I like to cook by inspiration, which means that when I go shopping I generally trawl up and down the aisles seeing what strikes my fancy. But not with coffee. With coffee I know exactly what I want: very dark roast, smooth, not acidic, espresso grind, with a hint of bitterness to keep it interesting. But what I got was unpleasant tradeoffs.
Difficult Choices
My grocery offer a huge variety of choice:
by origin (Sumatran; Kenyan, etc.);
by species (?) Arabica or blends;
by roast (dark roast, medium roast, light roast);
caffeinated or decaffeinated;
Fair Trade or … ?
Organic vs …?
But with all that choice I still couldn’t get exactly what I wanted – so instead of being gratified by choice, I was unhappy.
Could it be that you are providing your customers the same discomfort my grocery store was providing me?
More choice required me to choose against things I wanted, as well as for. For example, since it is was possible to choose fair trade, it felt really unpleasant to choose what felt like ‘unfair’ trade. Or chemical rather than organic. Not to mention the flavour I particularly wanted. So whatever choice I made out of the huge variety I was presented with, felt wrong. And I felt bad.
In trying to give me so much choice, my supplier was actually giving me a bad time.
Easy choices vs Difficult choices
Some choices are mutually exclusive. These are easy. For example, if you want dark roast coffee you can’t have light roast. But other choices are really difficult: Dark Roast or Fair Trade? Fair Trade or Organic. How can you decide between them – I mean how many units of ‘making sure farmers in Colombia are reasonably compenated for their work’ = making sure they farm free of chemicals? And selfishly, how many units of pleasure do I get from drinking dark roast, compared to the units of smugness I get from feeling I am contributing to a better living for a farmer elsewhere?
Could these difficulties be mine alone?
This is where things get really important. Because back then I used to feel that I was alone in sweating the choice between fair trade and dark roast. But one day Marks & Spencers, one of Britain’s key retailers, present in virtually every town in England, took a gamble, and made all of their coffee fair trade and environmentally sound. Their sales of coffee went up 12% that year.
12% growth in one year?
And it wasn’t just coffee. They started to distinguish themselves with a programme called “look behind the label” in which they spoke about how they worked with the supply chain from field to shop floor – ensuring conditions were good, trade equitable, environmental practices sound. Sales rose, their stock market price rose, and they reversed years of decline. [insert graph]
Why did this work so well?
It turns out that making your customer’s difficult choices easy unleashes huge good will and loyalty. For example, Whole Foods, Wild Oats and similar retailers dominated growth in the grocery sector for over a decade because they positioned themselves as “no bad choices” in the stores. Customer’s didn’t need to feel they were sacrificing taste to ethics, or the reverse.
And this wasn’t just true for food stuffs: when the Mall of America in Minnesota, one of the largest, if not the largest mall in the world, decided to run a pilot collection programme for used electronics, they had filled all the storage capacity they had provided for the entire programme, on the morning of the first day. People didn’t show up with the electronics that had just broken down. They showed up with 15 years of electronics that were too good to throw away – but not useful enough to find a home.
That pent up demand is your opportunity
Your customers are aching to make choices that meet their immediate and selfish desires, and still support their values.
So take a look at your offer and ask yourself the following questions:
- Would I be willing to have my family visit the entire supply chain for this product? Would your family be shocked if they saw where your supplies come from? For example, would they see sustainable forests or clear cutting? workers in protective gear, or exposed to danger? I bring in your family because it is such a good test of values. If you can only explain your work by saying “it’s just business”, you’re giving up the values that keep your customers content with their choices. It’s worth visiting your suppliers, and finding out for yourself.
- Do I have a good story to offer my customers about this product’s journey after they’ve used all they can? It’s difficult to know exactly what happens to your product and it’s packaging once it’s been used. Yet that is where your customer has their last strong emotional moment: can they recycle it? Do they have to struggle to dispose of it – and will that be expensive? Are there elements in it that are somehow dangerous to the environment? The better they feel about their choices at this point, the warmer their feelings towards you and your company.
A yes to these two questions is a yes to comfortable choices for your customers, and a no to uncomfortable trade-offs.
No bitter brew
Some days when I went to buy coffee, I couldn’t stand having to make the unpleasant trade-offfs, and I would leave the store empty-handed. The last thing your customers want, and the last thing you want your customers to do!
When you give your customer comfortable choices, they’ll have all the satisfaction of their favourite cup of coffee, and a clean conscience too.
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