Tag Archives: coffee

New 7-Eleven coffee campaign humbles hipster baristas, targets tradies

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Led by brand and communications manager of 7-Eleven Australia, Bill Kosmopoulos, and CEO Warren Wilmot, 7-Eleven is pushing its $1 coffee in a new TV spot.

With the one-minute ad attempting to demonstrate the frustration caused by dealing with the stereotypical coffee snob barista, they are leveled at tradies and time-poor professionals.

Using shots of freshly grounds beans, speed for the customer and with the backing of Grinders coffee, the quality and reputation is seen as a decent alternative to many.

Targeting those who drink multiple coffees every day, and who have grown tired of spending time in cafe queues, the 7-Eleven commercials are lighthearted, yet absolute in their message.

‘No Coffee Snobs at 7-Eleven’

Coffee time, story time – Muzz Buzz story book promotion

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Campaign: Muzzly and Buzzy children’s story book promotion

Client: Muzz Buzz

Agency: 121 Creative

Background

Muzz Buzz is an Australian owned and operated drive-through coffee franchise chain, originating in Perth.

The company was formed in response to growing Australian tastes for premium coffee, which was at the time, not commonly available within the Perth metropolitan area in drive- through form. Franchising of the brand commenced in 2004, with individual outlets closely resembling the original design and ethos.

Executive chairman Warren Reynolds has played a major role in the coffee franchise growth phenomenon with his brand philosophy of ‘selling an experience’ being an integral part of the Muzz Buzz success.

Objectives

The primary objectives were:

  • to produce a promotional item that could be used as part of a campaign to introduce the Muzz Buzz brand into the family home, and
  • to use this as an opportunity to look for new ways to use its mascot Buzzy and further define his role within the brand.

To achieve these goals, Muzz Buzz worked with design agency, 121 Creative. It was important that designer Ben Duncalf and his 121 team come up with an approach that supported both the brand philosophy of fun and ‘selling an experience’ while also delivering widespread appeal to the target market of parents with pre-schoolers through to primary school children.

The brief also presented a further challenge, with franchise rights having been sold to several countries, it was important the promotional piece fit with the internationalisation of the brand.

Muzz Buzz essentially required a timeless piece that would allow for rollout to the global market as and when required. A further layer of complexity lay in the fact the solution also needed to be inherently Australian.

Colour in

Strategy

Clearly it was decided that a children’s booklet would be the most effective way to reach the target audience and support the brand values of fun and provide consistency with the Muzz Buzz approach of marketing to customers through an experience.

Reynolds had a storyline in mind based on his own childhood experiences. It was important that this could be adapted to relate to children today. The most effective way to do this was to create a booklet that was both story and activity.

The artwork for this promotional piece was inspired by the company’s mascot named Buzzy, reminiscent of one of the Muzz Buzz coffee cups, sporting the corporate colours of purple, white and green. It was necessary for the booklet to support the existing creative of the brand. Designers also needed to ensure that illustrations worked with the storyline copy in addition to meeting all other criteria within the brief.

A storyline in booklet format introduced a new way for Muzz Buzz to bring their mascot to life and provide another opportunity for the company to communicate with its customers. The company wanted children to learn more about Buzzy the character and relate to his personality and experiences in the story.

The booklet also presented an opportunity to add a new character to Muzz Buzz promotional material in the form of Buzzy’s sidekick, a dog named Muzzly. One of the considerations for the design agency was to produce visually appealing character design for Muzzly and Buzzy that children would relate to.

It was also important that children could connect with each character’s personality and experiences. In order to address the requirement to retain an Australian influence, the Muzzly character is a mongrel dog that came from the shelter. This also enabled the storyline to feature the RSPCA.

However, the characters and storylines still lend themselves to being adapted by each nation’s franchise chain around the globe.

Mascot town

Execution

The 18 page, 240x240mm square booklet format was chosen to make it easy to handle. The opposite face of each page included a mirror image of an illustration to allow for colouring in. A double page spread on the last two pages lent itself to educational fun activities such as a memory game, spot the difference and a maze.

The story is written in an easy style that could be suited to early readers or for adults to read aloud to children. The internationally-accepted font for children learning to read was used as the typeface for the booklet (new century schoolbook).

