Sarah Prokopchak, Erica Mangum, Katie Tingen, Kerry Cullinan 4/16/12 COMM 350 Dr. Rao

Say Goodbye to Keurig The world’s way of waking up in the morning is coffee; actually over 50 percent of Americans over the age of 18 drinks coffee every day. According to coffee statistics, among coffee drinkers the average consumption in the US is roughly three cups of coffee per day with the average cup size being nine ounces; now that’s a lot of coffee. Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world. So it is important to know how this popular drink is affecting our pocket books, right? Can owning a Keurig be viewed as a product for convenience or is it just another sleek shiny gadget, another luxury for spoiled Americans? Introduced in 1998, Keurig's innovative single cup brewing system lets people brew the perfect cup of gourmet coffee in less than a minute, without having to grind beans, measure coffee, handle filters or clean up. It's as simple as it gets. It is convenient which is why the consumers are willing to spend the money. Everything is already done for them which give onthe-go individuals extra time to do what they need. The Keurig coffee maker is a Dutch brand in which the name literally translates to the word excellence. This coffee maker uses single cup brewing technology that requires specific containers in order to work. The single coffee pods hold only gourmet coffee and that adds to the desire of the brand. Recently, the brand created filters that resemble the same shape of the coffee pods so that it can be placed inside the machine in order for the consumers to have

whatever kind of coffee grounds they prefer. This was done because the containers required for the machine have come under fire for being poor for the environment as well as overly expensive. The brand stated the reason for why they chose to only create single cup brewers was because they want their coffee to always be fresh for the coffee lovers. Keurig’s K-Cups are the individual packs used for each single dose of gourmet coffee. The problem with these cups is that they are non-recyclable and a danger to the environment. Another pressing issue is even though the whole brewing system and process itself is expensive, coffee lovers are willing to pay the price. The materials that actually make up the K-Cup cannot decompose. In addition to that, it is difficult for people to participate in campaigns to switch products and help the environment unless people are motivated to do so. It is more likely for people to recycle and reduce their carbon footprint if they have some type of incentive. Keurig conducted a life cycle analysis study. The purpose of the study was to learn more about the environmental impact the products are having on the earth. Aside from the essential production and cultivation of coffee beans and the brewing systems themselves, it was found that the materials used for the packaging of each Keurig serving cup, also known as the KCup, have a significant impact on the environment (Keurig, 2012). When Keurig conducted their life cycle analysis they compared their products to regular drip brewing systems. It was found that aside from the necessary production actually producing the coffee beans and constructing each brewing device, that Keurig was having a tremendously larger impact on the environment due to the millions of K-Cups that are produced and sold to Keurig customers (Keurig, 2012). This is because regular brewing systems do not use a single cup serving system. They use packaging continuing multiple servings of grounded coffee beans as opposed to just one.

The packaging being used for each small serving cup is made up of a plastic that is extremely difficult to recycle. The K-cups have are composed of three separate materials, aside from the coffee beans themselves. There is the plastic cup, a filter, and an aluminum top. Keurig claims that all of these are necessary in order for the coffee inside to maintain its freshness (Keurig, 2012), and continuing Keurigs promise to providing fresh coffee but is it worth it? Being unable to recycle the K-Cup packaging is taking a toll on Keurig’s environmental foot print. Each cup that is produced that cannot be recycled is just adding to our landfills. Think about it this way, if one person drinks two cups of coffee a day and each K-Cup is just one serving then that is 14 K-Cups getting thrown into our landfills each week. That is 728 K-Cups a year for one person! They are expensive too. A twenty-four pack of K-Cups is around $20. Folger’s Coffee, which produces coffee grinds is ranked in the top 10 coffee brands in the United States, sells coffee grinds and beans in bulk. The largest container they sell is marketed at Walmart for $15 as the Folger’s Super-Size container. Though this seems similar in price to the Keurig it also means a lot more for your dollar. The serving portion for a Folger’s Super-Size container makes anywhere from 320 to 365 cups of coffee (Spice Place, 2012), which is legitimately fourteen times the amount of a $16 container of 24 K-Cups. Well before we compare and contrast Keurig's prices to the leading brands, first let’s see what the top coffee brands are rated. The first top five coffee brands in America are Starbucks House Blend sold at $11.37 per pound, second being Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Brand sold at $11.21 per pound, and the third is Dunkin' Donuts Dark Roast at $11.39 per pound. Fourth on the list is Allegro Blend Light Roast which can be found at Whole Foods and is sold at $13.32 per pound, and finally Archer Farms Breakfast Blend sold at $8.56 per pound (Cunnigham, 2010). Looking at Keurig's prices, they have variety packs that you can only buy in

the K-Cups. There are choices of buying the boxes in packs of 24, 48, 60, or even more. On the Keurig website the 24 K-Cup packs cost $16.49, the 48 pack costs $32.99, and the 60 pack $38.99 (Teasdine, 2010). So using one of the cheapest top ten coffee brands at $8.56 per pound, the cost of a cup would be .20 cents, with having the average bag of coffee making 42 cups (Teasdine, 2010). When comparing this to the Keurig's K-Cups single use, if you take a 48 cup pack for $32.99, the cost of a cup would be $1.45. So what does that mean in real life? How much will it cost over the course of a year of drinking the average three cups each day? If you choose to use K-Cups you will spend roughly $1, 587.75 on coffee a year. On the other hand, if you choose to use your original coffee maker, you would spend about $219 on coffee a year, saving me $1,368 dollars a year. There are currently a couple recovery campaigns that the Green Mountain Coffee company, who owns Keurig, is trying to promote. Keurig has began marketing their new product which is a Vue. The Vue is essentially the same as a Keurig but operates a little differently. Because of this, the Vue is able to use different materials for the packaging of their products. The Vue uses a plastic that can be recycled anywhere that polypropylene #5 is accepted for recycling. Though this is a step closer, the plastic used in the Vue is still not accepted in many recycle communities (GMCR, 2009). Another campaign is the Grounds to Grow On program, which is basically an awareness and recycling program used to turn brewed K-Cups into renewable energy. This would also reduce the amount of K-Cups found in landfills (Keurig, Inc. 2011). This program was developed as a direct response in the company’s effort to reduce their negative environmental impact.

