beverages

Colombian Coffee Growers Federation Touts 'Bean Bang Theory'

The Colombia coffee growers marketing group, Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), is launching a campaign in the U.S. to get people to think of where the beans come from, and in the process, to make fun of viral YouTube videos.

The effort, “The Bean Bang Theory,” by Lowe/SSP3, is the Bogota-based organization’s program to get Millennials to recognize the “Café de Colombia” name and trademark. The organization also says it acknowledges Millennials’ sophistication about, and interest in, the provenance of the food and beverages they consume.

The effort kicks off with an online video that features a laid-back expat living in a recreational vehicle on a Colombian coffee plantation. As he rides around the mountainous plantation in a beat-up tractor, and a Jeep he speaks to the camera both about the idiocy of YouTube videos and the beauty of Colombia, using idiotic YouTube videos to demonstrate what really matters: the bean.

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The ersatz travelogue is as much about the beauty of Colombia as it is about the virtue of Colombian coffee beans. When he rams his tractor into a fence, whom should he imagine strolling past but Colombian coffee mascot himself, Juan Valdez. The ad reminds people to look for the image of Valdez framed by a mountain peak on the bags of coffee they are considering for purchase. 

The three-minute video directs people to www.thebeanbangtheory.com, and the effort extends to FNC’s social media platforms — #mindthebean, @cafedcolombiaww, cafedecolombiaww on Facebook, and cafedecolombia on Instagram — as well as various digital channels.

Marcela Jaramillo, the Federation's marketing and advertising director, tells Marketing Daily that the Federation started doing quantitative research in 2012 to understand younger consumers' relationship to coffee. “We found the new consumer is very interested in the coffee experience: they want to learn where it comes from, what makes it good, and what are specifics and attributes.”  

She says while Colombian coffee has well over 90% awareness in the U.S., it is somewhat lower for younger consumers. “That's also part of reason we are focusing on digital media: to be closer to them and the way they are consuming media. The challenge we have is to communicate more the attributes of Colombian coffee and the differences that make it unique.” 

It probably helps things that the days when the biggest-selling coffee was simply “joe” are probably gone. Nowadays, consumers are buying coffees less by brand than by where the beans are from and how they are grown, according to the Specialty Coffee Association of America. The organization says “specialty coffee” is the fastest-growing segment of the coffee business in the U.S. The association defines the term as coffee made from beans from an "accurately defined area, which meets the highest standards for green coffee and for its roasting, storage and brewing.” 

The National Coffee Association's long-running National Coffee Drinking Trends yearly study, last reported for 2013, found that 83% of Americans said they had drank coffee over the year. Hispanic-Americans consume espresso-based beverages at twice the rate of other groups. Ownership of single-cup brewers increased to 12%.

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