Prioritizing psychological factors in young consumers’ coffee brand preferences through a novel behavioral leadership fuzzy decision-making modelling

The lack of systematic prioritization of the psychological factors that influence young consumers’ coffee brand preferences has emerged as a significant problem. While existing studies focus on economic and technical factors, the inadequate consideration of psychological factors leads brands to misunderstand consumer expectations. In this context, the fundamental problem lies in the failure to identify the relative importance of the psychological factors shaping young consumers’ brand preferences. The purpose of this study is to identify the most critical psychological factors influencing young consumers’ coffee brand preferences, rank the importance of these factors, and guide brands in strategic direction by correlating the findings with investment strategies. The study proposes a new fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model. Expert weights are calculated using a Euclidean distances-based expert weighting approach, criteria importance levels are determined using the extended SIWEC, and the ARLON is used to rank strategy alternatives. Furthermore, behavioral leadership fuzzy sets, a new addition to the literature, are integrated into the model to reflect the behavioral dimensions of the decision-making process. This study contributes to the literature by proposing a new fuzzy decision-making model that prioritizes the importance of psychological factors in young consumers’ coffee brand preferences and relates them to investment strategies. The key findings indicate that “identity and belonging” and “experiential satisfaction” are the most critical psychological criteria. Additionally, “experience and atmosphere” and “digitalization and innovation” strategies are the most significant alternatives.