New Uses for Coffee. An important factor in increasing consumption has been the promotion of new uses for coffee. In winter, this has taken the form or recipes and suggestions for coffee as a flavoring agent; and in warm weather, there has been a publicity drive for iced coffee.
Propaganda Results
The joint coffee trade publicity campaign is progressive. New features are being developed, and plans are laid well in advance. It is expected that the reports of the scientific research will furnish fresh material for both direct and indirect advertising.
One of the interesting prospects is a school exhibit, demand for which has been revealed by requests from a large number of teachers, principals, and school superintendents. Efforts to increase the popularity of a product as widely used as coffee suggest almost unlimited opportunities.
The campaign has brought into co-operation producers in one country, and manufacturers and distributers in another country, several thousand miles apart. Its international character, and also the fact that it deals with a product of almost universal use, may account for the attention this campaign has received, not only in the United States, but in every country where advertising is a business factor.
This kind of coffee publicity has given the consumer a better knowledge of coffee, and broken down much of the prejudice against coffee that rested upon popular misunderstanding of its physiological effects.
As best evidence of its sincere wish to give the public the whole truth about coffee, the committee points to the fact that a portion of its funds is being used to finance the scientific investigation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Felix Coste, the secretary-manager of the campaign, spends much of his time traveling about the country and addressing gatherings of coffee wholesalers and dealers. By this means, and by continuous circularization and correspondence, the trade is kept constantly in touch with the developments of the campaign.