Light, Motion and Magic

Since making the decision to start our coffee service business, I’ve been doing some research (of course!) on coffee consumption. One very interesting site is The National Coffee Association of USA, Inc.

Here are some of the more interesting highlights from their National Coffee Drinking Trends 2008 study:

• 17% of the adult population consumed a gourmet coffee beverage on a daily basis in 2008
compared  with 14% in 2007.

• In 2007, past-day consumption of coffee surpassed that of soft drinks for the first time. While the gap narrowed in 2008, daily consumption of coffee is still directionally higher.

• 18 to 24 year olds are becoming serious coffee drinkers. In 2005, only 26 percent of young adults in that age bracket considered themselves coffee drinkers. By 2007, that figure was up to 37%, making the 18-24 year old coffee market the fastest growing segment of the market. Older adults, in the 40 to 59 year old bracket, are also big coffee drinkers. This age group increased from 59 percent to 61 percent over the previous year, and those age 60 and over report the most coffee consumers - 74 percent of adults in that age bracket reported that they drink coffee every day.

• Consumption of cups per day by consumers age 18-24 continued to trend higher in 2008. Young adults who drank coffee consumed an average of 3.2 cups per day as compared with 3.1 in 2007, a significant increase over 2005’s level of 2.5 cups per day.

So, coffee consumption is going up, but what about the economy? Coffee houses aren’t doing so well these days, are they? The International Coffee Organization released a report in February on the “World Economic Crisis and the Coffee Sector”:

Early reports show that food sales are holding up better than those of non-food
products.  It seems that big chains are competing by cutting prices rather than losing market
share or seeing the volume of sales decrease, even at the expense of profits.  In the developed
country markets of North America, Europe and Japan, which account for approximately
58% of world consumption, coffee is a staple good that represents only a small fraction of
consumer spending.  The information available suggests that coffee consumption in these
markets is holding up well.  Instead of limiting overall intake, consumers are more likely to
shift from out-of-home to in-home consumption and from higher cost products to cheaper
brands.  This trend to less expensive products is corroborated by the strong results reported
by discount food retailers and by reduced earnings in the speciality coffee sector in the last
quarter of 2008.

Increasing coffee consumption, especially among young adults, bodes well for the future of the coffee industry, despite the downturn in the economy. These coffee-drinkers know a good cappuccino when they taste it, and our Miri Market coffee service will allow businesses to offer barista-style coffee drinks to their employees and clients for a fraction of the coffee house price - a great thing in this economy.

Tags:Add new tag, coffee consumption, economy, Miri Market, National Coffee Association of USA, National Coffee Drinking Trends

Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog summarizes a comprehensive list of blog headlines to use, put together by Copyblogger, 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work:

1. Who Else Wants [blank]?
2. The Secret of [blank]
3. Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank]
4. Little Known Ways to [blank]
5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All
6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]
7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]
8. [Do something] like [world-class example]
9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of
10. What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]

Now, did you know that headlines is a topic worthy of controversy? It is! Read this rant from 2007 Who else wants to rehash trite, formulaic headlines? I guess Copyblogger has been coming up with these headlines for some time.

I must confess that I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel every time I write. And these are serviceable headlines. But they sound so generic, unfortunately like too many generic posts I read.

I’ve got an idea! How about using these headlines more creatively, giving your title a little more zing…like:

Who else wants the secret of the method that is helping little known ways to get rid of [pesky bloggers] once and for all?

Or do you like this one?

Here’s a quick way to have, do and build a [mousetrap] you can be proud of that everybody ought to know about!

Just having some headline fun, folks.

Tags:10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work, Add new tag, Business Opportunities Weblog, Copyblogger, generic headlines, Headline fun

I hope you’re enjoying the new look of “Light, Motion and Magic!” I’d like to point out a few features.

For those of you who do not want to subscribe to a “feed,” you can now sign up to get my blog posts by email. In other words, every time I publish a post to this blog, it will automatically be sent to you in the form of an email. You simply sign up by typing in your email address in the space provided above and center, and click on the subscribe button. You will then go to a short form that requires you to type in the letters shown in a box - to verify that you are a human and not an automated spam program! Finally you will have to reply to a confirmation email sent to your email address, to make sure that the blog will go to the right address.

It’s an easy way for you to stay up on my adventures as a woman entrepreneur, and of course you can still come to this actual site any time!

As you can see, I now have a space on the right to feature my company, Miri Market. Click on the Miri Market logo and it will take you to my temporary Miri Market webiste. Don’t forget that you can sign up there to get my future “company” emails as well.

And finally, since my photo is above in the “About the author” section, I will no longer be putting my picture in every post. I will still use my photos and other images from time to time. I still have some work to do to fill out my blogroll and clean up the formatting with some old posts, but what you see is basically what you’ll be getting!

I hope you find this new design pleasing and easy to use. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

MANY, MANY thanks to Eric Florenzano for handling the migration to this new Wordpress design, and for all his unflagging technical advice and help. (I couldn’t do it without you, sweetie pie.)

Tags:Add new tag, blog, Miri Market, Woman entrepreneur