Caffe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee, Barista........when it means coffee it reminds us those three coffee retail stores. I’m trying to remember certain associations with those three coffee shops. Tried to think a lot about those stores.............didn’t get any significant association to remember apart from coffee. A coffee shop is about coffee and will remain all about coffee. So how to differentiate? And how to build the brand, when there is no loyalty to your menue.
In todays competetive edge the differentiation between Coffee Shops could not be established based on significant product offerings. It’s the experience while having a cup of coffee in a store that could make the difference. A coffee shop is all about coffee and so a consumer will drop inside with the expectation of having good coffee only. Now the point of winning a customer is less significant than turning the customer into a loyal customer. Winning customer is easier and it depends on the presence and visiblity of your stores at strategic location. But the challenge is to make things possible such that one customer makes your store as the most preferred place. in the building of retail brands, you have to create awareness and attract peoples favorable attention. You need opinion leaders who naturally endorse your product.
Consider the story of Starbucks and compare it with Cafe Coffee Day, or Costa Coffee. StarBucks has a customer base which is loyal to the brand and some times drive through their way to office only to get a coffee. Its a religion for few people. What is the secret behind star bucks that people are responding. Why is Starbucks, and similar cafes strike a chord in so many disparate places? What need Starbucks was fulfilling? Why do somany customers willingly wait in the long lines at Starbucks stores and not in front of Cafe Coffee Day or Costa Coffee?
The success of StarBucks could be attributed something more than coffee.........its something more psychological and described by Howard Schultz, C.E.O, Starbucks in the following words(Excerpt from Pour Your Heart Into It) :
A taste of romance. At Starbucks stores, people get a five-or-ten minute break that takes them far from the routine of their daily lives. Where else can you go to get a whiff of Sumatra or Kenya or Costa Rica? Where else can you get a taste Verona or Milan? Just having the chance to order a drink as exotic as an espresso macchiato adds a spark of romance to an otherwise unremarkable day.
An affordable luxury. In a Starbucks Store you may see a policeman or a utility worker standing in line in front of a wealthy surgeon. The blue-collar man may not be able to afford a Mercedes the Surgeon just drove up in, but he can order the same cappuccino. They are both giving themselves a reward and enjoying something world class.
An oasis. In an increasingly fractured society, Starbucks stores offer a qucuiet moment to gather your thoughts and center yourself. Starbucks people smile at you, serve you quickly. A visit to Starbucks can be small escape during a day when so many other things are beating you down. Satrbucks is considered by its customers as breath of fresh air.
Casual social interaction. One of the advertising agencies that pitched for Starbucks, interviewed Los Angeles- area customers in focus groups. The common thread among its consumers was this comment: “Starbucks is so social. We go to Starbucks stores because of a social feeling.”
Its indeed the most significant brand values probaly missed by Coffe Shops in India. A Coffe Shop could be the integral component of Indian social scene in part because they fulfilled the need for a non threatening gathering spot, a “third place” outside of work and home.
Sociologist Professor, Ray Oldenburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Oldenburg ) described in his book, The Great Good Place, the significance of a gathering sport, or a “third place”. Oldenburg’s thesis is that people need informal public places where they can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, relax and talk. Germany’s beer gardens, Englands pubs, Delhi’s Delhi Haat or a food court of Metropolitan Mall, Viennese Cafes created this outlet in people’s lives, providing a neutral ground where all are equal and conversation is the main activity. Without such places, the urban area fails to nourish the kinds of relationships and the diversity of human contact that are the essence of the city. Deprived of these settings, people remain lonely within their crowds.
This is the gist of this blog. Coffee Shops should emphasize the design of consumer experience inside their store while making it a “third place” just like Ray Oldenburg’s thesis. You cant be only coffee.........you need to be more than coffee.
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