I Analyzed 5 Successful Coffee Kickstarter Campaigns
And This is What I Learned
I am a coffee addict.
Recently, I found the obsession with, and I’ve devoured hundreds of videos about myriad ways of creating your morning cup. This widely varies from your classic French Press to your hippie friends Chemex Pour Over.
Coffee has a cult following behind it. This is partially thanks to Starbucks who gave us access to good coffee. I know coffee snobs will hate me for even saying that. But let’s continue.
I’ve discovered Kickstarter from way back. But I’ve never backed a project before. Nothing has compelled me to invest money and wait for months.
A few weeks ago I purchased the Kompresso, it’s a device made by the company Korean Company Cafflano. It’s an on-the-go espresso maker. It will never be as good as your local barista espresso, but it’s good enough for traveling. I have used it for my Singapore trip and our recent beach trip. It was easy to use and clean.
Upon researching, I found out that this device launched a successful Kickstarter campaign.
I am now building an Amazon business, and once I get enough funds — I would like to design and invent my products. I’m an engineer — I love tinkering and creating products.
What struck me about my research was that Cafflano only needed 1,543 backers to get their project off the ground.
A thousand people don’t sound that much, right?
So I scoured Kickstarter for other coffee projects that successfully launched. I found five other coffee products, and this is what I learned about them.
Cafelat Robot, Hiku Grinder, HyperChiller, Brux, and Nitro King.
1. You Don’t Need A Million People to Launch
Yes, some campaigns garnered hundred thousands of backers, but they’re not the norm — they’re outliers.
Cafelat Robot successfully launched with 221 backers with total revenue of 65,000 with a target of 50,000.
And this blew my mind.
I always read about people scaling to massive proportions that I forget to ground myself into reality.
It doesn’t take that much to make a dream into reality. You only need to serve hundreds of hungry fans. This finding supports the famous 1000 True Fans theory of Kevin Kelly.
2. Serve a Niche
If you aren’t obsessed with coffee, you won’t understand the products.
This is the conversation I had with my wife awhile ago during lunch. She was asking me why I need to buy another device when we already have a French Press and a Kompresso. I was planning to buy a V60 Pour Over or an AeroPress. To her eyes, all the devices are the same. But to a coffee nut, those subtle differences are the variations we’re looking for.
What are your current obsessions? Is it filmmaking or photography gear? Motorcycles or bikes? Podcasting gear?
My wife is a Yoga Practitioner — she’s practicing Ashtanga every day. In my eyes, there’s no difference between Hatha, Vinyasa, Kundalini, and Ashtanga. But to her, those things differ like the north and south pole.
Only fanatics will understand.
Nitro King only makes sense to those who understand and appreciate nitro-infused cold brew. Hiku grinder is for those who travel and grind their beans.
They served ultra-specific purposes and built a target market in mind.
3. Customer is King
I also studied failed coffee campaigns, and this is what I found — failed products lack empathy for the customer.
I initially thought Kickstarter was a donation platform. You have a project, and customers help you make it come true. While that is true — people are not interested in how you are going to be rich when you successfully launch. What they care about is if you are solving a nagging problem they have.
The Cafflano Kompresso solved my problem of making espresso on the go. Other alternatives were pricey and bulk espresso machines. I could care less if he made a million bucks from that product.
In the video and copywriting of successful campaigns, it was all about the buyer, what’s in it for him and what problem is the product solving.
4. Show me the Process
We all love a story. And some of the products showed the design process. They showed the prototypes they worked with, and they came up with a solution.
This was a critical means of connecting with me as a consumer and I can discover the impetus of the product. I can connect the dots and give my own conclusion about the product.
In a Tim Ferriss Podcast interview with Ramit Sethi, he shares how his parents negotiated with a car dealer. They would spend an entire day negotiating inside the dealership. It made me laugh cause I can see my dad doing the same thing when he was having business negotiations.
I used to sit through some of his meetings and would watch how he would try to prolong things. When I asked him why he does that, he tells me that he wants the other person to invest the same amount of time and energy in the deal.
He can easily give his go signal, but he would wait out to make them equally invested.
Imagine yourself inside a movie theater. We’re watching the newest Star Wars film and right before we reach the climax of the movie — the theater decides to turn it off. We’ve already invested two hours of our lives so we’ll be itching to see the last ten minutes. This is the same even if the film is so bad. Have you seen The Room?
And this is what you do — tell them a story and the process behind your product. Make your target invest in your journey.
In summary, you only need hundreds of fans, find a niche, customer is king, and keep them invested. This is applicable even if you’re a service-based business.
Are you building a product? Offering a service? Rethink how you’re talking to your target market and learn from these successful coffee campaigns.
Talk to you soon my friend.
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