There is a very peculiar feature of all of us herd behaviour.Herd behaviour is the delight for a marketer.Like commoditization where the cost of selling is the determining parameter for companies in case of herd behaviour the same cost is the differentiating factor for companies.About ten years ago places like CCD and Barista were not in vogue.Coffees and tea were best savoured at the local shop acorss the corner.The tea stalls were the most happening places of the city , young would get involved wooing the opposite sex while old would observe them and be critical of this behaviour forgetting that they too did the same at their age.A very pertinent example of how with age and circumstances our choices shift from one thing to another and we forget the same things that we did the most.
But with the passage of time we had these coffeee outlets like CCD and Barista opening up.The initial years when they were opened if in our close circles someone mentioned the point of being at one of these so percieved niche outlets he was looked with awe.CCD , Barista,McDonald etc were all names that were mentioned with esteem.
Fast forward to todays age there would hardly be any one who has not been to a McDonald or a Barista shop.Someof us might argue that the cost is now much more accessible but with a McVeggie at 32 Rs or a Cappucino at 35 Rs cost was not a big deal even then.Though neither the coffee or burger has changed they are the same.Though what has changed is the consumer perception of McDoanld burger or a coffee at CCD.These are no more names looked with awe but a place like the old corner coffee shop where once Manna Dey wrote the legendary song "Coffee house eith shey".The songs would still be there but they would inclucate the changing consumer perceptions and its effect on consumer behaviour.With the all the hype growing about StarBuck what is important is to see when StarBuck looses its status and how quickly consumers replace the existing CCD image with that of StarBuck.
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Its pretty evident that due to old coffee houses are not able to sustain due to changing customer behavior for example B'ore's very old MG road coffee house have to shift from that place because it was like sour in the eye of that road. but still some old are standing heavily on ground for ex Delhi's CP coffee house
Nice. A couple of thoughts.
1. The sellers here we are talking about are not ones like Benetton or Louis Vuitton who want to BE in that niche upper class segment. They are looking at volumes and tapping the large Indian middle class. So it is inevitable that over time, they will look at reaching to all types of customers. In that context, your take on Starbucks losing its ostensibly niche status is not far-fetched at all.
2. The trend also reflects the now beaten-to-death talk of a movement towards Western culture. But I think it's as much about ambience, and hygiene than simply a desire to look upmarket.
For every shift in trend, a retro product is created. And I believe that in the future, we might have coffee houses trying to display a retro nookad-ka-chai-shop feel and appeal to nostalgia among customers.
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