Notes from meeting with Smith the Grocer
I went in and pitched our concept to the owner of Smith the Grocer, Mike Meachen. He was very helpful, and offered a lot of advice and critique, suggesting a lot of things that would be beneficial from a cafe owner perspective should the project launch. We had a decent discussion and really talked over all the potential weaknesses in the Novo scheme.
Not only did we discuss the operational and commercial viability of the scheme, we also considered how best to pitch it from a marketing point of view, so that the kinds of cafe patrons he serves at Smith the Grocer would be sold on the idea.
In his cafe they typically see around 2 or 3 customers each day who bring in their own cup. Given that they serve approx. 300 customers per day, this is a pretty low average (1%). Mike puts this down to several factors; The cost of each individual coffee is too small for people to care about buying a more expensive reusable cup. Common belief is that it takes too long for a reusable cup to pay itself off. People are concerned about losing them. They don’t want to wash them. The size of a cup means it isn’t something that just fits in your pocket. And lastly, but possibly most importantly, people are on board with all the rational benefits, right up until you tell them they have to pay for it.
So how can we combat this? Generation X won’t spend money to save the planet, we see this everywhere. But the next generation (those born after the early 80s) have been raised to care more about sustainability than their own pocket. This is our target. Also, although we won’t admit it, we’re more motivated to be seen to be caring for the planet than we are motivated to care for the planet. We need to capitalise on this need to make a statement about ourselves. Our marketing needs to show that if you’re seen holding a Novo cup, everyone else knows you give a damn. This is a declared emotive trigger.
Any suggestion of queue jumping is going to upset customers. We had considered Novo users as being able to hand over their cups separately from the queue (to skip waiting for people digging out their eftpos cards and choosing which muffin they wanted) since they would only be making a predetermined coffee order. However there is no way to justify this to others in line, and Mike thinks cafes would lose business over this. We have to be careful to promote Novo as speeding up the progression of the line, not cutting you through it.
Mike also agreed with Amelia from Havana that the cork looks great but may not be practical once 20 baristas have soaked milk into it. Could we use glass with some sort of heat-proof sleeve? Or laminate the cork? Also could the shape be some sort of signature like the Coke bottle, something that is uniquely ours?
We need to promote through metaphors- don’t look at the savings one coffee makes. Instead make bold statements about the big picture. Your Novo cup will pay for itself- and then it will keep on paying. In a year enough for a restaurant meal. In 5 years enough for an air fare. The benefit needs to be screamingly obvious, and counter the main tensions so that people are left with no excuses. Rational features are great, but we need to account for the ‘people factor’, because people are set in their ways and you have to overcome their inertia to make them decide to change their habits. Why should I pay $30 for a cup when I can continue getting a disposable one for free? Because the $30 cup pays for itself in time, and gets you kudos with the girl from accounts when you shout her coffee on the Novo app ;). Novo isn’t a cup, it’s a social experience.
We need to target people with a routine, so that adding something more to carry isn’t an issue. People who commute that can just stick it in the car cup holder, or people who catch the train every day and can enjoy it on the way. Travellers, salesmen... Show in our advertising examples of it fitting into daily routine, and erase from people’s minds the very possibility of it being an extra thing to carry. It would be better off in a suburban setting, and ‘hole-in-the-wall’ coffee outlets, where people order their coffee then take it with them. It would be great at Mojo, service stations, kiosks.
Our promotional material should touch on human truths, like the Tui ‘Yeah Right’ campaign- this was massively successful in selling cheap watery beer because it levelled with audiences using dry kiwi humour and simple truths. We should also speak to the consumer’s own sense of self-identity, fill the Novo cup with a set of values they see in themselves so that they want to be seen with one. Capture their imaginations. Make them think they’ve made their own independent decision to buy the product rather than being convinced- Invite your consumer, never tell them.
One of the key selling factors we’ve missed so far is the irrational value, the undeclared emotive triggers. We can list all the reasons why the cup is great but people won’t buy it because of that. People buy things for emotive reasons, then rationalise it to justify the purchase. Most purchases are for reasons people aren’t willing to admit to- or don’t actually understand. Why wear a Nike T-shirt with nothing but a ✓ symbol? Not because it’s a T-shirt with a tick. Because it tells the world ‘I’m cool. I’m sporty. I buy expensive clothing.’ Marketing 101; sell the sizzle not the sausage. We need to excite people enough to make that first step and buy into the scheme. The Novo cup needs to convince people they’ll be seen as cool, caring, and affluent. Our marketing could use familiar personalities that already hold these values and show how the product improves their everyday coffee experience. Then people will buy the cup, to emulate this perceived ideal. If Johnny Depp uses one, then the product is instantly chic, eminent, mainstream, big fish- borrowing the values associated with a celebrity helps to instantly establish the values consumers should associate with the product.
It would be best to identify one main (emotional!) trigger point, so that we have an answer for ‘why will people buy a Novo cup?’. They’ll buy it because it’s cool. They will use it to tell those around them that they’re keeping up with the Joneses. The cup should be a status symbol for Gen Y, making a statement about their conscious consumerism, their technological prowess, and their sophistication. But most of all it’s a chance to brag. ‘Oh you haven’t got one? Mine’s saved me $30 so far. And I’ve got 7 free coffees out of it. Plus I’m saving the polar bears.’ All the rational features and benefits are simply a bonus on top of this key motivating factor.
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