1.1 Gender. The convenient sample taken from a total of 150 NTU students comprises of 95 males and 55 females. Males represent a larger percentage of instant coffee drinkers in the sample (63%) as compared to females (37%).
1.2 Race. Majority (93%) of the students were Chinese, with Malay students comprising 2%, Indian students forming 2.7%, Eurasian and students of other races each forming 0.7% of the entire sample.
1.3 Nationality. Singaporean students made up the bulk of interviewees, comprising of 74%, followed by Malaysians (12.7%) and Indonesians (4.0%).
1.4 Age. There were 3 categories of ages groups, namely, 16 to 20 years old, 21 to 25 years old and above 25 years old. The age range of the respondents was relatively narrow since the convenience sample was taken out from the existing student population at NTU, with 75.3% of the respondents between the ages of 21 to 25 years. For the 16-20 year old age group, there are more female respondents than there were male respondents.
1.5 Income. The income range as measured by "family income per month" ranges from below $2,000 to above $8,000.As can be seen, the modal category of family income was "$2,000 and below".
General Preferences for Instant Coffee
2.1 Frequency of Consumption by Sex
Respondents were asked for the tick their choices of how frequently they drank instant coffee. Based on the results as shown, most of the people drank "between 1 to 7 cups a week".
80% of the respondents also felt that the description of instant coffee was that of "3-in-1 or 2-in-1 coffee mix", confirming our earlier assumptions of instant coffee. They were also asked to describe what they felt was the best representation of instant coffee. Some respondents felt that instant coffee were "soluble coffee granules in glass bottles" (6.0%) as well as "premium instant coffee such as cappuccino". There were no differences between male and female respondents' descriptions as the major...