Author: Simon

Innovating Context: Sizing

(This post is a part of a series on creating new contexts to retail coffee. See the first post here.)

Let’s think about offering different sizes of a product. Sizing is integral to some products; clothing springs to mind, as well as things like flat screen TVs. More specifically, let’s think about food and drink that comes in different sizes, and what kind of pattern sized offerings are most likely to fit within.

All food and drink that we consume come in a particular size; namely, the size that they actually are. When you order steamed asparagus, they come in a size – you just didn’t choose the size. What I’m mostly concerned with here is taking apart that choosing – what it means to the consumer and her psychology to offer a choice beyond simply “coffee” or “burger” or whatever.

It’s easy to think of things that we commonly order in different sizes; fountain sodas, french fries, ice cream, and so forth. The real question is this: in what context do you generally order a food item that you also choose the size of? We can and do buy soda without choosing a size, mostly in bottles or in sit-down restaurants. When we choose the size of a soda, we’re usually in a fast food joint or highway rest area. We can buy french fries without a size choice, but when we buy french fries WITH a size, where are we? Again, QSRs, rest areas, etc.

Our customers do not exclusively visit our establishments – we as humans like to roam around, and try different things, different places, etc. What that means is that we as humans recognize patterns and then associate outcomes with those patterns. One pattern that exists is eateries offering multiple consistent sizes of different beverages. This is incredibly common, and is a part of the larger world that we are trying to sell coffee in.

I would suggest that if we want to innovate the context in which we serve progressive coffee, we need to consider the effect that offering multiple sizes of beverages can have on our customers. When we see multiple sizes of an offering, especially multiple sizes of every offering, that reminds us, worldly though we may be, of places that are not like our progressive shops. If we want to catch our customers off-guard, to build space for them to be pleasantly surprised by our products, we need to present those products in a context that is not highly reminiscent of places serving a product with the same name (coffee) in the same way (multiple sizes, paper cup). If we sell a cup with the same name, at similar prices, in the same way as folks serving low-grade coffee, then it is irresponsible to expect our customers to spot the excellence in the cup – it’s hidden by the larger patterns at play, like small, medium and large.

Innovating Context


“Men don’t like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience; they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way. A revolutionary organizer must shake up the prevailing patterns of their lives.”  –  Saul Alinsky

 

At Camp Pull-a-Shot East, during one of the group discussions, a point was made that has resonated with me. That point was this; we have gotten very, very good at innovating our products. From superior sourcing and buying methods, to Grainpro, to data-logging roasts, to ever-new espresso machines and protocols to use them. Coffee today is better than it has ever been. What we are not good at is innovating the context in which we sell our new, improved products. To start thinking about innovating context, I’m going to dedicate some posts to just that topic – I don’t know how many, but hopefully more than one!

As humans, we have developed a remarkable ability to recognize patterns. We are able to intake data, interpret it, create correlations, and project those correlations onto the future, letting us create predictions from our past experience. It is easy to see how this kind of mental processing is evolutionarily advantageous. The more we experience a pattern, the stronger our association of that pattern and its correlations become. Every time you see lightning, you expect thunder to follow – it would be strange if it didn’t! By and large, these patterns are useful and informative and don’t really present many problems.

What the problem is, is that we as coffee retailers, are working against human psychology in the way that we sell our products. We are, most of us, trying to sell a unique, lovely, different product within the same context as folks selling lower-quality, less passionate, brew. It is totally reasonable for our customers to be surprised when their cup takes four minutes for a Chemex – their experience up to that moment with that pattern of experience is simple; wait in line, look at overhead menu, order coffee, immediately receive coffee. It is easy to see how this same pattern of experience extends across the spectrum; when a customer is in a grocery store, perusing the coffee offerings, what do they have to justify the higher price point of your whole bean? Their grocery store pattern (as mine, as yours) involves mostly low-cost-hunting, and a hope that you can get home before 7.

I think that the most important thing we can do is to start finding ways to break these patterns. Watch this space!

Subway Violinists and Context

This happened in DC in 2007. The long story is here: http://goo.gl/bEQvk

The short story: a violin virtuoso (not the grinder) who had played a sold-out concert not long before, played a 45 minute set in a DC metro stop. Only one person recognized him, most folks simply carried on through their day. The folks putting this on were mostly concerned about our ability to appreciate art in our lives, etc etc.

It strikes me as a relevant metaphor for much of our progressive coffee industry; we’re trying to make something lovely within an existing context, where expectations are already set up. The music is excellent and superbly performed, but it needs to be presented in a context in which people are prepared to appreciate it.

We make good coffee. What we need to do now is make good contexts..

Camp Pull-a-Shot East 2012 (Part 2)

Previously, I discussed why I see CPAS as an event which presents value for anyone working on the retail end of coffee, and how we can think of that value in a meaningful way. That post is here.

My personal experience with Camp Pull-a-Shot (and BGA programming more generally) in the past has been largely one of skepticism; Living in the northeast, I was a dues-paying member, I personally bought into the mission and future of the BGA, but it was mostly through a desire to invest in the long vision of the Guild – after all, the programming was predominantly offered in places that your workaday barista would find geographically or financially inaccessible, and while the Certifications and educational programs were visible and exciting, it was hard to find a value in them outside of personal satisfaction.

That being said, spending time at CPAS, along with the discussions I had there and elsewhere, I think I am starting to get it. The Barista Guild is an organization truly in its infancy, and any apparent regional shortfalls are due not to intentional favoritism, but rather simply to scarce resources; there are only so many instructors, there are only so many regional representatives. The idea which I had failed to grasp before seems now as plain as the nose on my face; the BGA exists to serve its members. There are very, very few members working in the northeast, so why would a young organization spend its limited resources holding events there? Far better to fulfill and grow areas where there already exists a dedicated base of dues-paying members.

This creates a sort of recruitment Catch-22: we must try to recruit using the equation that more members leads to more programming, avoiding the troublesome fact that there is not yet much of that programming available. We in this region are lucky in that the SCAA Event will be in Boston this year, which is an easy, immediate, and visible example of a way in which BGA membership can be beneficial.

This all ties into the single suggestion I would offer for future organizers of the Camp Pull-a-Shot events. In a very real sense, the folks attending these excellent weeklong retreats are the future leaders of our industry, and likely at the forefront of the coffee scene in their respective hometowns. In recognition of this fact, I would love to see some programming directed toward helping these enthusiasts become organizers.

We could do much both to grow the Guild and grow pockets of progressive coffee passion by creating a toolbox that can be taken home, a guide to putting together throwdowns and hang sessions. This is already happening in Providence and Boston and elsewhere; if we can take the passion that already exists in CPAS attendees and offer them ways to direct it into building a community at home, then we plant the seeds for true leadership. As we grow our memberships ability to organize at home, the better we will be able to extend the reach and resources of the Guild at large. If we could offer a session or two of organizer training alongside the trainings on coffee preparation and production, it would go a long way to invest in our future leaders.