From blah to brilliant...this isn't your father's coffee vending experience

 

“We all know that big payoffs come from big risks,” say our favorite authors, Bob Eckert and Jonathan Vehar, but it’s not easy to take those risks. Our instinctive reaction to “something new” is most likely to fight it or run from it. That’s why courage and curiosity are such important components for building a culture of innovation. (Get more on that in our free white paper, “Courage in the face of the status quo: An essential value for Innovation Leadership.”)

 Consider the risk UK-based Costa Coffee faced when approached by Coffee Nation about forming a new and innovative brand alliance.

Costa Coffee was founded on the promise of delivering a unique blend called Mocha Italia, produced from freshly ground beans with distinctive flavors and aromas made by specially trained, highly skilled baristas and served in traditional coffee houses.

Coffee Nation focused on dispensing coffee through vending machines. Granted, they were using an important, new process that replaced powdered ingredients with guaranteed-fresh, real milk, but still—not what one usually thinks of when longing for a flavorful, aromatic caramel latte.

Thus, the risky challenge: take a top-line, coffee-house experience and make it available “on the go” without sacrificing Costa Coffee’s mission, to save the world from mediocre coffee.

It took some innovative thinking to put these two brands together as a growth strategy, but an initial partnership was formed, and the resulting concept was a hit. With courage, curiosity, and a big helping hand from Intel, who provided the technological genius, the partners created a revolutionary new "smart vending" machine that’s designed to appeal to all 5 senses. You can “get a taste” of the marvelous Costa Express here.

 

 

The business results? Costa Coffee’s giant parent company, Whitbread, wound up buying Coffee Nation in 2011. An aggressive growth strategy is in place to triple the number of dispensers in places where a 24-hour café is not feasible – such as airport terminals, train stations, and hospitals. Whitfield recorded a huge 32.2% increase from its Costa Coffee and Costa Express  brands for the fourth quarter of 2012.

Learning about the value of innovation with New & Improved while drinking a Costa Express cappuccino—now that’s a brand marriage made in heaven.