When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become great at making products people will buy by Alan Klement
When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become great at making products people will buy by Alan Klement is an insightful and enlightening book designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners make strategies that ensure the success of their products. Klement doesn’t just focus on the marketing aspect of product development, but dives deeper into the actual product creation process. In the introduction, Klement provides descriptions to three mindsets entrepreneurs should adopt when creating their products; the Kale mindset, the Coffee mindset, and the Blend mindset.
The Kale mindset focuses on becoming an expert in a certain subject, specializing in an area that helps a company gain a unique edge. Klement equates the Kale mindset to entrepreneurship as a whole, “I was learning how to become an entrepreneur – how to be an expert in a certain space, how to develop useful and meaningful products, how to create buzz and build a community around my offerings, and, ultimately, how to generate interest, revenue-wise, for my offerings.” With the Kale mindset, entrepreneurs focus on creating products that offer a unique experience or value.
The Coffee mindset is the approach which focuses on making money. Klement separates the Coffee mindset from Kale, “I don’t think you have to choose between the Kale and the Coffee approaches. But if one of them influences your view, as an entrepreneur, then you should be aware of which mindset is influencing you and consciously decide on the approach you’re taking.” The Coffee mindset is an approach where entrepreneurs focus on “getting customers to buy your products and services with the minimum amount of resources and effort.”
The final mindset discussed in the introduction of When Coffee and Kale Compete is the Blend mindset. The Blend mindset focuses on creating products that offer value and money simultaneously. Klement writes, “in the Blend mindset, you can make money from products that you really care about -- by optimizing the total blended experience of your product.” Through the blend mindset, entrepreneurs focus on creating products that offer a unique experience but also make money.
The majority of When Coffee and Kale Compete focuses on Klement's ideas and strategies for developing products. Klement provides details about finding the uniqueness of a product, differentiating a product from the competition, tweaking existing products, and creating value within an existing product, among many other strategies. With each of these strategies, Klement provides example businesses, who have used the strategies to great success.
The final few chapters of the book focus on gaining feedback on a product and developing an audience that will help sell the product. Klement introduces the concept of “ customer-developed products” -- a process in which customers are involved in the development of new products. By gaining feedback from customers and opinions on new products, entrepreneurs can enhance the customer experience and help ensure that their products will be successful. Klement also encourages entrepreneurs to build a community and ethos around their products, as well as form relationships with customers that will positively serve the reputation of their brand.
When Coffee and Kale Compete is a comprehensive and informative read for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to get a better understanding of the product development process. Klement provides unique and creative strategies for creating great products that customers want to buy, as well as formulating a plan for gaining customer feedback and building a successful audience for the product. Through When Coffee and Kale Compete readers can gain the knowledge and insight to make well-crafted products that serve their customers and succeed in their business.
