Drinks companies target coffee bar set
cold coffee that is due to appear in supermarkets across the US,
reports Reuters.
Everyone wants to be involved in a "hot" consumer trend - like the cold coffee that is due to appear in supermarkets across the US, reports Reuters.
Pre-packaged coffee drinks from pioneer Starbucks' started migrating to store shelves in 1996. Despite an uneven track record, food and beverage companies are now rushing to appeal to the tastebuds and life styles of the twenty-something coffee bar set with pop-the-top, sweetened, iced cappuccino-like drinks.
"The ready-to-drink market is taking off," said Suzanne J. Brown, marketing consultant at Hope-Beckham Inc. in Atlanta, who has been following the ready-to-drink niche market for years. "It's so convenient."
Iced coffee is consumed mostly by 18- to 24-year-olds, more than twice any other age group, according to the NCA's 2001 National Coffee Drinking Trends survey. Of 107 million daily coffee drinkers, the National Coffee Association found there were two million daily drinkers of iced/cold coffee beverages, an additional six million weekly drinkers, plus another 41 million occasional drinkers, all of whom are just as likely to drink the beverage in the afternoon or evening as in the morning.
Statistics like these have attracted a number of big consumer product companies to this market - PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Morningstar Foods, a division of Dean Foods Company, and Coca-Cola, among others. However early entry into the US market for Nestle proved to be hard with its Nescafe canned product flopping in the United States several years ago, although it is doing well in European markets.
Ready-to-drink coffee has long been a booming beverage market in Japan, where sales outstrip soft drinks, and coffee can be conveniently purchased from vending machines.
"Coffee drinks are not going to be the next bottled water or sports drinks. They are part of the bloom in non-carbonated beverages that we are seeing. They are going to be good niche products," said Jeffrey Kanter, beverage analyst with Prudential Securities.
Sales of shelf-stable - not refrigerated or frozen - iced coffee products from the top ten brands in supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers were up 6.3 per cent at $103.5 million over the last year, according to Information Resources.
"We're at or near a double-digit rate of growth for the first years but coming from a low base. We are a $350 million to $400 million retail category, with bottled Frappuccino 90 per cent of the ready-to-drink category," Keith Reimer of the North American Coffee Partnership said, referring to Starbucks' trademark bottled drink.The partnership, a joint venture between Starbucks and PepsiCo, recently rolled out the DoubleShot canned espresso beverage, meant to be served over ice or chilled.
"Frappuccino hits the sweet spot of the young professional or college student and the soccer mum looking for a sweeter or more indulgent afternoon drink," Reimer said referring to the ideal demographic.
DoubleShot, in a 6.5 ounce can, is being positioned as a chilled morning beverage to kick-start the day and plays to a slightly older demographic, according to Reimer.In 1998, the Havana Cappuccino line was introduced by the North American Beverage of Ocean City, New Jersey. "We are targeting anybody who likes coffee," said John Imbesi, president of North American Beverage."We also make the only diet and caffeine-free product we know of on the market. About ten to 12 per cent of grocers' customers have some dietary restrictions," Imbesi said.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola jumped in and bought the Planet Java company including the bottled-drinks line in January 2001 from founder Larry Trachtenbroit and a group of investors.Using the keep-it-simple method, Trachtenbroit and his staff just asked people what they were looking for.
"I didn't have the money for focus groups. In three weeks, we went from bottle to final flavours," he said referring to his simplified test marketing approach.Planet Java now has three flavours to appeal to the hip coffee-drinking set - Javadelic, a low-fat offering, Caramocha which is a coffee chocolate-caramel flavour, and Tremble with enhanced caffeine.
