Marketing to High School and College Students

[cafeizzi]

Hi - I'm a newbie. I own two coffee shop/cafes and would like some input on different ways to market to teenagers - high school & college students (we have a college in the town where one of my cafes is). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Donna (in GA)

[NW JAVA]

You could try contacting the schools newspaper and placing an add, for what ever incentive you like...

[javahill]

offer things teens want
a place to hang out
wi fi
frequent coffee card buys access on your wifi network (needs some thought to structure the deal and security)
coffee tastings - blind and branded (you vs. Maxwell House, you vs Starbucks, etc)
Humor
Employees like them (classmates)

[CoffeeHouseMusic]

Contact the PTA for each high school, middle school, and elementary school...

Host a faculty serve night where a portion of the receipts during the event go to the PTA...

Many companies like Wendy's do this... Teachers and even the principal get behind the counter and serve students and family for a night...

This way the PTA will promote your company for long term effect and you'll get a nice crowd for the event (for the short term)

Contact the PTA by simply calling up each school and ask how to contact that school’s PTA event’s coordinator

Then follow up by doing local pre-press for the event... snap photos and do a press release as a follow up with the local papers...

This is a very successful way to get your name out to the local community.

Happy Marketing

Scott Clark
CoffeeHouseMusic.com
http://www.CoffeeHouseMusic.com

[Julez777]

sample your coffees! this is a good way to get yourself known to the public. i have worked at a coffee shop for 5 years and we get new customers constantly from sampling our new drinks.

offer coupons for people to come in, give out free stuff..

a place where students can go to study or hang out is also nice. possibly have a nice desserts? we have a coffee shop on my campus that offers a very nice selection of gourmet coffee drinks along with a huge variety of chocolates and desserts. it also has some nice couches that people can sit and hang out on.

good luck!
-julie