Great Marketing Ideas

[Fresh Roaster]

Re: Fresh roasting

Where does one learn about in-store roasting? I saw it at a trade show once and mentioned it to my coffee supplier who turned a bit pale at the mention.

Google it!

And I'm not surprised to hear about your supplier. The thought of that 30-40% additional you pay him in the form of his profit pays a few bills!

Actually you should learn a little about roasting in general terms before thinking about it. Take a look at Sweet Maria's website.

www.sweetmarias.com ... I think.

Anyway, it's a home roaster site for the most part but absolutely gobs of information about roasting. And I'm going to disagree with John P. on one thing... but he like when I do that so he can eloquently pummel me with his superior coffee knowledge and exceedingly superior coffee pallette :grin: ... Average coffee fresh or not, Who cares? I do. Give me an average coffee fresh over a 2 week old COE six days a week and twice on Sunday. There's that much difference. Would you eat a week old baguette?

ANd John P is a big liar. He would drink an average fresh coffee. But I know what his reaction would be to a stale one! :shock:

 

[ElPugDiablo]

In store roasting is great. I roast on site, but just like the rest of your operation, there is no short cut. It also add another layer of complexity to your business. You can do very well roasting on site or buy from roasters. Fresh swill is still swill. A few of the worst coffee shops I have been to roast on site and some of the best shops in the country do not roast themselves but rely on quality roasters to roast for them. I was at a local supposedly gourmet supermarket that has a Probat L12 roasting daily. When I was there the damn thing is on 18th minutes and not even close to first crack, and in the hopper another load is ready to go. The coffee is pretty darn fresh, but it is not be drinkable.

 

[Fresh Roaster]

Stew Leonard's... I know... Pretty bad.... Pretty simple though. Totally manual, zero automation roaster built in the early 60's run by numerous different minimum wage workers. What would you expect? It's like giving a monkey a paint brush and expecting a Picasso.

 

[John P]

Matt,

Average coffee or Old coffee.... I wouldn't, and don't, have either.
But average coffee properly roasted, is better than excellent coffee poorly roasted. I just think if you can have both, why not. What's the point of having great machinery, and then not using the best ingredients? Kind of like those who spend 10K+ on their espresso machine, use stale beans, and couldn't pull a shot to save their lives.

Just as you wish to use the best components, materials, design, and engineering in your product... I do the same with my coffee. Same strategic model, different products. I KNOW you aren't taking shortcuts, and neither do I. The product(s) speak for themselves.

Geesh... take a compliment, won't ya!

 

[SunriseCoffeeLasVegas]

is anyone part of their local chamber of commerce? And how did you use your membership to your advantage?

 

[SunriseCoffeeLasVegas]

The 20% off coupon is working well to get people in the door. And we have a retention rate of 90% of customers becoming regulars.

So, I have decided to do more coupon advertising and see what happens. Tom. we are going down to first friday and handing out flyers and next week, we are going to blanket a one mile radius and let everyone know we are in the neighborhood.

I have my sister out in the street doing the sign thing and it works!

We are building a 6 by 4 ft banner by the sidewalk because it is hard for people to know we are here when they are driving at 50mph.

And I handed out flyers at the campaign rallies and that seemed to get some attention with people coming in and using coupons.

Eventually, we can save up and buy a really lighted sign but, until then we have just a vinyl banner that doesn't really stand out.

I am reluctant to do the crass attention red and yellow banners I think it crosses whatever morals I have left.

And we got some local meetup groups to use us as a venue. The poetry will be weekly, massage group, and a tea class in december.

So, things are moving forward I just hope we can get to the breakeven mark soon though cause next month we start paying rent!

arrrghhh!

Was it slow for everyone in the beginning?

I guess, I shouldn't have expected to come knocking down the doors.

And we are really quiet in the afternoons.

Please, someone give me hope!!!!!

I had full fledged chest pains the other day when my partner came in and said starbucks was busy when we were so slow.

