To elevate a dispensed beverage program, make customization the core, Kyle Drenon, co-CEO of Supper Co., said Monday at CSP’s Dispensed Beverages Forum in Lombard, Illinois.
The product that convenience stores sell is not just liquid in a cup anymore, it’s the experience of building it, said the co-owner of the Springfield, Missouri-based ad agency.
“It's about creating something that makes people dance in their kitchen,” Drenon said. “And it's about the ability to create something specific for each individual in a way that no other category can.”
Customization has been around for a long time, but it is growing, Drenon said.
“Sixty percent of all orders at Starbucks are customized in some way—and 80% when they use the Starbucks app for rewards,” he said.
Starbucks in March launched an ube flavor, Drenon said. “They’re really pushing it hard right now, and I think it's mostly because of purple, because people want to carry around a purple drink because customization is so, so very important. And for Starbucks, customization isn’t just a feature anymore, it’s their entire business model.”
7-Eleven did this as well with its Anything Flows campaign that it launched in 2023. The Irving, Texas-based c-store chain partnered with rapper Flo Milli and introduced a couple of LTO flavors and redesigned the cup and logo, Drenon said.
“They saw 20% in new-to-brand visitors from Gen Z. That’s all they did. New cup, new logo, a couple new flavors” and Milli, he said.
“That’s all it takes to make a big change in how many people from certain areas are going to come into your store for your dispense beverage program,” he said.
The ideal result is to create fans that express themselves with a convenience-store’s products on social media, Drenon said.
“And have them create content about their unique drink creations,” he said, adding that videos are common and get huge engagement on social media.
Customers can’t wait to share their beverage creations, posting videos on social media as a form of self-expression, Drenon said, sharing a TikTok video of a “Blue Jolly Rancher 7 Brew Fizz order.”
“It’s a badge that they carry with them around as a symbol of who they are as a person,” he said. “That’s what beverage is about.”
And if c-store retailers give customers the option to customize their beverages, it’s like creating a Gen Z candy store, he said.
7 Brew drive-thru coffee has had huge success focusing on having an array of customization options.
“In a very unique way, beverage has become like a fashion accessory, he said. “That purple color of the ube is something that you might use to match your outfit. Or the blue fizz, maybe you put on a blue hat or blue eyeliner. That’s legitimately what people do with you, and then they tout it in the digital world.
“They do it in the physical world, too, but in the digital world it goes a lot further than just where they are, and more and more people see that,” he said.