Coffe Cafe Industry- Barista vs Cafe Coffee Day

COFFE CAFE INDUSTRY- BARISTA Vs CAFE COFFEE DAY OBJECTIVE The objective of this project has been to understand the marketing mix of Barista and Cafe Coffee Day and compare the two firms in terms of their operations and other aspects. We took up organized coffee retailing as we wanted to understand what it takes to sell not only a coffee but a whole experience in a country where coffee is not as preferred & popular as tea. The firms that have ventured into coffee retailing business in the country are Cafe Coffee Day, Nescafe Cafe, Cafe Mocha, Georgia Coffee, Chimayo Chains owned Qwiky’s brand of coffee pubs and Barista to name a few.

Out of these we chose Barista and Cafe Coffee Day for our study because of their popularity and wide presence in the country. BARISTA Barista is a specialty coffee retailer offering high quality beverages and food accompaniments. They are pioneers in establishing the concept of “organized coffee retailing as an experience for the customer” at a national level in India.

It is the first Indian coffee chain that has outlets outside India as well. It traces its roots back to the old coffee houses in Italy – the hotbeds of poetry, love, music, writing, revolution and of course, fine coffee.

Barista began its operation in 1999 headed by Amit Judge’s Turner Morrison Group. In a few years since then it saw Tata’s buying a stake in it, being overtaken by NRI Businessman C Sivasankaran, Chairman of the Sterling Infotech group in the year 2004 and finally the NRI selling it to the Italian coffee chain Lavazza.

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Presently Barista operates in India, Sri Lanka and the UAE (catering to 28 cities in India and 2 cities in UAE) with over 160 outlets and generating an annual turnover of 160 crore. PRODUCT

What constitutes a product in an industry that deals with coffee retailing being a service industry like a restaurant? Is it just the coffee? Or is it the charming ambience, the warm yellow/cream decor, the people who frequent the place? Or is it the sumptuous new sandwiches or rolls, the desserts, the pasta, iced tea, other smoothies/drinks? “The emphasis here is on retail as a brand rather than retailers selling brands. The focus is on branding the retail business itself”. Coffee these days no longer symbolizes just a drink that woke you up in the morning or kept you from sleep before a deadline or an examination.

The basic product of a simple drink of coffee has now come to be an expected product of providing an ambience that is both representative of your lifestyle and your similarity to the rest of the coffee crazed world (that makes you a man/woman in tune with the global scenario). Barista recreates the ambience and experience of the typical Italian neighborhood espresso bars in India. The interiors are bright, trendy and comfortable. It also provides one and all this sense of security to especially international visitors with a universal drink- coffee because any customer can walk into any cafe in the world would know what to expect.

It is further augmented with a locale where one could play chess, read books, listen to music, enjoy the arts, surf the Net and sip an Espresso Italiano, or Iced Cafe Mocha. This is what creates a brand and aptly differentiates Barista from all the other coffee retailers. All cafes cater coffee and the like but what you add to that product makes it unique and desirable, i. e. this is what would make a potential customer choose to come to Barista and to Cafe Coffee Day or Starbucks or Mocha’s.

Finally, the potential product is an amalgamation of the tangible good (the coffee along with snacks) and the intangible good (service) that it claims to provide the customer. In spite of the concept of self service unique to Barista it has opened up training institutes to train its staff and world class service. Being a growing industry coffee retailing primarily differentiates itself with its service in terms of ordering ease, delivery, and the quality of its products, it has to keep itself running by constantly improvising itself on the menus and the flavors that it offers to its customers both regular and potential.

Being a consumer good, it can be classified as being a convenience good that be further classified as both staple good (hanging out at Barista may be a routine for many people, young professionals) and impulse good (for people who happen to pass by the wonderfully attractive and comfortable shop after a day of shopping or hard work). It has a long list of product mix as indicated in the figure. The product lines are indicated in columns. These individual items keep on changing according to the unique seasonal promotional offers refer to http://barista. co. in/guiltypleasures/product. html all the new offers.

