Coffee, Marketing and Dreams

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The articles of Cassandra Crossing I'm under license CC BY-SA 4.0 | Cassandra Crossing is a column created by Marco Calamari with the "nom de plume" of Cassandra, born in 2005.

Cassandra and coffee, going beyond just coffee.

This article was written on June 4, 2023 from Cassandra

Coins by Cassandra 546/ Coffee, Marketing and Dreams

Coffee as a dream and not just as a pleasure. A triumph for marketing?

Cassandra has lived other times small but particular episodes, which can be transcribed almost by themselves in a short article.

It even happens that the result deals with non-trivial topics, but on this evaluation and on the actual results the 24 relentless readers will, as always, have the last word.

Cassandra was just having a chat with a great lifelong friend, and to prolong the meeting she had accompanied him on a short shopping trip.

It just happened that the longest and most demanding of these was in a shop that sells coffee, and not just any brand, but a multinational that manages a very important brand, that manages refined and expensive shops that are not only single-brand but single-product, seasoning them with large doses of elegant prime time commercials.

Following her friend, Cassandra found herself visiting such an establishment for the first time, despite it being only two hundred meters from home. To give an idea of the grandeur and size of the place, located fifty meters from the Duomo, consider that it previously housed (so nostalgic!) a huge shop selling records, CDs, musical instruments, DVDs and other multimedia merchandise on two floors and you're facing. Rent such a place; not a few tens of thousands of Euros per month.

Now the shop has been completely transformed by an excellent architect, who, in the presence of so much unnecessary space, abolished the first floor, making the ceilings of the shop as high as those of a temple. Everything is played out, as it happens, on shades of brown and cream, the half-empty display cases to enhance the display of a few kitchen banalities. Every object, every piece of furniture, every furnishing tirelessly exudes excellent brand building.

The organization of the shop includes small numbers and three queues with a monitor that scans the numbers, like at the airport check-in, but in the name of luxury.

Very few but extremely motivated aspiring customers waiting are wandering around me, touching coffee machines, watching videos, reading signs of complex special offers. Their patience seems infinite, like people who pleasantly wait, aware that they are about to be rewarded with something beautiful.

The clerks behind the counter welcome the customer with great competence and availability, repeatedly consult the terminal, review previous purchases, discuss discounts and illustrate purchasing opportunities, optimize the amounts and fill bags with boxes, boxes and boxes, while the total rises at jewelery levels.

Their patience seems to never end, waiting for the customer's needs or financial resources to run out. A quick flash of the credit card, almost a vulgar act in the midst of so much sacredness, concludes the service and, while the lucky person walks away with the elegant paper bags, another customer eagerly takes his place.

Now, let's be clear, the coffee is very good and the price, even if it is a multiple of that of the supermarket, is still a small fraction of the price charged in any bar.

But it's just coffee. What did the very satisfied customer actually buy?

Certainly the coffee, but also an experience, like the one you pay dearly for in a theme park, like Disneyland.

A highly refined marketing activity welcomed, enveloped and accompanied the customer from the moment they approached the shop window. It met expectations, promptly creating others for next time, thus further building customer loyalty, where still possible.

Beyond coffee, the customer has bought a dream, a status symbol, a strong dose of belonging and self-esteem. All for a much lower price than a visit to a designer boutique or a stadium season ticket. Lower, certainly, even than the price of a visit to a therapist, or that of using other addictive drugs.

From the point of view of the good of the planet, however, a good part of what is spent will finance the marketing activity of the advanced tertiary sector, instead of remunerating the costs and work of the entire supply chain that produced and brought the infinite cans to the counter. Here the out-of-pocket costs are only a small fraction of the prices, since marketing translates into significant extra costs.

After all, coffee satisfies a need; from the scent that delights to the caffeine that keeps us awake and alert. Dreams, on the other hand, are sometimes what give us the strength to live; all human beings have the right not only to the satisfaction of their needs, but also to their dose of dreams.

Marco Calamari

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