Work to Build and Protect Your Coffee Brand
Your Coffee Shop Brand: Working To Build and Protect Your Brand
Coffee Shop Branding
Develop a Brand Before Your Launch Your
Coffee Business
When it comes to starting a coffee shop, your name and your brand will impact your success. The goal of your brand is to separate you from every other coffee retailer in your area and improve your overall sales.
What is a brand? And how do you develop it?
A brand is a symbolic representation of your company. It might be small, but it is packed with tons of information and emotional triggers important for your coffee business.
Developing a brand is the act of using a name, term, or symbol that makes your business unique to the world. It allows your customers to develop a connection with your company.
Developing a coffee brand does several important things for your coffee business. First, it creates a recognizable connection, which can be good, bad, or neutral. Of course, you want to develop a positive brand that generates feelings of trust, high quality, and reliability.
Think of some common brands we can easily recognize and may feel good about. We can instantly recognize them and associate some feelings about them. In a busy world with lots of noise, this is a powerful tool.
Second, developing your brand generates added value to your company. The more well-regarded your brand is, the more potential it has to drive your coffee company's value.
It's easier to develop a well-regarded coffee brand from the beginning instead of years into your coffee business. Therefore, it's worth it to invest some thought and energy into your brand's long-term development. But it should start early with your name, logo, color scheme, slogan, and even cafe design.
Tips on developing your coffee shop brand:
- Decide on how you want your customers to see you.
- Choose a name that is clear, concise, and easy to spell
- Develop your vision and be consistent
- Develop your platforms (website, social media accounts, and printed materials)
Develop Your Coffee Shop Brand
Decide on how you want your customers to see you.
Depending on your coffee shop concept, you will want to be the person to define what type of coffee business you have. For example, do you want to be known as being the fastest coffee drive-thru stand in town? Do you want you to be the cafe that's known for the best bagels or pies in your neighborhood? Decide how you want to be seen, and then build your coffee business around that.
Choose a coffee business name that fits.
Your coffee shop name matters a lot. Naming your coffee shop can be more challenging than you think. We recommend choosing a name that clear, easy to read, spell, and remember.
Develop your vision and be consistent.
Having a vision for your coffee shop is important. It keeps you grounded, develops consistency, and points towards your long-term goals. Create a vision and embed that within your branding effort.
Develop your platforms
(website, social media accounts, and printed materials).
Once you decide on your coffee shop's name, you will want to get your coffee shop website and social media accounts. While you might not have any material or content to put yet, you will want to secure these accounts first.
Develop Your Social Media Strategy
Despite what you might think, executing a cohesive social media strategy for your coffee shop takes time and real effort. Social media are your means to reach your target market. Unfortunately, many coffee shops relate it to an oddly only-necessary task like taking out the trash.
Of course, starting a coffee business takes real work – but engaging where your customers are online also takes work. This is especially true if you care about your coffee shop brand – which every business should.
So, while you might not have the funds to hire a full-time social media expert to engage your customers – you should develop a strategy of posting updates, pictures, and news – all to engage your customers.
Don't Abandon Your Online Efforts – People Are Watching.
Whatever you do – don’t set up your social media pages (like your Facebook Page) only to abandon your online social networking properties in a few months.
There is no doubt that anyone – even full-time media experts can be overwhelmed chasing the dragon – meaning chasing every new and shiniest social network.
We realize that life happens and that your business is a busy place. We believe that you should start slow and then dig deep. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram might be wise first choices.
Take your time. This isn’t a sprint but a long-term engagement of getting to know your customers and allowing them to get to know you as well.
Build Your Website and Your Social Media Network
Your online presence will be important. The chances are that your customers will be searching and trying to engage with you online, even before they buy their first coffee from you. If you, as the business owner, don’t have the time, consider delegating your social media duties to an employee – a trusted employee.
In fact, employees who feel empowered to run your social media site can often do a great job. But remember that their commitment and their personality will impact your coffee brand. For further reading, check out our other article on How to Setup Your Coffee Shop Website.
Your Coffee Shop Branding: Our Recommendations
Our recommendation: We recommend building your own coffee shop website and using it as a platform for all of your social media efforts. Your website should always have a blog, as you will want to update your website regularly.
Our advice then is to sit down with the person you delegate this important job of social media engagement – and discuss your goals and objectives.
Be clear that this job function should align with your larger marketing goals. Also, be clear about the specific dos and don’ts. For example, if you have a top-secret family recipe that you do not want to share with the world, make that known. Finally, make sure that you occasionally check upon them – as well as have them report progress to you.
Managing Online Reviews of Your Coffee Shop
How should you deal with and manage poor or negative ratings and reviews that occur on such sites as Yelp?
Your online business reputation can have a pretty intense impact on your bottom line. So, it’s important to stay in tune with what’s being said about you. This requires you to have some strategy in place to not only gently (but aggressively respond to reviews – especially the good ones!)
Most businesses will have to work with that occasional customer, which is difficult. It should be your hope (and objective) to quickly resolve any customer issues before they go online – as any negative information can travel quickly.
No one can better defend the honor of your business’s reputation than you.
And trust me, the day will quickly come when unfair and brash criticism will be posted. You have to set up a plan and figure out how you will deal with these situations before they happen. If you are delegating the “social media” job out to an employee, make sure that you talk to them – and have them immediately contact you before they take action or respond.
You will need to have an online reputation management system in place. Not having the ability to respond leaves you pretty vulnerable to attack. For example, consider what would happen if an unscrupulous competitor were to send in an employee and be an “unpleased” patron. Actions like this happen every day – and in every type of business. What is at stake is your business's future, which is why you need to be able to act.
How To Boost Your Coffee Shop Brand
Engage With Your Audience.
Positively engaging with your audience can include a variety of things. For example, you may follow them back, like other people's content, and share stories, pictures, and videos. You may also decide to post discounts specifically for your followers. You may decide to create contests or develop questionnaires about your customer's favorite drinks. You may want to tag other businesses and customers, answer questions, and share local news. Certainly, you can do plenty of things to make your content likable and appealing to the current and potential customers in your area.
Develop Your Blog.
Developing is a great way to share your company's story and your personal narrative about how you started, what you are doing, and where you are going. Blogging doesn't have to be academic and boring – make it fun! And don't forget to share your blog posts on social media, too.
Learn How to Respond to Complaints – Offline – and Online.
Many complaints are legitimate. So carefully hear out your customer. Have an open ear – and see how you can effectively solve their problem. Empathy and quick action can turn a potentially explosive situation into a very positive one. You often need to say you're “sorry” – be genuine about it – and move on.
Don’t Get onto Public Arguments.
Diffuse the situation and move on. Chalk it up to understanding that no matter what you do – no matter how far you go, there will always be unsatisfied customers. The trick is not to let their energy become your energy – or deflate you about your customer altogether.
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Coffee Shop Startups
Based in Seattle, Washington, USA, Coffee Shop Startups is dedicated to providing you with the most relevant information on how to start a coffee shop business successfully. Over the last 11 years, we've helped thousands of aspiring coffee business owners worldwide. We harness the experience, wisdom, and knowledge of many successful coffee shop owners to help you increase your chances of success and profits. We support business owners who want to start a coffee business by providing them with valuable information on starting their coffee business successfully.
