High street coffee chain Costa Coffee aims to "broaden the scope of its market research efforts" through a new online insight community, which it has named Costa Espression.

Costa Espression is available as an app that can be used for the purpose of market and consumer research. It links to the existing online community platform, Costa Forum.

Costa senior insight manager Emma Whale said: “We understand the importance of giving our customers a voice. Costa Espression will do just that, allowing us to gain a greater understanding of what our customers want from the Costa brand and providing us with valuable insight into how we can learn and adapt to suit their tastes and needs.”

Costa said the new app will provide news updates, a chat platform and the opportunity to give the company valuable feedback.

Last week Costa announced it plans to open two new outlets in Bath city centre.