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Building Future Businessby Brian Martell Speaking to people of recent European origin, you will often find that the age they started drinking coffee is significantly younger than the North American average. North Americans consider coffee to be an adult beverage, partly due to the caffeine content, but also due to our culture. Seeing a 10 year old dangling a cigarette from his mouth is perhaps a little more jarring than the same kid poring over the sports pages with a mug of joe in hand, but the truth remains, both seem out place. In Europe, children are initiated to coffee often by their parents who offer it as a breakfast beverage. Granted, Italian 8 year olds are not swigging straight espressos with their morning panne, but they are drinking coffee beverages, often heavily cut with warm milk and sugar. Conversely, the Canadian school cafeteria would raise eye-brows if coffee was put on the kid’s menu in any form. So what’s the truth about coffee consumption at an early age? Among the 600 odd compounds that make up the taste profile of coffee, the most cited and controversial is caffeine. While caffeine does not impart a significant element to coffee flavour, most parents have the concern that it will make their children more excitable. Indeed, a stimulant is the last thing most kids need. But from a cultural point, most allow their children to drink caffeine-laden pop, so what’s the difference? That difference lies mostly in the fears of children being exposed to a beverage that can be mildly addictive, and addictions to anything are bad (read coffee addictions are perceived as worse than cola addictions). An argument can be made that the market viability of any food product can be traced back to how wide the age group that is consuming the product. Obviously, if the age range is shorter, the market potential will be smaller in relative terms. How, then, do we in the coffee industry responsibly expand the inclusion range? Leaving aside retail, some food service establishments have made great strides in capturing a younger market with the introduction of instant cappuccinos and cold coffee “Frappachino” style beverages. Just like in Europe, North American kids are being exposed to the coffee flavour, with lots of milk and sugar added. From a vending point of view, the creation of new beverages for a younger market (in locations where they are warranted) would go a long way to not only increasing sales, but ensuring future sales when these people mature with an acquired taste for coffee. If you poll most “black coffee” drinkers, you’ll find that they started off drinking coffee fully loaded; some making “double double” look pure. Thus, the possibility of going from a coffee flavoured beverage to real coffee is less of a leap of marketing logic than going from cola to Kona. These new vendable coffee beverages are now, more than ever, possible due to the greater flexibility designed into most new vending machines. Combining brewed coffee with an instant cappuccino or chocolate in proportions suited to younger tastes would be a good step forward, especially if the beverage is given a “kewl” name. For those operators who have location in schools, arenas, and any other location where the average age of traffic is under 18, creatively changing the product offerings can be a boon not only now, but ten years from now. © 2001 Brian Martell |
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