Business opportunity identification: introducing Yerba Mate in Finland

Yerba Mate is a hot beverage coming from the Northern part of Argentina. Constituted by branches and herbs, it provides health benefits such as reducing cholesterol or weight loss among others. As one of the most popular products in South America and sign of the Argentinian culture since long time ago, Yerba Mate is presented in the Finnish market such as a possible substitute or complementary product of coffee and tea. The aim of the thesis is to explore the feasibility of introducing Yerba Mate in the hot beverages sector in Finland. For reaching this purpose, the research is divided in two phases, the presentation of the product and then the study of the consumer behaviour. Due to the difficulty of obtaining information around all the country, the author considered to reduce the area of study to Turku, more concretely to Universities. Using sequential exploratory methodology, the primary data is collected through a questionnaire. The research gather information of 71 respondents that are coffee/tea consumers living in the Turku area, aged between 19 to 40. Most relevant findings show how respondents would be prone to consume Yerba Mate if someone recommends to them, because its good health properties or for trying something new. Furthermore, quality is set by the respondents as the principal requirement at the time of buying a new product but price is also considered at the time of selecting one or another brand. Concluding, most of the consumers studied argue that the best way of introducing the product is tea-bag shape and with a price between 2.41 to 4 euros per pack. Limitations of the study are mainly found when speaking about the possibility of the results being biased and the unlikelihood of extrapolating the findings to the whole population of Finland