Can you name the largest chain of coffee bars in the U.S.? Of course you can.
It’s Starbucks.
Can you name the second largest? Not so easy, is it?
It’s Caribou. And a distant second it is indeed, its 423 U.S. locations trying to emerge from the nearly 9,000 shadows of Starbucks stores with which they must compete.
So Caribou, attempting to get a respectable share in any part of the coffee market not already saturated with Starbucks brew, decided it needed a new, and serious, sidekick.
Caribou called on an old friend, Coca-Cola, whose soft drinks and bottled water it had already agreed to carry in its coffee bars in June 2003.
Coca-Cola, itself looking to regain some of the consumer interest which has shifted from carbonated drinks to coffee over the past decade, has decided that having a coffee beverage in the family is not, after all, such a betrayal of its signature beverage.
Hitting the U.S. supermarkets in time to capitalize on the heat of summer 2007 will be a line of premium bottled and canned iced coffee. It will directly compete with the Starbucks’/PepsiCo Frappucino line, which has held a 93% share of the ready-made iced coffee market since it vanquished Cokes’ first effort, Planet Java, in 2003.
Coke has also been busy with its own entry into the premium coffee and tea markets, opening, in September 2006, a Toronto “concept” store to showcase its “Far Coast” system for dispensing fresh espresso, cappuccino, and lattes, while dispensing with the need for a barista as well.
But Starbucks has been doing what it does very well for a very long time. It has made its name synonymous with the phrase “premium coffee”. And when any company, in any field, has become established in the consciousness of consumers, only a mighty effort will dislodge it.
The Caribou/Coke coffee consortium, however, could still work aggressively in Caribou’s favor. If it is to have any chance of making inroads on the Starbucks fan base, it need to get noticed. And access to Coke’s distribution system is a giant step in Caribou’s migration.
