Hot beverages: striking the health-indulgence balance
Published:16-February-2006
By BR staff writer
Starbucks is to remove Chantico, the rich hot chocolate drink launched with much fanfare at the beginning of last year, from its menus in the US. While the move is somewhat surprising given the increasing popularity of chocolate-based hot beverages, it is clear that Starbucks needs to reassess the delicate balance between indulgence and health when considering a replacement.
Starbucks is to stop selling its rich chocolate beverage, Chantico.
The failure of Chantico represents a rare let-down for Starbucks, and is particularly surprising when one considers the deluge of indulgent chocolate-based drinks currently hitting the hot beverage market.
Hot chocolate has long been tipped by the Productscan Online database as "the new coffee" in the CPG sector, with a growing number of gourmet products beginning to hone in on coffee's turf. Challengers include Godiva's Chocolixir, a made-to-order frothy drink available in vanilla, dark decadence and cherry flavors.
Indulgence was clearly the defining characteristic of Starbucks' Chantico: the product was described as a 'drinkable dessert', steamed with cocoa butter and whole milk to give it a thick and creamy texture. However, while the drink offered an indulgent taste profile, it did not offer consumers any control in terms of its health profile, such as size variation, or the option to be prepared using ingredients like reduced-fat or soy milk.
Taste and health remain the top two most important motivators of consumers' food and drink choice, yet these two needs are often diametrically opposed. The best tasting, most indulgent products are often the least healthy, and vice versa. As consumers wrestle to factor both of these need states into their daily eating and drinking, hot drinks specialists such as Starbucks should respond by offering products that do not forego one for the other.
Datamonitor figures show that products that are both healthy and indulgent will benefit from this dichotomy over the coming five years. Across Europe and the US, indulgent drink occasions will fall from 27.8% to 25.8% of all drink occasions, while healthy occasions will remain at around the 60% mark. The net beneficiary will be healthy-indulgent occasions, up from 11.8% to 14.1% by 2010 - representing a big opportunity for hot beverage makers.
Consumers are becoming more demanding of their beverage choices, and Starbucks needs to cater to this with its replacement for Chantico, firstly by offering the kind of control over the product ingredients that customers have grown to both expect and enjoy, and secondly by marketing healthy-indulgent offerings both on their functional benefits - such as the antioxidant properties of chocolate - and on their gourmet status.
