Thread: Expand your mind

Ok, I'll play!

1. Hole in the handle is too small. Make the handle bigger on the inside to get two fingers in.
2. Cross-section of the handle is too round - puts a point load on your finger. Flatten the surface a bit to spread the load.
3. Put a sharper corner on the outside top corner of the handle so you can use your thumb to counter the rotation of the cup on your fingers.
4. Put temperature sensitive marking on the outside so you can tell what temperature it is at a glance. Think Coors' "Blue Mountains".
5. Rim is too thick. Thin is better for sipping.
6. Put some funny graphics on it. Funny is always good.

I'm sure there'll be some really good ones!

Fantastic first post for the exercise

In addition to what amail said, add a insulator. Some spray on coat that doesn't let all the heat escape through the ceramic. My coffee stays hot for max 10 minutes.

It looks plain. Needs themed graphics.

Replace it with a beer. Add hot chick in skimpy clothing. Collect money.

Originally Posted by kwerner

Replace it with a beer. Add hot chick in skimpy clothing. Collect money.

Ahh, maybe a hot chick on the outside(or dude if that's you thing) and the clothing on said person changes depending on the temperature of the mug.

Get a rectangular coffee plate.
Make the cup as much asymmetric as possible
offer some small fancy looking biscuit with it- and find a way to advice the customers it is not good to drink coffee on empty stomach

Add graphics to the mug like a photo of a persons pet or child, make it more personal.

I don't like it. Coffee is too limited of a market. Sure, it is great in the morning, but not something most people will drink at night because it would keep them up (minus me). Yes there is decaf, but I only drink coffee because it wakes me up.

Why not reinvent it and make the anti-coffee. A drink that will make you sleepy when you drink it so you can sell it at night.

Or maybe just sell decaf coffee with two types of "mixers" to put in it. One is a dissolvable caffeine pill that you can put in it to make it normal coffee. The other is a dissolvable pill that has a natural ingredient in it to make you sleepy. You now expanded a popular item into a whole new market between noon and 10 pm on average, as opposed to a stereotypical morning drink.

Originally Posted by AndrewNC

Coffee is too limited of a market.

I just read that Americans consume 400 BILLION cups of coffee EVERY DAY! Hardly a limited market. I would just put it in a 100% recyclable to-go cup because usually people that drink coffee are on the run.

Convine people what is in that cup is obsolete to your product

Graphics or a message inside the bottom of the cup so it appears as you finish your drink.

I would make a reusable, leak-proof, cover for it. No need to transfer to another cup if you want to take it for a drive.

Originally Posted by kwerner

Replace it with a beer. Add hot chick in skimpy clothing. Collect money.

Speed+. Not sure if this was meant to be a joke or not, but is a valid business strategy - sometimes it can be a powerful solution to just drop something and do something else.

Originally Posted by AwkwardPublic

Expand your mind-img_9838.jpg

Ok so this is my idea and it's awesome

1. Obviously the graphic is missing, as nearly everyone pointed it out. But what kind of graphic, just a plain pic? Naah. It should be a very thin digital display that covers the cup completely, so your cup can have different color and/or wallpaper anytime.

Also, as it has display, it may as well show your current time, weather, coffee temperature, and amount of coffee, so you can control your intake.

Well, depending on brand it may even show you how much caffeine/caloires/whatever is in it, nice?

All your preferences (for wallpapers, coffee brand etc) would be settable on cup company portal (coolcup.com - just checked, domain is for sale) - where there you'd also find a community of cool cup coffee lovers.

All this info would be received by wifi antena and processed by micro processor, both sneakily hidden in the cups bottom.

2. Another already mentioned great idea I'd like to expand on is insulation. The cup should have great insulation, but the
heat will still go out through the top, so we need some insulating, water-proof, but bendable material for the automatic cover.
So you can click the button on the handle and it slides out.

And even...to save you energy and your coffee's heat, it can act like screensavers on computer, if you don't touch your coffee
long enough, wallpaper will fade to black, and cover will slide out to cover your coffee.

Maybe you just got busy in something, so why let that ruin your coffee?


3. This could work on rechargeable batteries, also hidden in the bottom.
I also believe electricity can be generated from heat (not sure of the principle),
so as coffee's heat would have to be eventually let go anyway, maybe it can
help recharge the batteries so that you need to open the cup and recharge them
maybe once a year.

4. Add extended profiles on the cup site, with zodiac signs and all, and offer cups
with GPS, so that nearby matching persons can decide to have a coffee together

UpForACoolCup? - that can be the name of the app

It could be an iPhone app or just an app integrated into the cup, so then you need
it touch sensitive and many would spill coffee while typing

I know...but once I get into creative thinking I can't really stop that easily
Ok, dismiss this one

put some milk or cream in it.

Turn the mug into a paper cup, plaster a logo with a hot chick on the cup, put a plastic top on it, build a place near a college campus with stylish seats and glass tables, install free Wi-fi in it, put on indie rock music and give the drinks unpronounceable names. Sell coffee in the place and watch the hipsters roll in.

i can see that work

Originally Posted by FastNAwesome

UpForACoolCup

Up-For-a-Cup, damn that sounds smooth!

Originally Posted by FastNAwesome

electricity can be generated from heat

Well yes! The first minutes your coffee is too hot to drink anyway. So charge batteries in the first minute, and use that power to keep the coffee hot afterwards!