The Great K-Cup Backlash: What Every Tech Company Should Learn



When it comes to modern technological conveniences, there are a number of things that irritate people above all others: unhelpful error messages, dead batteries, and cumbersome digital rights management (DRM).
A company that puts DRM in place on their products is very clearly telling consumers that their freedoms will be sacrificed so that corporate execs can make more money — and consumers don’t tend to react very well to this message.

Keurig is the most recent company to learn this lesson the hard way.

Keurig: Hero to Zero

Keurig had the misfortune of being in the news over the past few months for their attempt to add a form of DRM to their coffee makers. In previous versions of the Keurig machine, you put in a small plastic cup that contains coffee grounds, called a K-cup, into the machine. You press a button, wait a moment, and then you have a cup of coffee. It doesn’t get easier (especially for caffeine addicts like me, who don’t generally go for really high-quality coffee).
But with the introduction of the Keurig 2.0, a new step was added: before the machine brews your coffee, it scans the K-cup to make sure that a special code has been printed on it—if it doesn’t see the code, it won’t brew. And who’s the only company who can put that code on the cup? Keurig.

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