I’ve been reading up on customer education recently.

The idea of educating customers as to your product, brand, and services is important from a B2B and B2C perspective. By letting people know about your product or service will help them buy from you, and as importantly, make sure they achieve value faster when they do buy.

I was looking at a longitudinal study of how co-creating educational consumer journeys has an impact in the coffee industry and was taken by the analysis that we have been through three waves of coffee consumption in the UK.

The “first wave” of coffee consumption took place from the 1950s to the early 1990s and was typified by the consumption of instant and mass-drip coffee. The “second wave” can be characterised by the emergence and popularity of branded chains such as Starbucks and Costa. The “third wave” began in the 2000s and was driven by small independent stores or minichains.

I wonder which wave of learning technology we’re at? And are we at a the point where independents are nipping in and offering different experiences?