I understood the challenge almost immediately. Tucked inside an office building with no external signage, it was easy to miss.
For someone coming from outside, finding it could feel like looking for a needle in a haystack—except the needle was a latte :). The outlet leader later confirmed that most customers came from inside the building, while attracting people from outside remained a challenge.
Was Brand Awareness Really Enough?
So, brand awareness seemed like the obvious place to start. Recognized brands are more likely to enter a customer’s consideration set (Keller 1993; Romaniuk, Wight & Faulkner 2017).But that led me to a more interesting question: Was getting noticed really enough to make someone try the first cup?
How I Studied the First-Time Customer
The study included 106 valid responses from Dubai coffee consumers aged 18 and above. Since the research focused on first-time trials, I looked more closely at the 81 respondents who had never bought from the IC brand before.A 10-person pilot had already shown me that some people knew too little about the brand to judge it fairly.
So I measured awareness first, then introduced the brand and its app-and-kiosk model before asking about product quality, ordering convenience and willingness to try.That led to the first big question: Did people actually know the brand? And the answer was hard to ignore.
Finding 1: Brand Awareness Was the First Problem
Among the 81 non-customers, only 8.6% had heard of the brand. Another 8.6% were unsure, while 82.8% had not heard of it at all.
Digital visibility also played a big role. It explained 69.3% of the variation in brand awareness. In simple terms, people who were more likely to come across the brand online were also more likely to know it.
For an innovative coffee brand, that discovery could happen through social media, Google Maps, delivery apps, reviews or customer-created content.
Research also shows that both firm-generated and user-generated content can influence different stages of the marketing funnel (Colicev, Kumar & O’Connor 2019).The message was clear: IC needed to show up more often.But brand awareness was only the beginning.
Finding 2: Brandawareness Got Attention,but Quality Drove Trial
On its own, brand awareness had a positive but weak relationship with first-time trial. But when I looked at brand awareness, expected product quality and ordering convenience together, the picture changed.Together, the three factors explained 50.6% of first-time trial intention.
Expected product quality became the strongest significant predictor, followed by ordering convenience. Brand awareness was no longer statistically significant once the other two factors were considered.That does not mean awareness was unimportant.
Customers still need to notice a brand before they can consider it. But awareness alone cannot answer the question a first-time customer really cares about:“Will the coffee actually be good?”
Before trying a new brand, customers cannot taste the coffee in advance. They rely on what they can see: product images, descriptions, ratings and reviews. Previous research also shows that food quality can influence customer evaluations and behavioural intentions (Namkung & Jang 2007; Ryu, Lee & Kim 2012).
So the message was clear: show the coffee, not only the logo.But even a great-looking coffee will not help much if the first order feels confusing. That is where ordering convenience became important.
Finding 3: Easy Ordering Matters
Technology can be an advantage, but only when it removes effort. On paper, the journey looks simple: Choose → Pay → Pick up.
For a first-time customer, though, a few questions can quickly appear: Do I need an app? Where do I start? Where do I collect my drink? My findings showed that customers who expected the ordering process to be easy, quick and clear were more willing to try the IC brand.
Ordering convenience alone explained 38.7% of the variation in first-time trial intention. Previous research also highlights the importance of navigation, information and convenience in mobile food ordering (Kapoor & Vij 2018; Mudjahidin et al. 2022).
So, for a first-time customer, three things should be obvious: what should I order, how do I order, and where do I collect it?But there was one more clue in the data: not every customer viewed the digital experience in the same way.
Finding 4: Not Everyone Experienced the Digital Journey the Same Way
Age added one more clue. Younger respondents generally rated product quality and ordering convenience more positively, while the 55+ group gave the lowest average scores.The clearest difference was in ordering: the 18–24 group rated ordering convenience significantly higher than the 55+ group. However, only a few respondents were aged 55 or above, so this finding needs caution.
The takeaway is not that older customers dislike technology. Some customers may simply need more guidance than others.
Younger audiences may respond naturally to mobile-first content, while mixed-age locations may benefit from clearer menus, simple kiosk guidance and visible staff support.And that brought me to the practical question: what should the brand actually do with these findings?
What Should Innovative Coffee Do Next?
The findings showed that low brand awareness was only part of the problem. The bigger opportunity was to help customers discover, trust and try the brand.
Five Practical Recommendations
1.Lead with product-quality proof: Show why the coffee is worth trying through strong images, simple taste descriptions, ratings and reviews.
2.Make the first order easy: A “First time here?” option with choose → pay → pick up could make the journey simpler.
3.Make the brand easier to discover: Show up on social media, Google Maps, delivery apps and reviews.
4.Give customers a reason to try: Answer three questions quickly: What is this brand? Why should I try it? How do I order?
5.Match support to the customer: Use mobile-first content for younger audiences and clearer menus, kiosk guidance and staff support in mixed-age locations.
The Bigger Lesson for Marketers
This research focused on coffee, but the lesson goes further. When customer acquisition is weak, companies often say, “We need more awareness.” Sometimes they do. But awareness may be only the tip of the iceberg.
Customers can know a brand and still hesitate. They may not understand the product, trust the quality or feel comfortable taking the next step.The objective is not simply to advertise more loudly; it is to remove the doubts that stop customers from trying.
Final Thoughts: From Brand Awareness to First-Time Trial
I started this research thinking brand awareness would be the main issue. It mattered, but it was not the whole story.Once people knew the brand existed, expected product quality and ordering convenience mattered more in getting them to try it.
Brand awareness may open the door, but trust in the product quality and an easy ordering experience are what move someone through it. For an Innovative & digital-first coffee brand, technology should make that first step feel effortless.
And in a city full of coffee choices, the hardest cup to sell is not the second one… It is definitely the first.
Watch the Video
References
Colicev, A, Kumar, A & O’Connor, P 2019, ‘Modeling the relationship between firm and user generated content and the stages of the marketing funnel’, International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 100–116.
Eiermann, A 2025, ‘UAE Coffee Market Observation Report 2025’, LinkedIn, 18 February, viewed 11 September 2026, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/uae-coffee-market-observation-report-2025-andr%C3%A9-eiermann-vd4ve/.
Kapoor, AP & Vij, M 2018, ‘Technology at the dinner table: ordering food online through mobile apps’, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, vol. 43, pp. 342–351.
Keller, KL 1993, ‘Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 1–22.
Mudjahidin, M, Fatika, HL, Aristio, AP & Junaedi, L 2022, ‘Intention to use buy online-pickup in store of coffee shop’, Procedia Computer Science, vol. 197, pp. 591–598.
Namkung, Y & Jang, S 2007, ‘Does food quality really matter in restaurants? Its impact on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions’, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 387–409.
Romaniuk, J, Wight, S & Faulkner, M 2017, ‘Brand awareness: revisiting an old metric for a new world’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 469–476.
Ryu, K, Lee, HR & Kim, WG 2012, ‘The influence of the quality of the physical environment, food, and service on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 200–223.