The basis of the program involves the purchasing of “recovery bins,” which can hold between 175 and 450 K-Cups (Coffee & Conservation, 2010). Places of business can purchase these bins and recycle their K-Cups. The grounds from the K-Cups are then composted and the actual plastic from the cups are burned and turned into steam energy (Coffee & Conservation, 2010). Our audience analysis was rather obvious; our target audience is coffee lovers, but also college students. In this case specifically, since we are presenting to our peers, the group of college students is our observable unit. Many college students are coffee lovers alone, due to the sometimes necessary caffeine kicks that some college students do during the school year. Since our group is a part of our target audience, it was not difficult to figure out how to communicate effectively to the class. We could easily assess the attitudes of our peers since we are not only a part of that group, but with that group on a day to day basis. In order to communicate effectively to our target audience, we had to define their attitudes. Attitudes are learned, evaluative, have predispositions, and flexible stability (Borchers, 2005). With our campaign strategy, we were hoping to get a favorable attitude from our target audience. We wanted our peers to leave our presentation with a positive direction in mind. Our goal after analyzing our audience is to hope they take small steps in changing everyday tasks in order to help the environment. We also had to be aware of the predispositions of our audience’s attitudes. Some of our audience may agree with helping the environment, but unfortunately, that does not mean that they are actually going to do it. Also, we found that many students have Keurig brewers at school, so if they already have one and display a positive attitude towards it, then they might not have a reason to change. Their attitudes might stay positive with their Keurig and not change or want to change to using a regular coffee maker. With that being said, the

attitudes of our audience have flexible stability because they may be consistent but not entirely bias or set in their ways (Borchers, 2005). For example, even though someone already has an expensive Keurig, they may not be opposed to trying a regular coffee maker in regards to helping the environment. They may not get rid of their Keurig, but they are not opposed to trying other methods. Our campaign strategy is ultimately providing awareness to our peers about the dangers of K-cups on the environment. Since our campaign is a commercial campaign, our main goal is to promote regular coffee makers instead of Keurig coffee makers and give reasons why regular coffee makers are better to use. Our theoretical support includes the five guiding principles regarding persuasion and ethics in the media age. Our goal was to relay a truthful message to our target audience. We did this by persuading our audience that we were credible and authentic as persuaders, by backing up our campaign with efficient and beneficial research. As a group, we also had to develop a respect for our audience and come to an understanding that not everyone will necessarily agree with our campaign goal to switch from a Keurig to a regular coffee maker. Going along those lines, we also had to remain reasonable as a group and develop impartiality of our persuasive appeal (Borchers, 2005). In other words, we cannot hold it against our audience if they do not immediately get rid of their Keurig brewers and become completely environmentally friendly. We just hope that our persuasive appeal changes their thoughts in some aspect. Finally, the last guiding principle is social responsibility where we would inform our audience how our appeal is necessary for the common good (Borchers, 2005). In our presentation we gave significant reasons of how the decrease in K-Cups can positively affect our environment. Our plan for evaluating the success of our campaign is to speak with our peers well after our presentation and see if their views have changed on the environmental impact of the K-Cups.

More specifically, we would talk to our primary audience, or those who actually own Keurig brewers and see if they changed to using a regular coffee machine. Yes, people really like the convenience of the Keurig brewer, but the K-Cups are becoming detrimental to the safety of our environment. By purchasing a regular coffee brewer, you can save your money and help the environment. You also don’t need to worry about brewing multiple times in order to provide coffee for multiple people and the guilt of contributing to landfill waste. Choosing a regular coffee brewer means saving time, money, and impacting the earth in a positive way.

References for Paper and Powerpoint Coffee Amp!. (2010, January 27). Keurig k-cups: How green is green mountain?. Retrieved from http://www.coffeeamp.com/single-cup-coffee/keurig-k-cups/keurig-k-cups-howgreen-is-green-mountain/ Coffee & Conservation. (2011, September 11). K-cups are now recyclable! not really.. Retrieved from http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2011/09/k-cups-recycling/ Cunningham, R. (2010, March 31). What are the top ten coffee brands. Retrieved from http://www.untwistedvortex.com/top-10-coffee-brands/ GMCR. (2009). Addressing our environmental impact - keurig® brewing systems. Retrieved from http://www.gmcr.com/csr/ProtectingTheEnvironment/TheKeurigSingleCupBrewingSystem.aspx Keurig. (2012). Social responsibility . Retrieved from http://www.keurig.com/social-responsibility Keurig. (2012). The Keurig Story. Retrieved from http://www.keurig.com/the-keurig-story

Popken, B. (2011, October 14). Keurig Slammed Over Non Recycable Cups. Retrieved from http://consumerist.com/2011/10/keurig-slammed-over-non-recycable-cups.html

Spice Place. (2012). Folgers classic roast coffee . Retrieved from http://www.spiceplace.com/folgers_classic_roast_coffee.php

Teasdine, R. (2010, Dec 12). Saving money. Retrieved from http://www.homeesp.com/blogs/savingmoney-how-much-does-a-keurig-coffee-maker-cost-you-and-does-it-make-cents-k-cup-coffeemaker-review.html