Second-largest gourmet coffeehouse retailer and one of the thorns in Starbucks’ side, Caribou Coffee is rolling out their first TV from Colle+McVoy below. Get Real covers on the chain’s focus on handcrafted drinks. (Isn’t anything prepared in restaurants crafted by hand? I think it must be!) But, the bigger jab here is right at SB with this “Real People” go to Caribou theme. Hmmm, at the risk of someone going, dude, seriously, it’s just a TV spot, time to get a little more real.
Based on the stories from a family member who worked there, real assholes frequent the place too. Plenty of stories about customers with the same attitude as the puppets have sounded as bad as ones I’ve heard from not only SB, but Dunkin’ Donuts’ employees as well, so is “real” really a real way to go here? if we’re talking ingredients only, then yes.
But, since brand positioning doesn’t live in a vacuum, it’s hard to discount the perception that “real” coffee drinkers have of people who go to… gourmet coffeehouse retailers. Speaking of, if any brand should/could/would claim that “real” moniker, it would have to be Dunkin’ and their blue collar ethos, something they seemed to have owned from the get.
This spot is also ahead of new product development that Caribou is planning and begs the question for the industry at large: When is there is simply going to be a chain that makes/focuses/sells one thing: Coffee.
Could Caribou just end up as the next iteration of too many products to count SB ?
Look at the aforementioned DD. They used to sell, wait for it, coffee and donuts. Now, it’s anything you want it to be: Breakfast. Smoothies. Coolattas. Duh-amn. All this does is create a positioning opportunity for a future upstart to simply ask:
“Remember when [ insert brand ] actually sold coffee?”
But man, not gonna lie, that chocolate thing looks uh-MAZING.