Coffee & TeasRefreshing AlternativesEatables Coffee with milkSmoothiesSandwiches Cappuccino Caffe Mocha Caffe LatteGuava Mango GrapePaneer Tikka Cheese & Tomato Smoked Chicken Black CoffeeGranitasRolls Espresso Italiano Esperano AmericanoBlue curacao Lime Ice Mixed Fruit Tango Guava CrushKadhai Paneer Roll Chicken masala roll Dessert CoffeesMilk BasedPastas Latte Bianco Cafe BorgiaStrawberry Freeze Mocha Freeze IcepressoTangy Tomato Pasta Creamy Chicken Pasta Cold CoffeesIced TeaOther Foods Brrrista Brrrista Frappe Brrrista Blast Iced Caffe MochaLemon PeachBBQ Chicken croissant Coffee Add- OnsOther DrinksDesserts

Various Flavors Chocolate Fudge Whipped Cream Espresso Shot Ice cream Scoop Ginger Fizz Kinley WaterWalnut Brownie Mocha Express Chocolate Express Dark Temptation Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Chip Muffin Almond raisin Muffin Apple cake Teas Assam English Breakfast Darjeeling Earl Grey PRICE Barista follows a slow skimming pricing policy (high price and low promotion) in the introduction stage. With the sudden spurt of growth in number of outlets, came the benefits of economies of scale so now they have been able to gradually lower their prices, and appeal to different segments of their target market.

Currently, their prices are the lowest they have ever been, and they can competitively match their prices against Cafe Coffee Day’s prices. The prices are constantly changing though, and the last 1-year has seen 3 changes (mostly reductions) in prices. This gradual price reduction meant that Barista could maintain its profit- maximization policy until it could earn large cost savings because of the benefits of high volume. The main factors however that affect their pricing are their cost of goods sold (most of the coffee is imported and have to incur high import duties). his is possible in the growth phase of the product life cycle. Other strategies at this stage are additions of new features, increased distribution coverage in the forms of new retail outlets. The interesting thing about pricing that, customers compare the prices of the products that they are aware of, in this case it is the price of coffee, however they are unable to compare the prices of ice tea, sandwiches and desserts that differ from cafe to cafe (since they are accessories or are only secondary to coffee).

Therefore Barista prices the secondary items at a much higher price than say CCD without hurting its sales since customer perception is limited to the price of the coffee (as is obvious, no one goes into a cafe to eat sandwiches as their primary aim). the company is intent on developing a new three tier scheme for pricing. For example the prices in Meerut are going to be less as compared to Delhi. The prices are going to be 20% lower in non-metro areas compared to the metro cities. PROMOTION For promotional activities Barista does not heavily rely on advertising but on forming alliances and sponsorships.

The media’s used for mass promotional activities have been press and radio. a)Sponsorships and Collaborations: Barista sponsors events and festivals which provides them valuable promotion that is directed at strategic markets. It also has tie-ups with Planet M, Crossword, ABN AMRO and the Taj group of hotels for setting the outlets within their premises. It has also tied-up with Worldspace Radio for music in its 50-odd cafes. Barista has entered into alliances with British Council, Rock Street Journal and Corner Bookstore for book reading sessions, music and film festivals.

