Ómos Digest #43: (dis)loyalty means everything

How the coffee industry has manifested collectivity.

Morning ritual by Samuel Arnold Keane

I found out this week that Starbucks has over 20 million loyalty card holders. It makes sense. A circle of caffeine stimulated individuals with a routine of buying coffee at the conveniently located Starbucks throughout their respective cities. Personally speaking, loyalty schemes have never done it for me and nor has Starbucks coffee for that matter. While I wouldn't call myself disloyal, my lack of routine, preference for independent coffee shops and fleeting schedule has me in all directions, meaning, one loyalty card quickly becomes an entire deck. So what’s the answer for someone like me? Well, it might come in the form of a dis-loyalty card. 

A disloyalty card is an ingenious initiative started amongst independent coffee shops in Washington D.C. I came across the scheme when reading Jenn Rugolo’s article on Vittles, which takes a deep dive into the value of coffee. Struggling to compete with the powerhouse coffee franchises, these independent shops decided to come together and establish a collective disloyalty scheme. The card encourages coffee holders to visit each of the selected coffee shops where they receive a stamp with their purchase and are rewarded with a free coffee once the card is full. The campaign has now spread throughout a number of cities, including D.C.,  Toronto, Edinburgh and London. In fact, the disloyalty card is one of the cornerstones of Helsinki Coffee Week. Gavin Smart from Sprudge Coffee Publication states that in Scotland, “what unites the cafes is their focus on quality and consistency; their environment of open, friendly, and well-natured competition keeps the standards high for all involved, including any new specialty cafe that arrives on the Edinburgh scene.” There are different rules for different cities to ensure the redeemed offering of coffees is fairly distributed. For example, in terms of how many cafes participate and if the free coffee can be obtained at any cafe or via the cafe the card originated. 

Collaboration over competition

Jenna Sedmak from SME Strategy believes that, “the disloyalty card breeds a more cooperative business strategy that can help multiple businesses grow and expand their network. Each cafe in this instance has an opportunity to grow and expand. By participating in this program, each small cafe can focus on expanding upon what makes their cafe unique, instead of only competing with their rivals.” I love the thought of industries getting behind one another with the mindset of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’. It has the potential to redefine how businesses regard one another's presence in a way that everyone thrives. It could also have an impact on communities and neighbourhoods, allowing for cross-pollination in fostering new ways of thinking. Just look at how restaurants and coffee shops emerging within underprivileged neighbourhoods has resulted in gentrification, with entire communities growing around them. It’s something the government and perhaps the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O Brian, might look into more deeply by revitalising the derelict inner city buildings. If you provide hospitality with the mechanics to grow within neighbourhoods, you see an entire community be lifted and grow around it. 

What I find surprising is that the disloyalty card has been around since 2015, so why haven't we seen it being implemented here in Ireland? Part of the answer could lie in mentality. In recent days I spoke to a wine sommelier who expressed her desire to learn from her peers, stating she is in “sponge” mode at the moment! She had contacted a number of the elite restaurants questioning whether she could spend a week working with them. A form of short term internship for the vastly experienced you might say. The idea was simple: someone with education, pedigree and accolades spends time in your restaurant and sees how you do things, imparting their knowledge along the way. It has a collaborative purpose, almost like a guest dinner, but without an audience (nor the media attention). Both parties work together and in turn each learn and benefit from one another's experience and differing methods. You would like to think it’s a concept restaurants would jump at... Unfortunately, I learnt that not all organisations were open to the concept and this sommelier was left despondent. This makes me wonder where the guarded reluctance to collaborate stems from.

In truth, it's often the case that players fear competition. Their opinion is that they value the greatest control, owning the biggest slice of the pie, in this instance, the market share. They come from the scarcity mindset that in order to do well, others must underperform. But in reality, those with the most symmetrical businesses collaborate. We see it in industries across the globe. In Formula 1, eight time world champions Mercedes-Benz provide their engines to McLaren; Honda to the high performing Redbull; and Ferrari, who need no introduction, give engines to Haas. Then there’s Canon who supplies its photocopiers to Kodak, while Motorola needs Toshiba’s distribution capacity to break into the Japanese semiconductor market (I have no idea what a semiconductor is). In fashion, brands use each other's audiences to leverage their brand. We see this with Fendi and Skims, Gucci and Balenciaga and Yeezy and Adidas. This demonstrates that in reality, while these companies never forget that the competitors are in fact competitors, when they enter alliances with clear strategic objectives, the outcome is always one of greater learning and growth. 

Come together

There’s no doubt that coffee builds community. The disloyalty card is the fruit of that compulsion. Surely this paradigm of thinking can act as a catalyst for others' evolution. It has the ability to work across various industries and sub-industries, or greater still, it could be an opportunity for a multitude of disciplines. I would love to see this approach adopted by our independent coffee shops in Ireland and I wholeheartedly believe we can go beyond coffee on this one. A collective shift in mentality evokes a sudden shift in interaction. Restaurants can all benefit from each other's success - groceries, bakeries, wine shops, butchers, fishmongers, florists and even cinemas could all experience new clientele. Togetherness and rising standards can encourage people out of their habits, developing new interactions, expanded horizons and an ever-developing industry in unison.