After a trip to the open market this afternoon I was bristling with bad juju. Small local vendors
baked in the unmerciful California sun, staring back at passersby like parched
beached whales thirsting for business, but already too worn to save themselves.
It was a pathetic display of mostly bad merchandise and poorly constructed
business models. I was a ball of grumbling hot air as I hissed suggestions
under my breath, the business major inside roaring for a chance to help these
clueless people.
Most of my frustration was targeted at antique vendors
with nothing but unorganized, vision-less crap with no image, no clear
direction, and misguided price points. The main source of my grumbling today,
however, came about because of a rather brilliant and simultaneously self-sabotaging
product/business…
Meet Caffè Borsa, the makers of a clever portable “hand
drip” coffee and strainer combination, similar to Starbuck’s “Via” but
relatively fresher and more palatable. Okay, great, but tell me, have you ever
had Caffè Borsa coffee, do you even know how it tastes, have you seen it in any
of your local grocers or given it a chance??
I’m going to say no for you.
The point is, while the concept of a portable
coffee/strainer is a brilliant idea, their promise of “premium” coffee with
their own brand is totally misguided. The owners and inventors of the concept,
which I met this afternoon, would benefit far more from this patented,
registered trademark coffee preparation process by selling the concept to an
already well known coffee/beverage distributor, like Starbucks or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
The consumer enters the contract blindly, willing to acknowledge
the cleverness of the concept and yet unaware of the quality of the coffee
itself. Here, Caffè Borsa meets two challenges, promoting a different form of
coffee consumption and promoting their own brand of coffee. Selling a new brand
of coffee itself can be a challenge, combining the two might perk interest… no
pun intended… but the concept would be better served by a company with market
leadership. The Hand Drip concept coupled with the popularity and proven profitability
of the Starbucks brand would eliminate the struggle and cost of self-promotion.
The taste of the coffee was smooth, the concept and the
taste worked well together and yet the product was not memorable enough or
enticing enough to lure me to pay $7 for 8 cups of coffee or $1 for 1 packet of
their no-name, unstated, seemingly “regionless” coffee. I examined their clean,
well presented brochure only to cringe inside at some of the claims of
practicality… inventing reasons for people to bring their own coffee to work or
to travel. They make the bold statement that their product is better than “buying
lackluster, overpriced brews on the go.” Frankly, sadly, I think that’s exactly
what they are selling.
New businesses excite me, and I never wish any ill but I
hate to see good ideas fail because of misdirection. I wish Caffè Borsa all the
best, but this is a case in point in understanding your core competencies and realistically
facing your position in a highly saturated market. Know what you can do and
what you can’t; know when to be a self-starter, and when to let the veterans
sell your idea for you. *
Their positioning is terrible, why are they trying to get people to buy-into travel coffee? People are already sold on that idea on BYOC "Bring your own coffee". They need to focus on the superiority of the process, for any coffee type to get a bigger market, and maybe even partners.
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