This first BrandingWire collaborative posting is a fictitious case study, designed to showcase some creative branding ideas. However, I’d be surprised if one or more companies don’t glean some actionable insight from this wealth of free branding advice!
->The BrandingWire team has been approached by a small coffee company. They have a few retail stores, have been in business for 8 years, and are moderately successful – reasonably profitable, with no debt – and operations are funded out of steady cash flow. They roast their own beans on-site (and boy, does it smell wonderful!), their retail sites are wide-open, relaxed, and kind-of country-funky. There is very strong local attachment to the company, but little recognition outside of the geographical area (it’s a family operation but the owner is committed to doing whatever it takes to create a thriving business). 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. The logo looks like it came out of a branding bargain bin.
They want to grow, though they’re not entirely sure what is the most profitable path…more retail? Franchising? Mail-order? Corporate coffee service? Something new and unique? They have plenty of capacity to crank out more coffee beans, and can easily add more without undue financial strain if growth really takes off.
They sense the growing competition. Starbucks, of course. McDonald’s is upscaling their coffee. Caribou Coffee is going to move in 30 minutes away. Dunkin’ Donuts may be heading in their direction. How do they distinguish themselves?
That’s the challenge for each member of the BrandingWire posse. Here are links to the various creative ideas generated by the bloggers of BrandingWire:
Kevin Dugan, of Strategic Public Relations, presents a case for regional expansion with a freshened identity, and has an interesting “mobile” concept for expanding market awareness.
Drew McLellan, who blogs at Drew’s Marketing Minute, expands on the types of insightful questions with which he’d approach the coffee shop stakeholders, to help unearth the genuine brand distinctives.
Steve Woodruff, over at StickyFigure, assumes that he’s listened in on all of Drew’s interviews, and gives 7 concrete suggestions for ways to differentiate and grow, focusing on the on-line/mail-order approach.
Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! gives us ideas on how to build the business organically by growing customer relationships and then leveraging them to bring in new business. She also gives some very tactical suggestions on creating an optimal coffee house experience based on customer needs, even down to the details in the bathroom.
Patrick Schaber, the blogger at The Lonely Marketer, looks at capitalizing on local strengths, as well as web strategies to expand beyond the local market.
From Lewis Green’s perspective (L&G Business Solutions), the place to start is ensuring a very positive customer experience, particularly by focusing on employee training, and a consistent and positive (multi-sensory) brand experience within the store. People first!
Our Conversation Agent, Valeria Maltoni, presents a wealth of buzz-creating ideas, from distributed brewing kiosks, to personalized mugs, to open displays of bean-roasting, to photo ops. After reading her ideas, you’ll want to go to JAVAroma right now for a cup!
Martin Jelsema on The Branding Blog introduces the concept of creating a “meeting room” environment as an extension of the coffee shop, to draw in the increasing numbers of social networking groups who gather for discussion – and to differentiate from other brands that cannot easily accommodate such gatherings.
From Olivier Blanchard, a cornucopia of ideas awaits at the Brand Builder blog. Creative ideas such as educational kiosks, client-aided re-branding, and lessons on how to use a French Press are blended with a number of questions that need to be asked to arrive at an optimal – remarkable – identity.
Gavin Heaton addresses the story – specifically, the who, what, why and how of the business’ story has developed, and what that means for its ongoing marketing.
Now, here’s a challenge for you! The BrandingWire team is going to move beyond fictitious case studies, to real branding challenges. Small companies, or non-profits, that need a brand make-over. Do you have any candidates? Submit your ideas in the comments, and we will take a look (hello, London 2012 Olympic committee…are you listening?). We might showcase your idea to demonstrate how the BrandingWire collaborative practices Branding that Works.
(Image credit: Flickr)
[...] bloggers who have influenced our thinking and encouraged our creativity. As we now launch our first collaborative posting, we’d like to acknowledge some of the many friends and fellow bloggers who are accompanying [...]
Hi – Nice blog idea – maybe you would like to use my site as a test case – I’ve been online, and online only, since 2003 as a small one person internet shop. I’d like to become more profitable and more successful. Best wishes for your success as well!
[...] May 16th, 2007 by stevewstickyfigure The inaugural jolt from BrandingWire is coming on Monday, June 11 – we’re amped, and you will be too! Come on by TODAY at 12:00 noon EST to see the initial posts! (Update: we are now launched!) [...]