Barista also forms strategic alliances in a view to co-market the brands. For example it got into deal with Leo Mattel toys to provide their popular word game Scrabble which helps Leo Mattel to promote its product and Barista customers to spend more time in the cafe. b)Sales Promotion: Barista has tied up with ABN AMRO and launched ‘ABN AMRO Barista Credit Card’ which earns points not only at Barista but at other retail establishments too and these points can be redeemed at any of the Barista outlets. c)Physical Evidence: •Logos, Colors, Images:

In a view to project the association with coffee which has warmth and an earth glow, Barista tends to use shades of orange & brown in lighting up its interiors. This also projects a “laid-back” atmosphere. The logo of Barista is also a combination of brown, combination of the orange and light yellow and white colors. The logo consists of the word “Barista” written in an upward curve and the word “coffee” underneath. A cup of coffee is embedded in it with which signifies its association with coffee. •Decor and Architecture:

Barista cafe’s have their furniture made of light shades of wood and also consists of comfortable couches in their bigger outlets. The walls are in shades of orange on which are hung photo frames depicting the love for coffee. •Literature: Barista circulates a private magazine in their cafes. The magazine encourages the customers to write, draw and make anything creative which is then published in the next issues of the magazine. This helps in advertising and expressing its brand. The menus, posters and pamphlets are very attractive and have a kind of classic and simple look. PLACE

The first outlet of Barista was opened in Bangalore and has gone on opening outlets across different cities in the country. It also has its outlets in UAE and Sri Lanka. Barista has adopted a strategy to have its outlets in high-energy areas as it focuses on the age group of 20-35 years. These high-energy areas are the ones that are frequented by today’s youth population which are usually in the heart of a city. The locations selected are ones that have a large population of executives, students and families with a high disposable income and who are looking for new vistas in leisure and lifestyle oriented concepts.

For example by having their outlets at malls they know that many of the visitors that come have not come for shopping but to watch a movie or rather hang out and have a sandwich or just a cup of coffee. Barista also follows an institutional segmentation strategy. For example in Hyderabad it has 11 outlets out of which 6 are placed within the corporate house’s premises (Dell, Deloitte, GE, HSBC, Microsoft and Wipro) catering to their target market which are young executives with large disposable incomes. LEVERAGE Barista leverages upon its Strong brand image. Barista positions itself as a brand for anyone who loves good quality coffee.

The customers have a strong and clear brand image. Their customers can easily identify and relate to the Barista brand. This helps increase and maintains brand loyalty. Moreover they have an excellent human resource base and have received various awards for the services and behavior of their staff. This too keeps the customers content and hence provides a niche space to barista in the minds of the customers which in turn provide a strong brand recall to Barista. CONSISTENCY Barista’s product mix constitutes a wide range of products that appeal to traditional coffee lovers.

The core products for Barista are coffee, desserts and coffee beans. Barista serves some snack items as well such as croissant, pastas, and sandwiches which are absolutely consistent with coffee projecting a classic image of Barista. They also sell merchandise through their store which is also primarily coffee related products like coffee beans, coffee machines, T-Shirts, Coffee Kettles etc. Thus we see there is a high level of consistency among the products served by Barista. Barista is also diversifying its hot beverages menu and introducing several specialty teas.

The reason is based on the fact that apart from South India, all other parts of the country are mainly tea-consuming areas, and this step would help the company expand its client base in the smaller towns of these regions. This move by Barista is also in relation to the main products served by it and basically to concentrate and expand on its main product i. e. beverages. INTEGRATION Barista has a fine marketing mix of the 4Ps (product, price, place and promotion) which has been well integrated in order to make the mix most effective in terms of creating an impact on the minds of the consumers.

Barista’s product mix constitutes a wide range of products that appeal primarily to traditional coffee lovers. Food items like croissant, pastas, and sandwiches are complimentary to their coffee. Their merchandising also consists of coffee related products. As far as the pricing policy goes, Barista has segmented the market according to the income and age. They even planned to change their tagline “Where the world meets” And so when company looked at this positioning and they looked at the pricing they contemplated on lowering the prices.

Barista has also introduced new low-priced beverages to compete with other retailers like CCD. Barista started its first outlet at Bangalore. It already has presence in all the metros and has a presence in all the highly populated regions. Barista looks to cater to their target market with strategically located outlets. Their outlets are generally located at High Street/ Family Entertainment Centers, in and around Malls, Cinemas, Colleges, and Offices etc. to attract its target customers which mainly include the office goers, students, people out on shopping etc.

