Coffee Shop Opportunity- Need answers on How to Assess business potential-Marketing..

[HillofBeans]

I am a wholesale coffee roaster specializing in organic coffees. One of my new clients has been expanding his coffee business. He has a health drink/juice bar in a beautiful location. The place is in a ritzy upscale town in Pennsylvania town - Pop. 18,000. The business is just about a year old but he moved locations to be able to sell coffee. He has beautiful equipment but is too busy making the juice part work to give the coffee biz a chance. He wants me to pay some rent bring in my coffee and breakfast items and make a go of it by rounding out his menu without hurting his brand.
My question -how does one research the viability of another coffee shop in this town? (star bucks on the same block) Do people research and market themselves or hire out? Any tips on guerilla marketing and advertising to let people know that they are now making changes and sell great coffee. My brand has some pull locally, i think, but we need people to know that the place is different and not just for the healthy bunch
Thanks

 

[John P]

If there is a need and your product is superior to what is already available, then you will be successful.

What makes it great coffee? Organic certification has nothing to do with the quality of the coffee or the quality of the roast or the freshness or the brewing... Explain/describe to consumers why your coffee is great. Farm specific, micro-region, above Specialty Grade, how you roast, freshness standards, etc., THEN you can add the "Organic" as a bonus feature.

You may have great coffee, but I have found in my ten years in the industry that without fail, those who lead with Fair Trade/Organic/Bird Friendly ... all the cause-based marketing... do so because they have nothing else to say about their coffee.

Great small farm coffees are organic, they needn't be certified.

Here are my thoughts on marketing in these two pieces.

On Positioning

On Exclusivity as a Long-Term Marketing Strategy

 

[HillofBeans]

nice articles thanks

 

[ensoluna]

Here are my thoughts on marketing in these two pieces.

On Positioning

On Exclusivity as a Long-Term Marketing Strategy

hello John, thanks for the articles. I read them all. nicely written and some good points.
I would like to ask you on Exclusivity from the article. you gave us the example of Apple as exclusivity and it is quite essential to create "unique brand" and "service excellence" in terms of exclusivity. for the service excellence, I can understand. Perhaps the shop owner can create some sort of unique and different than normal service procedures. that could be very interesting Idea.

however, for creating a unique brand... I have bit difficult time understanding.
Apple is a technology and it is truly unique (even though millions of people are coping right away, but they set the trends) in nature.. in the beginning.
but for coffee shop/roaster/barista...etc in coffee related business, what could be the unique brand?

i do not think that it is just an unique brand name, or unique blends of coffee, or unique coffee machine (which is almost impossible for regular people), unique products? perhaps?

I do not want to guess something that I could be very wrong, so I would appreciate your kind explanation.

thanks John.

 

[John P]

Ensoluna,

As I mentioned in the article, there cannot be exclusivity without excellence. For us, this is how we have established exclusivity in our market.

We are the only shop that roasts above Specialty Grade coffees in small batches and, most importantly, I am very good about what I do when it comes to roasting.

We sell whole bean only.

We are the only dedicated siphon bar in the state and one of a handful in the country.
Our siphon is served in house, black only, and ranges from $7-$12 per cup. Most who come out of their way for the siphon see it as "under priced". So it is a much better value than the $4.50 pour over at X place.

We were known by geeky coffee type people nationally for our espresso before we even started doing siphon. Shops from New York, Boston, and Baltimore have sent people our way or have asked about us.

We are open from 9a-6p Mon-Sat. This makes us available less hours than any other shop in the city. Because we have already established excellence, this increases the customers' need/desire to get to us.

Rather than try to sell coffee to many restaurants/shops, we only work with the best restaurant in the state, Forage. And they came to us. So if you want to experience our coffee, you can come to our shop, or you can get it at Forage, which is avg. $100 per person. Despite the numerous requests we have had over the years, we've always said no until we found someone who held the same standards with their own craft as we do with ours.

And there is only two of us, my wife and I, so our consistency is unmatched. If you have eight, twelve, or twenty employees you are not going to be able to deliver the same kind of consistency that we can.

Each of these things is an illustration, or a result of, our excellence in our craft, none of which are done by anyone else in our market and collectively, not by anyone nationwide.

So while every one is trying so hard to become bigger, we try to become smaller and more focused.

That, in a (basic) nutshell is an illustration of exclusivity.

 

[ensoluna]

Hello John,
not exactly what i was asking for. however, it is very refreshing to hear from someone who has so much pride and passion in what he does for himself and for customers.

Yes, I can wholeheartedly agree that you have THE EXCLUSIVITY in what you do.
I can safely assume that your exclusivity is working out very well for you. And that is great.
however, I can also see that it would be very difficult to apply your methods and ideas to many other business practices in coffee industry. well.... if so, that would not be exclusivity anymore, right?!

anyway, when I am around Salt Lake city, I will make it sure to stop by and try all the best of coffees you have. I am looking forward to it.
And thanks for your long, yet interesting reply.

 

[John P]

Ensoluna,

Perhaps my explanation was too specific. We have done it because exclusivity as a concept is a time-tested, proven methodology, and has been in many varying kinds of businesses for hundreds of years. Nothing new, we just applied it to our business.

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a perfect example of exclusivity.
Ruth's Chris steakhouse is not.

Really not sure what you were looking for.

 

[keppa837]

Hello again , this siphon system sure sells X pensive it's an xcellant bz. How was your trip to Guatemala and Michael ( VENTU ) sure had a great learning Xperience , I'M sure. You can PM me if you want. Would you know what my cost would b to import our coffee from COLOMBIA let's say to LA, CALIF. ABOUT 500 LBS. THE PORT from Colombia would b BuenaVentura. Would we need an organic certification if we r a small cafecultor and also do we need to apply for an export license to export our own coffee. Sorry for all the questions but any help would b appreciated. I am an X native from Oxnard, Ca. Near VENTURA.QUE TENGA UN BUEN DIA

 

[manis]

great article, thanks!