Can’t see the embedded video? Click here.
The Coffee Giant Gambles With Customer Perception
On a recent trip to the Bay Area I found myself at a restaurant with a Clover coffee maker–the $11,000 machine designed by Stanford engineers to produce a perfect cup of steaming-hot coffee.
So, I ordered a cup. How often do you get to drink an $11k cup of joe? More on that in a minute.
To many of us this sounds ridiculous. How much of a difference can an insanely high priced coffee machine make? How good could it possibly be? Even the best cup of coffee is, well, still coffee.
But maybe there is something to it because Starbucks just bought the company that makes the Clover.
I know, you coffee connoisseurs are thinking, “Starbucks? What do they know about good coffee?” I won’t get into that debate, but consider the following from insight from modern consumer psychologists.
“Whereas economists or marketing strategists might look to numbers—wages or interest levels—psychologists know that something more motivates the consumer purchase trends. They have discovered that often in the most depressed economic times, the sales of luxury items go up.”
Or as Matthew Honen, host of the Wired video about the Clover embedded above, says, “Basically what you’re paying for is a team of Stanford engineers to build this thing by hand. You’re also paying to get an individually crafted cup.”
Hmm… OK, now it’s starting to make sense.
But in a down economy where enough people are abandoning their morning lattes for Starbucks to close 600 stores, is experimenting with uber-quality a good move?
Maybe. Perception is a powerful thing. For many of us hyper-quality coffee isn’t that important, but to some coffee drinkers it is, especially during tough times. And that, I think, is the point of Starbucks’ acquisition. Will it work? Your guess is as good as mine.
As for that cup of Clover coffee I had? Well, it tasted like… a cup of good coffee. Nice, but nothing special. But I’m not the customer for this experience. The big question is are Starbucks customers ready for the Clover?
What about you? Do your expectations affect your feelings about products? How? Have you ever tweaked the perception of a product to increase sales?
Leave a comment or email blog at keithmonaghan dot com.
Thanks for reading.
