The Coffee Business

It’s a mistake to think that your product and your promise are one and the same. That’s too narrow of a view. 

I love our coffee, and I hope other people love our coffee, but I’m not under the illusion that people come to us for coffee. Within a stone's throw of our busiest cafe, there are four other options for specialty coffee. People can make coffee at home for a fraction of the price it costs them to come to Cat & Cloud. 

Our guests don’t have a barrier between them and delicious coffee. That’s not the problem we’re solving.

As a business, having an amazing “product” isn’t exceptional, it’s simply a prerequisite for getting into the game. I’m using product in quotations because, at the end of the day, the real product is the experience we create. Amazing coffee is a necessary component of that experience, but it alone can’t carry the whole experience.

So if you think you’re in the coffee business, you might be right, but if that’s the only business you’re in, you might be in trouble.