Coffee isn’t coffee.
Coffee is social facilitation
Coffee is a distraction
Coffee is a ritual
Coffee is a reason to meet
Coffee is micro generosity
Coffee is time out
Coffee is a representation of personality and economic status.
Coffee is very rarely a beverage which is a mild stimulous, or thirst quencher. More often it’s one of the ideas above. With this in mind what other categories are waiting to be reinvented to form part of the social structure. As humans we are social creatures, and every now and again a marketing campaign emerges around some form of product which builds in our genetic social dynamic, and when this happens, the category and business is changed forever. The good news for entrepreneurs is that it’s usually the domain of a startup, not an all powerful incumbent.