Barista currently carries out mass promotion campaigns. Barista has concentrated immensely on sponsorships and strategic alliances with other corporations such as Sony Music, Planet M, Crossword and the Taj group of hotels etc. and has taken part in various sales promotion activities especially during festivals and Valentine’s Day. It has launched summer campaign through summer chillers, and was advertised through different channels. Thus Barista has integrated its elements of marketing mix in the most effective ways.

The marketing mix employed by Barista most effectively and efficiently targets the core customers—the coffee lovers who, in the most relaxing ambience of the cafe, look to enjoy a cup of coffee. Barista has had immense reach and has been successful in attracting customers in all age groups. Its strategic locations, affordable prices (though perceived as expensive in the beginning but with the skim price policy the prices have been reduced), promotional alliances and various products offered, all related to Coffee and the like, have immensely contributed to extend its reach and attract large number of customers. CAFE COFFEE DAY

Cafe Coffee Day is a division of India’s largest coffee conglomerate, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. (ABCTCL), popularly known as Coffee Day. CCD which was started in 1996 has opened 498 outlets in 85 cities, with annual sales of Rs. 300 crore. Day sources coffee from 5000 acres of coffee estates, the 2nd largest in Asia owned by a sister concern. PLACE The pioneers of cafe concept in India, Cafe Coffee Day opened its first outlet on Brigade Road, Bangalore in 1996. This Cafe was opened as a Cyber Cafe (first of its kind) but later, with the burst of cyber cafes it reverted to its core competency-Coffee.

The location of its outlet was decided primarily depending upon the convenience of the clientele it targeted, like nearby colleges, shopping-malls and offices. Cafe Formats: Cafe Coffee Day has been experimenting with cafe formats for quite some time. Backed by the motivation of providing customers with exciting choices as well as constantly redefining ‘the cafe experience’, CCD has ventured into the following formats: Music Cafes provide customers with the choice of playing their favorite music tracks on the Digital Audio Jukeboxes installed at the cafe!

There are around 85 cafes with such jukeboxes. 32 cafes also provide customers with the visual treat of watching their favorite music videos by means of Video Jukeboxes. Book Cafes offer the perfect solution to people who think that the coffee experience is incomplete without browsing through the bestsellers or reading a classic. CCD’s book corners accentuate the age-old combination of ‘coffee and books’. This exciting concept has been successfully tested at 15 cafes in 12 cities across India and the numbers are set to grow exponentially.

CCD has tied up with English Book Depot; one of India’s leading book distributors for placement and rotation of reading materials appealing to Cafe Coffee Day’s discerning customers. Highway cafes on the Bangalore – Mysore highway and NH-8, presents the traveler en route not only with good coffee and sumptuous snacks amidst great ambience but also with clean restrooms to get rid of that weariness from the road! Lounge cafes at Hauz Khas, Delhi and Southern Avenue, Kolkata (Southern Avenue) and Hyderabad (Jubilee Hills) combines the style and luxury of a lounge with the lively ambience and comfort of a cafe.

With exquisite interiors, exotic menu and thematic music CCD Lounge offers a whole new experience to the connoisseur while assisting the latter through its team of hostesses who are poise and style incarnate and are looked upon as fashion icons. Garden cafes at M. G Rd, Bangalore and GKII, New Delhi combine the joy of rejuvenating amidst verdant landscapes and pots of coffee. Cyber cafes at Brigade Rd, Bangalore, Airport, Bangalore and Airport, Delhi combine the urge to surf, not to mention get connected through the internet while enjoying perfectly brewed cups of coffees, both domestic as well as International blends!

The highlights of their strategy for selection of the place to open up an outlet has been the availability of the parking space amidst the city’s residential and commercial hotspots focusing on the immensely popular shopping malls and entertainment centers. Their strategy has not neglected other areas of improving their reach like large corporate houses, airports and hospitals which the competitors left out. CCD had to continually challenge itself to disprove the middle class psychology that the bigger and brighter a sales outlet is, the more expensive it will be.

