You may be wondering why this space is so quiet. I am still superbusy at work. We're working hard to complete a project to a deadline early next month. My life for the moment is just about working and working out after work. Coffee at work can hardly be called coffee, and doing espresso when I get home late in the evening is not a good idea if I want to get some sleep:). I do try to stop by Stockfleths every now and then to get some of their supberb shots.
I've been reading a norwegian book called "Ona fyr" lately. It is a very nicely written, and funny discussion on why some companies and organizations are more successfull than others, and about consumer behaviour. The author writes about "tribal behaviour", our need to feel we are a part of something and how dreams sell. Good stories sell. It got me thinking about the consumer espresso phenomenon. I think many of us have an inner dream of working as a barista or maybe a drive to recreate that mind blowing coffee experience that we once had vacationing in the homeland of the espresso, Italy. It is also of course connected to lifestyle. We want to bring that coffee experience into our homes and be able to serve great coffee to our friends and family. It is not all about 9 bars, double boilers etc.
The author (who works in advertising) shows an add he and his company made for a travel operator called Saga. The whole add is about why people have more sex when they are on vacation in lets say Spain where the climate, culture, food etc is great. The ad was supposed to be about how people could save money by ordering before a certain date etc, but the author realized people don't care about that all, and decided instead to focus on peoples dreams and desires. They managed to increase Saga's sales by 46 %. Saga's switch board totally collapsed when an armada of customers called in.
Btw, don't you just love the new podcasts at portafiler.net and coffeegeek? Be sure to check them out.
