Café Coffee Day is changing.

Not satisfied with quenching your coffee cravings, the top team at this coffee retail juggernaut is bent on adding variety to your hunger moods too. By Angshuman Paul

There are two monikers that dot virtually every main street of Bangalore – the first is a liquor shop with the United Breweries board displayed boldly at its entrance and the second is the deep red square of another beverage brand - Café Coffee Day (CCD). Incidentally, both brands have scripted their origin and eventual success from this very garden city. Even the head office of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company (mother company of Café Coffee Day) is located on the Vittal Mallya Road, named after the father of UB Group’s present chairman, Vijay Mallya. Notwithstanding the stark differences in respective turnovers, the similarities between the two brands run even deeper than such skin-deep appearances. UB Group’s flagship brand Kingfisher managed to transcend its almost generic association with beer to boldly venture into the aviation sector; while Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company’s (ABC) 13-year-old flagship brand CCD is now aspiring to do exactly that by moving beyond mere coffee to straddle the gamut of hunger moods of the Indian consumer.

Alok Gupta, Director, Café Coffee Day is especially excited about the positioning revamp for brand CCD and its implications for the coffee retail chain’s future. Donning the role of a barista (see picture) at the spanking new 2,500 sq. ft. Coffee Day Lounge in the heart of Bangalore city, the man and his team had already warmed up for our early morning meeting with their respective cups of Cappucinos (incidentally Cappucino alone contributes almost 30% to the total turnover for CCD) before this author shot off his first query. Why? “Look, there are three categories of consumers at CCD. There are those who want to have coffee; there are the youngsters who wish to hangout and then there are those who want to grab a quick meal. That third category of consumers is growing fast and we want to cash in on to every hunger mood of the consumer so that CCD is the preferred choice even for his meals.

Clearly, ‘HungerMood’ is all set to become their new range of enhanced offerings (from sandwiches to the sweets section) to the consumer with a planned investment of about Rs.150 crore in this fiscal itself. “There will even be more health related products like probiotic yogurt and burgers,” announces Alok. Foodies can also get ready to expect region specific localised menu from CCD in the near future. In fact, the test-marketing of their localised menu has already begun in some regions. In February this year, CCD test-launched the Rajma Chawal meal in select stores in Delhi and NCR; and the month of May saw the rollout of parathas at CCD stores in Punjab and Chandigarh. Maharashtra is next on the localisation radar, but Alok refuses to give any details about the type of menu roll out planned for the state.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).


For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Follow Arindam Chaudhuri on Twitter
IIPM B School on Twitter
Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest blockbuster book, Discover The Diamond In You
IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
IIPM 2-year full time Programme (leading to the award of the MBA degree from IMI)
B-schools expect higher rate of campus placements this year
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
IIPM Best B School – EVENTS
IIPM conceptualized the grand final of Dare ‘10 — the most prestigious of international B-school student quizzes