Company was slow in expanding to the north and the west as the company was an innately conservative co. and it focused on the southern market where the demand already existed and neglected the other markets. CCD director was quoted as “we are a conservative south Indian firm and believe in growing cautiously. ” PROMOTION In order to stay with the competition and to keep the customers interested, they undertake lots of promotional activities. CCD jointly organizes large number of promotions with other companies serving similar target customers. These cafes have emerged as a new media vehicle for reaching the right type of customers.

Customer Loyalty Programme: Coffee shops have a high loyalty factor i. e. 60-70% of customers come in at least once a week. Cafe Coffee Day uses special ‘Cafe Citizen Card’ for rewarding Cafe Coffee Day’s customers. It is a loyalty program to gain new customers and retain the existing ones. The Cafe Citizens Card entitles members to a 10% discount on all food and beverage bills. The members also receive surprise gifts, along with special offers and invitations from Cafe Coffee Day from time- to- time. They have their own magazine – cafe beat to appeal to the aesthetic side of customers.

CCD’s guide to Active Holidays (A travel guide focusing on adventure sports) helps in reaching out to customers and portrays the company’s ‘young at heart’ ideology. Tie-Ups: CCD has tied up with Channel [V]’s Get Gorgeous contest. The history channel is also an associate for promotion of Hollywood actors. Besides these, Cafe Coffee Day has also tied up with other youth brands. They have a contests going on with Levis, Scooty pep, Liril etc; the latest being the one with Airtel. Another promotional pact they have is with HDFC. HDFC wanted to promote their debit card and they chose Cafe Coffee Day.

So 21 cafes have debit card machines. Association with movies: Cafe Coffee Day also decided to associate itself with the next big thing i. e. Bollywood. Hindi movie Bas Yun Hi, khakee, mujhse shaadi karoge, Socha Na Tha and a couple of Telugu and Tamil films have been used. A lot of serials are shot in Cafe Coffee Day. Recently, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii was shot. Sales & Merchandising: Ticket sales: Cafe Coffee Day is involved in ticket sales in quite a few events, Enrique being one of them. They were involved in WWE, Elton John, and Bryan Adams ticket sales. These acts are very much appreciated by their consumers.

It helps both the organizers as well as Cafe Coffee Day. Organizers need to tell people where the tickets are available and single Cafe Coffee Day logo says it all. From Cafe Coffee Day’s point of view, they always ask for a certain amount of tickets around which they have a contest. 5 % of the revenue comes from sale of merchandise; it is specially chosen and created for the customers to carry a piece of the good times spent at Cafe Coffee Day. It includes Funky Caps, Cool T-Shirts, Bags, Mugs, Coffee Filters, and Mints. Coffee Powders are also sold to customers looking for a taste of CCD at home.

At CCD, marketing is not a cost center but a profit center, they make money out of marketing by branding, they don’t advertise at all but did their own form of marketing and the best medium for marketing was through word of mouth and co-branding with other big brands like Airtel, Levi’s, Dabur and a lot of the TV channels and this has helped the company a lot without burning a hole in their pockets. PRICING Cafe Coffee Day has positioned itself as “Value for Money” as compared to the skimming price policy adopted by Barista. The major target customers are the youngsters.

Cafe Coffee Day believes in mass marketing. The average amount spent by the customer in a coffee shop is 100-125. Majority of them are dependent on their families for their expenses. This is one of the most important reasons for low pricing compared to other branded cafes. They believe it in making their product at an affordable price. Pricing is one of the important weapons for them to fight against their competitors. The price for a cup of coffee ranges from Rs. 17 to Rs. 54. From the time it first started its operations, there have been only minor changes in the pricing policy of Cafe Coffee Day.

