Costa goes back to school to find growth
Guest post from David Nichols, Managing Partner (Global) and head of invention
I was attending an
open day at a school recently and was surprised to hear the Headmistress
inviting potential parents to visit their Costa café. Sure enough, there was a small but fully operational Costa with staff and students enjoying ‘grown up’ coffee at break times. Costa is the UK’s no.1 coffee chain and
competes with Starbucks, Cafe Nero and a host of other chains for high street
locations.
The market has
become hugely competitive with coffee shops seemingly every other store in busy
town centres. Costa has been hard at
work developing new formats to extend its reach, find new "routes to consumer" and grab more ‘share of
throat’. They have Costa Express
self-service vending machines popping up in garage forecourts and offices, a
‘Proud to Serve’ offering for pubs, bars, and restaurants. They have also
successfully pushed into Travel & Leisure, Hospitals and higher education. There are even a few ‘Drive-Thru’ Costa
stores!
The push into schools is the next part of this strategy. Here are some take-outs from what they have done:
Niche can be good: Too often marketers see the word ‘niche’
and turn away. But many niches can be profitable if you can be the leader brand in the defined segment. Which
is the most profitable car company?
Porsche, the leader in high performance sports cars. Which
Laptop maker makes the most profit?
Apple, the leader brand in premium computers over $1,000 vs the ubiquitous laptop PC. Costa have discovered a niche full of
untapped coffee occasions and with just a little tweak of their business model
have accessed it.
Go Early: The other benefit to this approach is that Costa is driving trial amongst a whole new generation of coffee drinkers. Serve them well and keep the brand relevant
and teenagers will leave school with a taste for Costa coffee rather than
Starbucks. This is a long term brand
building benefit but is the equivalent of Pampers making sure they are the
first to be offered to new mothers (usually before they even leave the
hospital) to ensure they are mum’s trusted brand for the duration.
New distribution sells
more: We’ve said it time and time again, but new distribution is the only
sure way to increase sales. Increasing
your Twitter followers or Facebook ‘Likes’ may feel good, but there is no
direct way to see if it helps you sell more.
Conversely, if you put your products on sale in more places you will
sell more. Period. Costa have done just
that and, if they run with it fast enough, may sew up the lions share of this
market before the others can get in.
Summary
Profitable niches
exist in many markets – even yours. As
society evolves, things that may once have been impossible (cafes in schools)
start to become realistic opportunities.
Keep looking for new distribution, or just go back to school like Costa
have.
N.B. Their next
step is taking on the mighty Nespresso, Brandgym’s ‘best brand in the world’ no
less. They have teamed up with Tassimo
to create their own in-home coffee ‘system’ to try and grab a share of the
large ‘at home’ posh coffee market.
