TCMBA #5 - Position Innovation in Specialty Coffee
This is the fourth in a six-part series about innovation.
In the last three emails we identified that:
1. Specialty coffee won’t be able to realize the profitability it needs if we don’t start innovating.
2. Product innovation requires consumer-focused thinking.
3. Process innovation can be incremental and is key in the long-term sustainability of any business.
(click on each to catch up if you're new here or need a refresher)
This week is all about Position Innovation.
Position Innovation is when you change the perception of your product or service. It can be that you’re changing the context in which it’s introduced or you’re addressing an entirely new audience.
Why would you innovate the positioning of your products?
It can be the key that unlocks your full potential!
It can help you find more enthusiastic customers or a more lucrative business model.
Here are some examples of Position Innovation:
🏠 Airbnb went from providing lodging during conferences when room availability was low to repositioning toward broader holiday and personal travel.
📚 Amazon went from books, to buy everything, to in-home technology.
🏥 Henry Ford Hospital repositioned from a sick person’s institution to a venue for taking charge of your health and meeting with providers. Design consultants from the Ritz-Carlton revamped the entire facility and experience.
☕ Starbucks only sold coffee bags and spices before repositioning into a place to drink coffee.
As you can see in these example, Position Innovation changed the nature of these businesses as well as their level of success.
Let’s look at Airbnb a little bit more…
Think about Airbnb as a business right now. How do they play into your vacation or business planning? Do you know anyone who hasn’t stayed at an Airbnb? Those folks are becoming few and far between.
Now think about what that company would look like today if they had stuck with their original conference concept.
It might be a great lifestyle business, but it wouldn’t be nearly its current size.
Remember, this view is in hindsight. At the time, repositioning can feel daunting, especially if you have a few loyal and vocal customers who don’t like change.
✳️ Repositioning can feel risky (and sometimes it is). Consider if you’re really up for it and keep thinking about the long game. ✳️
I was an early adopter of Airbnb. My first stay was one night in Tucson when a friend and I were driving from Los Angeles to Austin. We rented a room in a townhouse with a family.
While it was a lovely experience with a sunset swim and a house smell that told you someone was an amazing cook, my friends and family thought I was crazy. They would never consider staying in someone else’s home, even if they had the whole place to themselves.
That’s the thing about Position Innovation, you may lose a bit of your existing audience. That might hurt, but remember what you’re building. It should be bigger and better than what was possible to achieve before.
And as with Airbnb, it’s sometimes a long-game.
✳️ Expect a consumer journey. It may not look like a home run right away. Budget time for people to “get it” and help them get there. ✳️
🚧 A warning about Position Innovation 🚧
If you want a lifestyle business, if you’re not looking for growth, then consider if this is right for you.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a place to show up to everyday that fits into your life and meets your needs.
First consider if opening your products and services up to a larger or different audience would threaten the life you’ve built. No need to invest in something you don’t actually want!
Here are some ways to start thinking about Position Innovation:
❓ Do you have an accidental audience?
❓ Is there a group of people who love what you do that wasn’t intentional?
✔️ Start making it intentional. Those people are telling you something!
My favorite example that I’ve probably exhausted… are you the community cyclists’ favorite café? Awesome, what can you do to start bringing in even more cyclists?
If there’s a product they already love (coffee blend or menu combo — maybe a cortado and a croissant?), could you rename, restyle it, create a “special” so that it is directed at that community?
❓ Is there anything in your business that is transferrable (think about job hunters switching industries and using skills from one type of job in another type of job)?
❓ Evoking Airbnb, is there a product or service that you already have that could be extended into a new market or area of a market?
Taking the example from the Product Innovation newsletter, if you make an amazing signature drink that everyone loves, could you formulate it into an instant coffee cachet so that customers can take it anywhere and just add water? With Contract Manufacturers these things are totally possible!
❓ Are there strategic partnerships you could make to reach new audiences who share your values?
If your mission is sustainability, could you participate in Imperfect or Misfits Market so already-engaged consumers can trial your product?
Maybe you know your target audience is middle to high income professionals. Are there companies you could partner with who have the audience you’re after? Like Thrive Market or a local boutique kitchenwares shop?
Could you do a give-away and populate your mailing list in partnership with a brand that feels simpatico?
Remember:
Repositioning can feel and be risky. Proceed with caution.
Expect a consumer journey. Take a long-view.
When you’re ready for help, here’s how we can work together:
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