This is so because the company is looking for maintaining status quo in terms of price stability in order to avoid price wars and maintain a moderate but stable level of profit. At the same time, CCD is leveraging on quality leadership in terms of price when compared to the local udipi restaurants. The pricing method adopted is Target return pricing wherein a company sets the price to achieve a target return on investment. CCD is looking for expansion to more interior places. Here prices become more complex as the consumer are very conservative in spending.

A cup of coffee at Rs. 35 is accepted in metro cities but not in small towns. The decor, ambience and the experience will play a major role in pulling the crowds in small cities. PRODUCT “Many people think product is a tangible offering, but a product can be more than that” – Philip Kotler. While planning its marketing offering, the marketer needs to address five products levels and that constitutes a customer value hierarchy. In our case of cafe coffee day, the fundamental level i. e. core product is Coffee. The various types are. –Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte, etc.

At second level, the marketer turns core benefit into basic product. The cafe has done the same by means of following add-ons – Honey Chocolate sauce, Whipped Cream ,Scoop of Ice Cream ,Flavored Syrups ,Cold coffee, Iced Eskimo ,Arabian Heights ,Tropical Temptation, Tropical Iceberg ,Coffee on rocks–Mochachillo, Cappachillo,Vegan shake, Mango Frappe, Pineapple Frappe, Strawberry Frappe. At the third level, CCD while offering their product maintain its quality, (quality beans, hygiene drinks), service, taste etc. For service, It is always their endeavor that their employees grow to be skillful and competent mangers.

Towards this ends, each of them is exposed to some specialized training programs in the areas of Food & Beverages, Coffee, Customer service and Managerial skills They do a series of taste tests before the product is launched. They also adopt changes after the launch through a series of feedbacks. Since cafes are owned by them, they can do these dipstick studies at any time. For example, when they were launching a spinach sandwich, consumers said that they would prefer a spinach-cottage cheese combo and they improvised to deliver what the customers wanted.

In order to promote Sugar Free, CCD launched a “Low calorie menu” in association with the former for the calorie conscious. Customers can also have an even more relaxed cafe experience by leisurely browsing through an interesting selection of books and periodicals while sipping their favorite coffee. At fourth level, the various formats (music-cafes, lounges, highway points, etc) adopted by CCD would give ample scope of recreation and entertainment to the consumers. At the fifth level stands the potential product, which encompasses all the possible augmentation and transformation the product or offering might undergoing future.

A time would come when the cafe will eventually become a community hub, with even cafes such as pop music lovers’ cafes, an intellectuals-only cafe, and maybe even a communists’ cafe coming up soon. CONSISTENCY Consistency is often called Key to Branding, especially so in the franchising model that CCD follows wherein, with the purchase of franchising the brand CCD is also bought. To keep up with the brand image and consistency the daily operations are not handed over to the franchisee but kept with the company which indulges trained and efficient workforce in keeping with the set standards.

The promotional activities (branding, marketing, and promotions) are also looked after by Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co. Ltd. (ABC), owners of CCD. Quality control is another important factor in consistency, as the saying goes, “Nothing kills a product quicker than great marketing”. . This hurdle of standardizing the coffee being served has been overcome by installation of exclusive coffee vending machines, which have a pre-set mechanism to make coffee; just the coffee beans, milk and water needs to be added to a certain level which is again monitored by the machine. LEVERAGE

On Price-being the cheapest organized cafe chain in India, gave a relative pricing leverage to CCD, which hit really well with the price conscious Indian consumers. Cafe Coffee Day’s vending machines have a special niche in the market compared to competitors because Cafe Coffee Day machines offer filter coffee unlike the instant coffee offered by competitors’ brands. Through in-house sourcing of coffee beans, they have leveraged on raw material procurement cost while brand expansion on foreign shores has helped the company in leveraging on the sky rocketing real estates’ prices in Indian metros.