Cleverly woven into the story are items from the Muzz Buzz menu when describing Buzzy’s favourite breakfast.

Mascot Town and Wilbur Wildcat are references to the Muzz Buzz sponsorship of the Perth Wildcats with their mascot, Buzzy making regular appearances at games. But again, these are easily interchangeable with other mascots and sponsorship activity at Muzz Buzz drive- thrus around the world.

Muzz Buzz printed 5000 booklets initially as a limited edition and rolled them out through company stores, local child care centres and schools as a give- away.

CoverResults

All 5000 books were distributed, with the books serving a brand awareness exercise, especially at major events where families were present.

Muzz Buzz was able to reach this new market segment of families with pre- school to primary school-age children. The client also saw a 17 percent increase in the average value of orders, as parents included something from the ‘Little Buzzers’ children’s menu.
Moving forward Muzz Buzz plans to work with 121 Creative to develop the next in the series of limited edition pro- motional books following the adventures of the two characters, printed as ‘limited editions’ from the series to allow for tried and tested promotional campaigns to coincide with the release of each booklet in order to appeal to each new person falling into this target market.

 

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Storytelling in a digital age

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Will marketers need to evolve and reshape the focussing of their brands?

Recently I interviewed a barista to learn how he marketed his café. It started out as a quick chat about how he used social media to connect with customers, which, incidentally, he does quite successfully. The conversation then detoured into a fascinating story about how he had managed to obtain the rights to import coffee from Vanuatu, how he has taken an ethical trading approach to the coffee farmers he works with there and how he will be returning there for the next harvest. “Wow! That’s a great story – it would make a great feature for television!” I noted. The barista just smiled, nodded and said he was talking to some production people about just that. In the space of a half hour, we had covered some pretty diverse marketing subjects: use of Facebook and Twitter, staff engagement in social media marketing, scheduling content for social media, his mobile app, how he uses QR codes all the way to Vanuatu, the philosophy of fair trading and television production opportunities. All this from a barista with one location on the Northern Beaches of Sydney!

It got me thinking. It wasn’t a conversation that would have been possible even a couple of years ago. It was the kind of thinking a big franchise might have entertained, one with a hot, award-winning ad agency and a deep pockets marketing budget. And yet it sounds entirely realistic in 2012. Empowered by no cost social media platforms, low cost tools and, most importantly, a great story to tell, my barista friend is good to go. It is the story that will differentiate his brand from others, not having an agency or a big marketing budget.

I share this story because it seems to me that the rise of storytelling will fundamentally reshape what professional marketers do for a living. With the ever-accelerating ‘digitisation’ of marketing, focus will inevitably shift from process-oriented skills such as producing a magazine ad or conducting a press event to a broader set of skills that is more akin to a brand storyteller. What brands will look for in professional marketers will be the vision and imagination to capture a brand’s story and share it with the marketplace, regardless of method. The better a brand marketer is at storytelling, the more successful they will be. Marketers will be more like movie directors whose vision informs the creative process, and less like movie producers who ensure the business side of the movie stays on track. The pieces of the process – packaging, PR, advertising, etc – will be less important than the sum of the whole brand storytelling experience. If marketers grasp the opportunity this evolution presents to them, they’ll find themselves highly sought after in a world hungry for a great story.

So, the next time someone asks you what you do for a living, consider giving this answer: “I tell stories”. You might get a funny look, but you won’t be wrong!

 

Agree? Disagree? Tell me! Email me at patty@digitalchameleon.net or comment below.

True-blue Aussies do their drinking in cafés, not pubs

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Roy Morgan’s extensive ‘State of the Nation’ report included a look into Australians’ eating and drinking habits over the last 9 years. The findings include the fact that drinking coffee and tea in cafés has risen, while at the same time drinking at a pub or hotel has decreased, to be even less popular.

The following habits have increased since June 2003:

  • Going to a café for coffee or tea,
  • going to a licensed restaurant, and
  • going to a pub or hotel for a meal.

 

Meanwhile, the following habits have decreased over that period:

  • Getting takeaway from a fast food place,
  • eating in at a fast food place,
  • going to a pub or hotel to only drink, and
  • going to a BYO restaurant.

 

Eating at (and taking away from) fast food places has been slowly decreasing over the last nine years, although Norman Morris, industry communications director, