S.W.O.T. analysis for coffee. Part 3: Threats

The threats are mostly the vaguest section in any S.W.O.T. analysis. Some threats are also the weakness of that product. Some of them are unexpected or happen only once or twice in a lifetime. I think the most undesirable threats in the market economy is the alternatives.
Alternatives make end users compare items, have preferences and different choices. I am going to focus on mostly the choices we have besides coffee in this post. Because each time you are not drinking coffee you are choosing the competition.

Exercises such as jumping jacks, burpees, and walking
I bet some of you thought tea will be the first threat on my list but no. During the weekdays we drink coffee to wake up, gain alertness, increased heartbeat and focus. Well, 30 seconds of jumping jacks or equivalent exercises do the same thing without altering your neurons with caffeine or stressing your stomach. Plus, it is free.

Apple 
Just type benefits of coffee on your Google search bar. I bet four out of five of the articles you will see will mention coffee has the most antioxidants in the western diet etc. Apple has no caffeine. Maybe the antioxidants it has not equivalent to coffee but it fuels you with carbohydrates and sugar. Since you need to digest apple, it provides more stable energy instead of jolting your nervous system.

Energy drinks
Energy drinks are a different can of worms. They have been around only ten or fifteen years. Nobody knows the long-term effects and heaps of the case studies are building about ''Energy Drink Abuse'' Yet these type of beverages are more palatable, able to mix well with other drinks, very popular among younger people and have stronger brand names than a boutique coffee shop at your corner. They are always served cold, well packed and easy to store in a backpack. Hence, the end user has the choice to bring an energy drink to his / her next adventure.

Coconut Water
Coconut water made this list because it was considered the healthy alternative to the sports drinks in the first half of the 2010s. However, soon it was revealed to be hydrated you need to drink a lot of it. Still, it is a good source of potassium and it is easily digested than coffee.

Water
Technically we should only drink water and nothing else. Of course, we don't. In a first glance, water aids our physical performance, brain power, and mood, improve digestion, decreases the risk of kidney stone formation and last but not least improves your skin quality. In addition to that, with simple additions on it double or triple of these benefits such as adding lemon juice or organic apple vinegar.

Tea
I kept the strongest alternative for the last.  First, let's look what is coffee and tea.
Coffee comes from the seeds (Coffee Beans) of the tree families such as Arabica Coffee and Robusta Coffee.
Tea is an aromatic beverage is prepared by infusion hot water with alternate leaves, flowers, berries and dried fruits. Which is pretty much any plant on the earth.
Tea offers whatever the coffee does. Plus it gives more alternative in both smell and color.

I would like to say tea also gives more alternative in taste too but I know there are a billion people who would oppose to that. That's why I add this extra paragraph.
Please Google ''Coffee Flavor Wheel'' and ''Tea Flavor Wheel''. You will often see very similar charts.
The difference is, for a person who doesn't do coffee cupping religiously five times a week, it is easier to taste tea flavors because there is a plant that offers especially that flavor, whereas one really has to try hard and cringe to able taste those similar notes in the coffee.
Which I personally believe why the commercial coffee industry is so strong than specialty coffee because unless you are paying full attention to coffee you have been served, all coffee almost taste the same.

This concludes the threats part of the Coffee S.W.O.T. analysis.

Are you too lazy to Google coffee and tea flavor wheels? Then click on links below.

Coffee Flavor Wheel:
http://coffeeandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Visual-2.png
Tea Flavor Wheel:
https://australianteamasters.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/tea-wheel1.png?w=624

Would you like to read about Strengths and Weaknesses of coffee? You can reach them here:

S.W.O.T. analysis for coffee. Part 1: Strengths:
http://www.dailynoms.org/2017/07/swot-analysis-for-coffee-part-1.html
S.W.O.T. analysis for coffee. Part 2: Weaknesses:
http://www.dailynoms.org/2017/08/swot-analysis-for-coffee-part-2.html


While you are doing that I am going to make some earl grey tea and dunk some biscuits in it.
I know I wasn't around in August but I will close the gap in September!