It literally felt like someone was stepping on my chest and I couldn't breathe. I never had anything like it in my life.

Someone talk to me, I am a little worried and want to know how everyone else was like when they first opened their store?

Thanks!

 

[John P]

Sunrise,

It's a marathon, not a sprint. Breathe. Pace yourself.
If you try to get it all at once, it usually leads to losing it all at once.
BUILD your base cup by cup, happy customer by happy customer.
Deliver beyond expectations every time.
Greet everyone who enters.
Thank everyone who goes.
Love what you do and share that with your customers.
Exceptional product, passion, education, and sincerity will create loyalty.

Take a moment, practice pulling shots, or doing latte art.
Taste the espresso. Taste the coffee.
Ask yourself daily, "What can I improve?" And DO it.

Enjoy the journey.

 

[SunriseCoffeeLasVegas]

I envy your coffee zen and meditative state. I can almost feel your calm influence radiating off my laptop.

thanks.

yet, I think to achieve this state of coffee zen the individual must first suffer and torment themselves for a minimum of a year in their coffee house.

 

[ador2805]

What if you are trying to produce a product that will be sold in stores and not necessarily having your own coffee shop? I am trying to produce a coffee product that is easy and convenient for the average coffee drinker.

Danielle
Colorado Springs

 

[topher]

Go to your local schools and speak with the art department. You can offer to display differnt artists each month. Have a bio of the artist posted with contact info for purchasing their art so you do not have to deal with the sale. It will bring in the friends and family to check out thier art...they will buy coffee and not just check out the art...starts the word of mouth quickly! If you try it tell us how it worked..it worked well for me many years ago.

 

[RocketBux]

Well, I'm not in the coffee business but I have been working on marketing programs with coffee business (including a very large chain) and here are some observations:
First off, you need to do all of the stuff this forum tells you to do (serve great coffee, have great customer service, do good deeds in the community, etc. etc. etc.)

We are talking about spending hard-earned dollars to consistently grow the business day after day, month after month, year after year.

Remember, these were measured purely on ROI (return on investment) - $1 in $1+ out was basically the goal. Local newspaper advertising does not work, it simply costs too much and is not trackable. TV advertising is worse (even more cost!). Both of these medias are struggling and the consensus was "how do I know if it's working?". One coffee house actually saw sales CLIMB after discontinuing a $35k advertising spend on TV and the newspaper. Radio advertising was the cheapest form of traditional media but was very difficult to manage and while the spots were inexpensive to run, constantly changing the voice-over message was expensive and the media was again untrackable.

Loyalty programs worked very well but had some fraud. Unfortunately, one employee had pre-stamped dozens of cards for friends and family and the fearful owner quickly had to shut the program down after he found out.

Now if you don't want to read a shameless RocketBux plug, stop reading NOW but you might be surprised. We ran a mobile phone text message campaign for a single coffee kiosk. Over a 5 day period, the employees requested customers to give their mobile phone numbers to sign up for a text message loyalty program. The sign ups grew to 505 customers (over 100 sign-ups per day!). The owner then sent out a text message saying, "We're spreading the love! $1 off any large hot drink this Thursday. YOU have a beautiful day!"
61 people came in that day and redeemed their text message coupon. Many had the coupon forwarded to them from friends, which is an example of "viral marketing". The cost to send out the 500 plus messages was just over $10. Messages are not always about discounts, sometimes they are about supporting the local school sports program or the arts. Bottom line, it's a great one-to-one marketing tool that proves both trackable and cost-effective. Don't do it too much, maybe once per week as people don't want to be bombarded on their phone. If we would have done this 3 years ago, it would not have worked as the costs were too great and customers didn't want to give out their phone numbers. Both of those issues have been smoothed out now.
It's proven that word of mouth or viral marketing is the best marketing "you can't buy". The mobile marketing vehicle is just a jump-starter to a viral marketing campaign that the coffee shop owner can easily self-manage.

Good luck to everyone and have a great day!