Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Actually, don’t stop me …
Variety is the spice of life.
It’s a cliché; I know. But it is a phrase that quenches, it slakes, it satisfies, it fills … I should stop. But let’s just say it accurately represents what we’ve always known about your customers: They like having a choice, especially where beverages are concerned. Variety in prepared and packaged beverages sates even the choosiest Bubba, Alice or Granny.
(OK, that’s it with the beverage idioms. I promise.)
The truth is, no matter how you spin it, a varied and affordable mix of prepared and packaged beverages prompts purchases of these items. According to our exclusive CSP-Technomic consumer survey, 37% of all respondents said they’d be more likely to purchase beverages if there were a greater variety of options; 43% wanted more affordable drinks.
“More than half of consumers (53%) say that they would like c-stores to offer a wider variety of retail beverages,” says Donna Hood Crecca, senior director of Chicago-based Technomic Inc. “Agreement is even greater among younger consumers. In fact, agreement peaks among consumers 16-44 (66%). … A similar proportion of women (52%) and men (54%) overall would like to see a wider variety of retail beverages at convenience stores.”
The proof is in the coffee bar. It’s in the glut of new products designed to allow your customers to build their own smoothies, their own frozen-yogurt parfaits, their own mocha-chocolata-yayas. We’ve designed our stores around these focal points for a reason. We built it, and now they’re coming.
“Coffee is an intensely personal beverage,” says Jeff Sisarsky, director of hot beverage marketing for Nestlé Professional Beverages, Tampa, Fla. “C-stores with the most successful coffee programs understand that the easiest way for their customers to personalize their coffee is through flavor variety.”
There’s that word again. And now the numbers are beginning to support the notion that bigger is better, that the more options you have on your menu and on your shelves, the more sales you will tally. Consider this the gospel of product assortment, from the fountain with several brand options as well as flavor options to the vast spectrum of bottled waters in your coolers.
“In addition to affordability and variety, quality, taste and health enhancements can likely help to increase sales of prepared beverages,” Crecca says. “Similarly to prepared-food purchase drivers, healthy options are more likely to encourage women (34%) than men (23%) to purchase prepared beverages more often.
“More younger than older consumers indicate that each of the factors … can encourage them to purchase prepared beverages more often, save for more affordable options (younger and older consumers nearly equally agree).”
Despite the data, young or old, male or female, the numbers are nevertheless compelling. And all clichés aside, there’s nothing wrong with battening down the hatches, reading between the lines and spicing it up a bit. All’s well that ends well … and so on.
Click here to view the supporting data for this analysis.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.