Making Beans Magical Again – BrandingWire 1

It seemed only appropriate to compose this post from a local coffeehouse considering the assignment.

Our first mission? "A fictional,** small coffee company in mid-America has a few retail stores, has been in business for 8 years, and is moderately successful. They roast their own beans on-site and their stores are relaxed (kind-of country-funky).

There’s a very strong local attachment to the company with little recognition outside of the geographical area. Their brand name is OK, but certainly not anything special. They have a lame tagline (Great coffee at great prices!) and no distinctive identity pieces."

They want to grow, though they're not entirely sure what is the most profitable path. They sense the growing competition from Starbucks, McDonald's, Caribou, and Dunkin' Donuts. What should they do?

Having provided some unsolicited coffee advice to Starbucks, I guess I’m qualified for this. Normally I’d step through a process. But this is a blog post so, like any good cooking show, we’ll give the whole process and all the ingredients a quick nod, but show the final product for you to see.

Coffee Buzz, Crowded Space
A look at the landscape bodes well for our coffee client (CC), but it also shows why competition is fierce.

The San Diego Union Tribune notes that daily consumption of coffee surpassed sodas in 2007 for the first time in more than 15 years. In “The Buzz over Energy Drinks” NPR tells us teens and young adults spent almost $2.3 billion on heavily caffeinated drinks in 2006. That may explain why more teens are hanging out in coffee houses instead of malls. Coffee is appealing to a wider audience. A coffee house needs to be flexible to meet all of their needs.

Taking Seth’s Small is the New Big to heart, I’m proposing modest growth aimed at expanding regionally by a few locations. This will allow CC to become the anti-Starbucks, offering a more authentic, local experience than you’ll find at one of 13,000 locations worldwide.

CC will need a complete identity overhaul at existing locations prior to expansion. This includes creating a consistent brand with a new logo, tagline and standards that express what truly makes them different — Country Roast.

Country Roast
Creating boutique beans in small-batch production on site sets CC apart and should be played up. The roasting process should be brought to the front of the store so it’s visible to the customers — a front and center event. Ultimately, CC should offer roasting classes so customers can learn how to roast their own beans – free trade of course and offered in ample supply through CC.

On the Road, Online to Connect with New Customers
To get noticed in their new markets, a mobile roasting truck will canvass local events to show off the process and give out free coffee samples showing off their new look and directing customers to their website for more information.

The web site will tap into social media, serving up plenty of roasting content, photos of the truck at events and the owner’s blog, Coffee Talk, helps tell the story and engage customers in conversation. A full e-commerce component will also make bean sales possible online.

Branding Makes Magic Beans
The new, consistent look and the increased presence regionally and online will help differentiate CC and Country Roast. By introducing the customers to roasting and reinforcing its local presence, CC will connect with customers. The end result is a successful, profitable growth strategy (in less than 600 words).

**For the first BrandingWire post, we chose a hypothetical situation, but we plan advising on real situations in future posts.

coffee! uploaded by ziteng
tags | BrandingWire | Starbucks | Dunkin’ Donuts | marketing | branding | brand

Comments

[Swapnil]

"A fictional,** small coffee - What do you mean by that?

[Kevin Dugan]

hypothetical. Scan to the bottom of the post!

[Drew McLellan]

Kevin,

Excellent ideas.

And not so ambitious that the coffee shop owner would just throw up his/her hands in frustration. I'm all for nice and steady -- as you say, moderate growth. All too often business owners are so anxious they toss in everything but the kitchen sink but never have the gas to maintain it. So in the end, they don't really move the needle.

Good stuff!

Drew

[Valeria Maltoni]

Keep your eye on the bean and create organic growth. I do wonder how much Italians and Eropeans spend in coffee; my guess is more than here.

[Martin Jelsema]

Kevin:
What a great way to introduce a new business to one town after another! I really like the experential marketing idea of serving free coffee at events to introduce the business. I'd "piggy back" on that and continue to participate with a mobile presence at funtions, even if you'd need to charge for the coffee then.

[Lewis Green]

The idea of "a mobile roasting truck will canvass local events to show off the process and give out free coffee samples showing off their new look and directing customers to their website for more information" is used by other coffee and beverage companies and it is a good one that works to build name recognition and give customers a taste.

Valeria,

Japan is number 1 and the U.S. is number 2 in consumption of coffee by weight. Lots of beans being purchased and consumer in these two countries.

[Kevin Dugan]

Lewis - I would have guessed Italy was higher, but that's probably because I'm biased. Some of the best coffee I ever had was in Italy.

The mobile concept is a big investment, but it pays long term dividends and really gives the owner a lot of flexibility. It's been great seeing how the different BrandingWire posts all play together.

[harryc]

Great post Kevin.
I agree that the "brand" is the combination of roasting on the premises and serving the coffee. Why not spend a bunch of money on the interior with a designer who can create the right atmosphere for hanging out and drinking coffee while incorporating the very powerful, emotion-generating aroma of coffee being roasted. The must accommodate shoppers who come in just to buy a bag of beans. This activity could be the major source of new in-store coffee drinkers.
Traditional brand collateral (taglines, logos, promos) will be of little use if the experience of CC in not unique and fun.

[dt]

I run an office coffee service in Charlottesville, VA called Barista on Demand, LLC (www.baristaondemand.com. We use events as a lead generator for our service and it works well. Almost every community event looks for sponsors and coffee is a popular treat that event attendees love!

[Eric Eggertson]

Both major cities in Saskatchewan have been all but overlooked by Starbucks expansion, and in each city there's a local company that has done a good job of positioning themselves as the roasted-on-the-spot place where you can get good coffee and good vibes.

Not all outlets have to have the roasting done on-site for there to be an opportunity to showcase the process. If one shop does roasting for two locations, the other location can play up the roasting process with a display or some other method, and emphasize that the roasting is being done locally.

In addition to handing out free coffees, coffee catering is a good way of reaching new customers. There are a lot of companies/organizations that bring in coffee and munchies for meetings and events. If you make your catering options easy to understand, make ordering easy to do by phone/fax/e-mail and deliver excellent service, you can get known in a particular business area. The trick is to make sure your branding is strong when you do the catering, so you get the benefit from all that effort.

[Kevin Dugan]

Great additions by everyone. And on the "coffee mobile," I guess the adage if it's good, it's been done applies.

Eric - Believe it or not, there is still a ton of room for Starbucks expansion in the U.S. Right now your best bet for coffee on a long drive is at the BP station when you get gas. Starbucks could easily start dotting the offramps of major interstates in addition to the city street corners.

[ziteng]

hi, i would appreciate it if you would had at least informed me that you were using my picture.
this is a breach of copyright as my flickr states that the pic is COPYRIGHTED.

[ziteng]

please remove the picture or at least notify me that its posted here.

thank you

[Kevin Dugan]

ziteng - My apologies for the confusion. I assumed the attribution was enough as I do not make money with my blog. After posting this, I will pull down the pic. Thanks for touching base.