Well Branded Beans: Taking Your Brew Beyond The Barista
Stop yawning, the day is young yet. Fortunately, coffee doesn't have to do much to market itself. About 50% of Americans -- that's more than 150 million people -- consume coffee in some form or another. It's safe to say we love our dark, magically caffeinated brew.
In fact, we love it so much that you don't have to search far to find a coffee shop any given day. Such ubiquity of coffee purveyors poses a slight problem: making yours stand out. Why should the sleepy masses shuffle silently into your coffee shop versus another? What will they take away? Why are you any different?
Let's look at how to brand your coffee a little better by paying attention to some essential methods.
To some people, coffee is simply hot bean water that wakes people up. For coffee lovers -- and coffee shop owners tend to love coffee more than anyone -- this beverage is so much more than a hot drink. Your branding should communicate your love of coffee. How well that love is conveyed will determine how many customers you draw in. A lot of this comes with well-designed coffee accessories. A popular trend now is for coffee shops to design a logo and ink stamp it by hand to white paper coffee cups. It's inexpensive, easy, and effective. Of course, you can also order custom printed coffee cups and sleeves with your shop's logo. Try having several different iterations of a logo and using a few series of them, perhaps even limited releases. Make people who see it in someone's hand want to ask about it.
You might've designed your coffee accessories down to artistic nanometers, but if they're not practical, people will get annoyed. Most of the coffee world serves on-the-go, and if you're giving people steaming cups of coffee with poor quality paper cups and lids, you're one letter off from spilling disaster.
Plain white paper cups, bearing your logo design or not, are mostly doomed to a fate in the trash bin. Encourage recycling in your coffee house. Use coffee accessories that have the smallest carbon footprint. On top of that, be loud and proud about it. Ditch the plastic straws, opt for reusable paper straws and wooden coffee stirrers. There are plenty of ways to do this and you can drastically decrease your coffee shop's waste levels in the process.
Branding your coffee (and shop) follows a simple path. Give the customers the coffee they want, package it with a design that draws the eye, make sure your vessels are both practical and sustainable. Trends change all the time, so start here and craft your coffee as creatively as you can.
In fact, we love it so much that you don't have to search far to find a coffee shop any given day. Such ubiquity of coffee purveyors poses a slight problem: making yours stand out. Why should the sleepy masses shuffle silently into your coffee shop versus another? What will they take away? Why are you any different?
Let's look at how to brand your coffee a little better by paying attention to some essential methods.
Design
To some people, coffee is simply hot bean water that wakes people up. For coffee lovers -- and coffee shop owners tend to love coffee more than anyone -- this beverage is so much more than a hot drink. Your branding should communicate your love of coffee. How well that love is conveyed will determine how many customers you draw in. A lot of this comes with well-designed coffee accessories. A popular trend now is for coffee shops to design a logo and ink stamp it by hand to white paper coffee cups. It's inexpensive, easy, and effective. Of course, you can also order custom printed coffee cups and sleeves with your shop's logo. Try having several different iterations of a logo and using a few series of them, perhaps even limited releases. Make people who see it in someone's hand want to ask about it.
Practicality
You might've designed your coffee accessories down to artistic nanometers, but if they're not practical, people will get annoyed. Most of the coffee world serves on-the-go, and if you're giving people steaming cups of coffee with poor quality paper cups and lids, you're one letter off from spilling disaster.
Environmental pride
Plain white paper cups, bearing your logo design or not, are mostly doomed to a fate in the trash bin. Encourage recycling in your coffee house. Use coffee accessories that have the smallest carbon footprint. On top of that, be loud and proud about it. Ditch the plastic straws, opt for reusable paper straws and wooden coffee stirrers. There are plenty of ways to do this and you can drastically decrease your coffee shop's waste levels in the process.
Branding your coffee (and shop) follows a simple path. Give the customers the coffee they want, package it with a design that draws the eye, make sure your vessels are both practical and sustainable. Trends change all the time, so start here and craft your coffee as creatively as you can.
