FYI: Why good coffee doesn’t come in vacuum-packed cans

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This is long, so feel free to skip.

“One of the reasons that I think the local grocery store has lost coffee is that Starbucks has told me so. It has trained me to expect something better, something different from what I can buy in the supermarket. Starbucks seized control of the dialogue for coffee and defined what is desirable in terms of price (high), form (beans), service (informed), and variety (many). Through its advertising, its stores, its chirpy but professional young workers, its lattes, cappuccinos, dark wooden counters, and fresh-roasted distribution system, it has told me that good coffee doesn’t come in vacuum-packed cans. It has created not only an image for itself and its products, but also for everybody else in the coffee-selling business…

…Starbucks told us, coffee drinking is an experience, and you should drink it any time that you want to be social, want some variety in your life, need a break or a treat. If you understand this and you know about coffee, you will be a smart and savvy person. Once Starbucks explained it this way, not only did it win customers from its competitors, but it also got a lot more people to start drinking a lot more coffee. It actually expanded the market.”

That’s not me talking. That’s former Chief Marketing Officer of the Coca-Cola company, Sergio Zyman, talking in his book The End of Marketing As We Know It. The moral of the story? People WILL NOT figure your offerings out for themselves. If you don’t give people a reason to buy from you—and keep reminding them to do so—they won’t.

My 2¢:
Step #1:
Invest time and energy in articulating a compelling reason(s) for people to buy from you.
If not you, who? If not now, when?

Step#2:
Overcommunicate your compelling reason(s).
No matter how acute an experience, our memory of it fades over time. Remember how Starbucks did it? “Through its advertising, its stores, its chirpy but professional young workers, its lattes, cappuccinos, dark wooden counters, and fresh-roasted distribution system, it has told me that good coffee doesn’t come in vacuum-packed cans.”

Remember: Preference is a perishable commodity; you have to earn it every day.
If big businesses such as Starbucks take these things seriously, can you afford not to?