Coffee by bike. Photo via Kickstand Coffee.
Gourmet food carts are propping up all over the country, notably in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Portland, OR. I recently read an article and interview over at Free Williamsburg about a New York-based mobile coffee shop called that travels around the city by bicycle. The business is appropriately named Kickstand.
Besides the obvious novelty of transporting their entire shop by a bicycle rather than by a truck, there are plenty of other areas for innovation. As the founders of Kickstand note, a bicycle is the quickest way to get around New York. Then there is added benefit and perception that Kickstand is more green than other competitors simply by virtue of their method of transit. I don’t think that being green is their USP, but added attention to their environmental consciousness can’t hurt.
So what is their unique selling proposition? In my opinion, it’s fresh-brewed coffee from anywhere their target customer is – so city parks, music festivals, busy streets. Currently, Kickstart doesn’t even have a street vending permit and must set up their stand inside a park. I think this can only help the brand. A Starbucks loyalist who finds themselves in a park with the Kickstand team may try the coffee because it is closer than the nearest retail Starbucks shop. And because Kickstand is (hypothetically) always moving around the city, it creates a gotta-have-it-now feeling among customers whenever they see the stand.
There are tons of great possibilities with mobile advertising and promotion. The people who are largely supporting the food cart movement (urban 20 and 30 somethings) are also very active on Twitter and Foursquare. Already, plenty of food carts use Twitter to inform their audiences about their current whereabouts. There’s even a Twitter status aggregator for Los Angeles food trucks called Find LA Food Trucks.
Foursquare awards a badge called Ziggy’s Wagon when a user checks into three separate locations called “food truck.” The possibilities for new badges are endless. What about a Kickstand specific badge that is awarded after checking into the stand three times from three separate locations? Or how about some sort of loyalty program based on foursquare badges and checkins? Anything that contributes to the intangible gotta-have-it-now-ness of Kickstand can only help the brand.