All our smoothies are developed in-house. Our goal is to pack as much nutrition per dollar into each smoothie. Each smoothie will target specific needs. There'll be smoothies made for those who want a lot of protein and few calories. Other smoothies will be heavy on complex carbs. There'll be smoothies made for those who want to lose weight, and for those who want to gain weight.
Since we're neither chemists nor physiologists, we don't have a high-level understanding of how to develop a smoothie that meets the taste requirements of our customers. But we have a basic understanding of the scientific method. We research and use trial-and-error to figure out how to build the nutritious smoothies that meet customer taste expectations.
Today, we learned that mango kept in cool (40-55 degree) temperatures take a long time (more than 2 weeks) to ripen. Mangos that aren't ripe are tart. Since most customers want smoothies that taste sweet, we have to figure out a way to ripen our produce so that we can predict when they're ready to be prepared. Customers will expect consistency in the taste of our products so we can't just use any fruit when making a smoothie. We have to know when a fruit is ready to be used. Our employees are expected to have an eye and nose for the ideal fruit. They need to develop a *discriminating* palate.
It's risky to use only fresh fruit and high-quality juices to make smoothies. The only way we can make this work is if we develop an efficient work-flow process that reduces waste and have employees who have discriminating taste when it comes to fruit and vegetables. Furthermore, we expect customers to purchase our products primarily because of the expertise of our employees. If we don't understand fruit and vegetables better than the average customer, then they might as well make their own smoothies. Our expertise is as much as a value add as the convenience we provide to customers.
(To Alaska Airline employees - we apologize for the tart smoothies. We'll send over sweet (not sugary) tasting smoothies that'll meet your taste and nutrition expectations. In exchange, you'll have to taste our Jalapeno-Yam smoothie).
The purpose of the smoothie lab isn't to develop the ideal smoothie, just as automobile manufacturers don't try to engineer the perfect car for average customers. The ideal, the perfect isn't cost-effective. Our purpose is to create smoothies that add enough value to our customers so that they'll purchase our products. We try to improve lives, not to make people live the ideal life. We don't make porn. We provide practical nutrition. Someone else can make pornographic smoothies.
Showing posts with label specialization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label specialization. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Price-Point
We'll start with one size -- 24 oz -- and aim to price all smoothies at $4.09, $4.50 with tax. This keeps operations simple and reduces labor costs. Fewer coins to deal with means the customer-line moves faster, as we don't have to worry about not having enough pennies, nickels, and dimes, and it'll encourage us to develop drinks that offer the most nutritional value per dollar. We'll offer different sized drinks if we think it'll increase demand enough to justify the additional labor costs to do so.
(We've yet to decide on the price of a scoop of Matrix whey protein).
We'll be sure to keep our prices lower than those of our main competitors, Emerald City Smoothie and Jamba Juice. To maintain our prices, we have to develop a work-flow process that reduces our labor costs and wastage. We want to keep prices low by figuring out more efficient methods to produce our products, and not by reducing quality.
To maximize sales without sacrificing profit, we want to keep prices at a point where enough people think it's more cost-effective to get their servings of fruit/vegetables from us than on their own. One can make one of our smoothies for $2, assuming they shop at places like QFC or Safeway, have a $500 dollar blender, and are willing to learn how to make one. So we have to figure out the convenience cost to customers. That is, how much is the average health conscious customer willing to pay to let someone else produce what they need/want? We need to keep the cost at a point where enough customers will think that it's better to purchase their smoothies from us than to deal with the hassle and risk involved in purchasing and preparing produce (cleaning, cutting, waste) to make a nutritionally comparable smoothie made by Fresh Fruit Smoothies.
Our prices are determined not just by the quality of our smoothies, but also by how well we can control the cost to make them.
(We've yet to decide on the price of a scoop of Matrix whey protein).
We'll be sure to keep our prices lower than those of our main competitors, Emerald City Smoothie and Jamba Juice. To maintain our prices, we have to develop a work-flow process that reduces our labor costs and wastage. We want to keep prices low by figuring out more efficient methods to produce our products, and not by reducing quality.
To maximize sales without sacrificing profit, we want to keep prices at a point where enough people think it's more cost-effective to get their servings of fruit/vegetables from us than on their own. One can make one of our smoothies for $2, assuming they shop at places like QFC or Safeway, have a $500 dollar blender, and are willing to learn how to make one. So we have to figure out the convenience cost to customers. That is, how much is the average health conscious customer willing to pay to let someone else produce what they need/want? We need to keep the cost at a point where enough customers will think that it's better to purchase their smoothies from us than to deal with the hassle and risk involved in purchasing and preparing produce (cleaning, cutting, waste) to make a nutritionally comparable smoothie made by Fresh Fruit Smoothies.
Our prices are determined not just by the quality of our smoothies, but also by how well we can control the cost to make them.
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