Starbucks move into instant coffee market

Is it actually possible to find a good shot?

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Postby mattmills » Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:21 pm

But it is vitally important that different parts of the business are seperated.
Nespresso has done a fantastic job at origin
Kraft have been one of the biggest buyers of coffee supporting producers around the world and are one of the biggest buyers of RFA
Starbucks is Starbucks and has done some great work at origin too.

However, despite saying that whether a company has an origin program or not simply buying coffee keeps things ticking along.

Therefore, please lets take an objective view on these matters.
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Postby Steve » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:36 pm

Have they done a fantastic job in raising quality within the market though? Have they done a fantastic job in raising standards of the market? Lets not get carried away, they made these decisions to make more money and they back RFA and what ever is flavour of the month for monitory reasons.

Just because a band wagon passes buy doesn't mean you can be called out if you don't do the right thing.
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Postby shm » Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:14 pm

I liken *$ and other chains to JK Rowling. Incredibly popular with consumers - getting people to drink more coffee/getting more kids reading but the product is banal and mediocre (as Bill H says). In fact the product is much worse than banal and mediocre and it sets a very low expectation threshold in the consumer. As many have said here - for them it's about $, not coffee and anything they are involved in is about $ and not coffee (or good writing in JK's case).
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Postby Gouezeri » Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:40 pm

Oooh, don't get me started on JK! I loathe those books. Just goes to show what you can do with marketing!

I think I'm with Steve on this (oh the ignominy :wink:): surely the objective is not simply to get people to consume, but to consume quality. I don't think JK gets people reading decent literary works, nor does McD get people eating quality, healthy food. Simlarly *$ may well have made a difference to people's lives at origin, but then so have plenty of charities and I'd rather give my money to them, than buy a product which is and supports mediocrity in every sense.
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Postby mattmills » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:29 pm

But that assumes that everyone is interested in paying for quality.

The statements made are far too sweeping, if we are really to discuss such large issues it needs to be broken down:
Origin effect
Consumer Effect

I am certainly not saying that the big chains strive towards quality, they are business and are in it to make money and create a huge amount of employment. But when we discuss quality we have to look at the mkt.
The move to and the inital success of the Instant Product makes a huge statement, not on the company but on the consumer.
In these times it is the company´s repsonsibilty to survive which is far more important to the thousand of employees.

Taking into account the origin operation, the actions of the huge commercial roasters in essence do far more for the origin countries than the whole of the specialty movement, and impact far more people. Simply through the quantity they buy they keep these countries ticking over. This is not undermine the impact of some great specialty programs, but when you put it into perspective the impact is very small. On top of that we should not assume that small direct programs are just one way, these also have a monetary value to the client.

With regards to Charities, simply by buying products from the Origin you are doing far more good than any charity is able to achieve, and we see this every day. There is no substitute for on going business.
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Postby Gouezeri » Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:18 pm

Interesting comments as ever Matt, it's always nice to have your perspective on things.
I agree that we are looking at these issues in a very wide sense (partly because we have gone somewhat off the original topic), which tends to water down specific arguments.

Bringing things slightly back to *$, the problem I have is with a company that claims to offer "our customers the world's best coffee and the finest coffee experience". I fail to see how this can be achieved by selling instant. Whilst this might be a step in the right direction for their business needs, it clearly has nothing to do with providing the world's best coffee or the finest coffee experience.

The whole social side of thing is too important a discussion to have it tagged on here, it would be much better discussed in a separate thread (if someone wants to start one).
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Postby mattmills » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:23 pm

Hahaha sorry i know i have a tendency to go off on different aspects... will try to keep it in line ;-)

However, your comment i fully agree with.
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