There’s a good chance that person holding up the line with his tall-soy-caramel-macchiato-latte-with-no foam order is cringing, too: New research from KitchenAid finds that more than 50% of coffee drinkers have felt afraid to say their coffee order out loud.
The appliance maker smells an opportunity in that rising tide of café culture shame. It recently introduced home espresso machines to appeal to DIY baristas.
“People don’t want to be seen as fussy,” says Mitchell Cooper, brand manager for KitchenAid Small Appliances. “We've all had that experience of going to a coffee shop, and the line is five or six people deep. The machines are loud, and you hear this complex drink order being shouted up and down the line. And people worry that they’re being judged or that they’ll wind in some barista’s TikTok somewhere.”
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He tells Marketing Daily that KitchenAid, owned by the Michigan-based Whirlpool Corp., is new to the home-brew market, launching the new four-model line in April. It recently held a pop-up in Brooklyn called Caffeine Confessions to build awareness, promising attendees that nothing was off the menu.
Visitors entered a private booth and spilled the beans on their most intricate and cherished coffee drink. They were then led to the KitchenAid Café, where their drink was whipped up using one of the machines. Jennifer Garner, a brand partner, also filmed an episode of her Instagram-based cooking show using the KitchenAid appliances.
While overly intricate coffee orders have been American punchlines since 1990s-era shows like “Friends” and “Frasier,” the rapid rise of plant-based milks has added new layers of complexity.
Cooper says KitchenAid applied the strict design lens of its iconic stand mixer when developing the new machines.
The collection includes three fully automatic versions and a semiautomatic espresso maker for people who prefer to be more hands-on with their coffee. It is designed to sit proudly on people’s countertops. “Like our stand mixers, these machines are a badge of honor and have curb appeal. These aren’t meant to be stowed away in a cupboard.”
Besides a range of colors -- from juniper to stainless to candy apple red -- the machines are designed to be intuitive and relatively sleek.
“They don’t have that 'mad scientist’ look that so many machines have, and we’ve removed many of the barriers to operation," says Cooper. "Spouts are recessed. Wheels are built into the bottom. A bean hopper makes cleaning easy. They’re also one of the quietest machines on the market, so you don’t have to wake the whole family up when you make your morning latte.”
The pop-up and ongoing promotions are all intended to show off the premium brand’s benefits, “shining a light on KitchenAid’s design point of view. We want to show people how easy it is to bring café culture into their own home, with no shame involved.”