At the same time, its recent co-branding with Cadbury’s has helped leveraging on resources further. For many teenagers CCD has become an important part of their lives. They see it as an extension of their own personality and even when they grow older they would keep revisiting it to relive some of their cherished memories (it pays to catch them young! ); thereby leveraging on its association with youth. CCD team has made a commendable effort in leveraging the brand potential and the retail opportunity by introducing many brand extensions like mint, cookies, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. nd they even pioneered innovative concepts like jukebox and newsletter which were quite a hit among the youth. Cafe Coffee Day does not believe in mass media promotions. But they are involved in all the areas of serious consumer passion. Though CCD was the first to enter the coffee retailing business in India, it failed to leverage on the first mover advantage in terms of increasing the number of outlets. By 2002, Barista which entered the market in 2000 had 105 branches. CCD had only 50 branches. However, the situation has reversed in the current scenario.

According to company sources, the reason for its slow growth was the time taken to complete the back-end operations of its retail outlets. INTEGRATION CCD has integrated all the components of the marketing mix for the overall enhancement of the experience offered to the customer. They have used the promotional strategy to their utmost advantage. First and foremost they have used it as a profit center and they have focused on co-branding thereby leveraging on the image and the brand of the cooperating company to their advantage and for roping in new customers who might not have otherwise visited had it not been for the promotional co-branding.

They have used the loyalty scheme as a CRM tool for maximum customer retention. By leveraging on the place they reduce the energy cost and the psychological cost for the consumer thereby increasing the value delivered. By effectively blending the marketing mix they have created a strong brand equity for themselves. BARISTA VS CAFE COFFEE DAY – A COMPARATIVE STUDY •Barista has experienced frequent changes in the management while CCD has not gone through any such second order changes in the management structure. The crowd coming into Barista can be divided into the corporate set (forming largest share), retired persons and senior citizens, families and college goers. On the same hand, CCD mainly targets the age group of 16-30 years. •CCD has huge expansion plans to foray into the cities and towns in the country. It is planning to increase the number of outlets to 700 by the end of this year. The number of outlets of CCD is 435 compared to 160 outlets of Barista.

Barista has not yet planned to go for huge expansion because of high real estate prices restricting them to a few outlets and focusing on the upper middle and higher income group. For example it has come up with new concepts of Barista Creme and Barista Espresso targeting the niche segment of true coffee lovers and offering a wider range of food and beverages, apart from luxurious comfort which will help them to increase the revenue contribution from food. •CCD makes use of its own brand of coffee beans while Barista uses beans that are imported and roasted abroad. CCD has different private caterers in each city while Barista has a national caterer for the eateries available in each of their outlets. •CCD generates revenue by having advertisements and promotion posters in their outlets while Barista does not do so. •CCD has forayed into aviation hospitality, and the synergy with the low-cost airlines (SpiceJet) makes perfect sense for both parties involved. Barista on the other hand scouts for premium tie-ups with MNCs (operating their cafeterias). Ambience and the settings (interiors) are contrasting for CCD and Barista. While the former is more relaxed and minimal, being pleasing at the same time; the latter has a more formal setting. •As the two cafe houses target different set of consumers, the same is reflected in their pricing strategies and the tie-up partners they choose to associate with. •CCD has a more reactive approach towards competition, as it opens an outlet wherever Barista does, hoping to lure Barista’s customers with a cheaper menu which has proven to be quite successful for CCD.

REFERENCES •http://www. retailindustry. com •http://www. cafecoffeeday. com •http://www. indiantelevision. com •http://www. coffeeresearch. org •http://www. indiacoffee. org •http://www. barista. co. in •http://www. thehindubusinessline. com/catalyst/2003/10/30/11hdline. htm •http://www. brandintegrity. com/brandintegrityhomepage •http://www. tatainvestment. com/0_media/news/media/index. htm •http://www. coopdevelopmentcenter. coop/fairtrade/coffeecri