Growing A Company from the Coffee Grounds Up
This is my first post for BrandingWire. Today, is the official launch of this new blog that focuses on marketing and branding challenges. Each of the 12 professional marketers will analyze a case study and offer solutions from a particular point of vie…
Excellent case study to kick it off, you pundits! How can you go wrong with coffee
I really like this idea. I will be reading over all of the responses.
I would like to suggest my own one-man-show business as a candidate for a real world case study.
I run a web design & development business in Odessa, TX. I work from home, so there is no physical location. I have been in business for 4 years and have been moderately successful. In my 4 years of business I have been able to gain an excellent reputation with my existing clients through a nearly obsessive compulsive level of customer service. I have 2 clients in other states (CT & CO), but otherwise all clients are local to the local area which has a population of about 200,000 (when including the neighboring Midland).
I would like to grow the business. I feel a solid branding make-over would be a big step in the right direction.
There are about 5 direct competitors in the area. The current business stemmed from the closure of my previous employer, and thus the entire branding (logo, website, etc) were thrown together overnight to “get something up, and get to work”.
Business name: Nuance9
Tagline: Websites that mean business.
Site: http://www.nuance9.com
What a fascinating way to kick-off BrandingWire, bravo (and brava!). Truth can be stranger than fiction but fiction is where the fun lies, eh?
Sending a BIG shout-out to each of you on this collaboration…amazing how much this medium is advancing–just leave it to smart marketers to add so much value
.
I’d like to volunteer for a case study too.
I run a small law firm specializing in Immigration law. Located in southeast Florida but with clients all over the world.
An excellent opportunity to look at Branding to a multi-cultural target audience.
AND…if you’d like to toss a NONPROFIT case study into the hat, we’d sure love FUNDING ideas! (without any risk of vested interest/sponsors trying to co-opt our cause, shush our voice, or ‘brandwash’ their own agenda by associating w/our credibility & momentum) http://www.ShapingYouth.org
As you can see, we’re not anti-media, we’re IN the media…out to shift the power and momentum toward a more positive worldview for children. Basically, we’re flipping media & marketing messages to kids in a healthier direction in three ways:
• Counter-marketing junk food for the mind & body using fun hands-on ‘reality show’ formats (currently productizing via film for global scalability/reach, like our “Dare to Compare: Gross Out Game for Good Nutrition which kids call “Fear factor Foods”)
• Eliciting content accountability/change from industry producers themselves (yes, us!)
• Raising media literacy/awareness via blog/podcast/internet films
Now THERE’S a challenge for the new blog!
Anxious to read what folks came up with on the coffee conundrum and give it some thought myself from a Copy/Concept standpoint since start-ups and brand expansion are part of my gig.
VERY cool idea for a blog. Talk about an ‘open-source’ value-add!!
[...] is a consolidation of 9 separate posts created by the BrandingWire posse of pundits, all addressing a single branding [...]
From my quick reading of this test project, it seems everyone is concentrating on the coffee. May I suggest concentrating on the experience and let the coffee take care of itself. If it is truly great coffee it will create it’s own buzz. Purposely taking the focus off the beverages, could differentiate from the category leaders. It also opens up creative opportunities in several directions.
Off point: Now that you’ve all put tons of professional thought behind this exercise are you all just alittle tempted to start that coffee shop up for real?
Ed:
Thank you for visiting. I’m not sure if you’ve read every post around the case study, many get into the customer experience even as they highlight the product. Engaging the senses, creating a story, building confidence from the inside of the organization to build relationships outside are among the options suggested.
Now where is my cup of coffee
Hi there,
Great blog so far! I quite enjoyed the coffee posts… would you say branding coffee and shoes and beer and other “lifestyle” products comes easier than branding… say, a small high tech services company?
I’ve been working in marketing for this sort of company for a short while, and have found it to be quite a challenge to really get a grasp of our brand. How can providing IT services be cool, let alone sexy? This is my fundamental dilemma when considering marketing campaigns, when writing for the website, when contemplating a blog… etc etc.
I would love to volunteer our company for your next collaborative post. Would you be interested?
Thanks,
iu
[...] challenges as a group, one per month, pooling our expertise and perspectives. We’ve tackled coffee, a town in Colorado, car sales, and other themes, and its been an enjoyable [...]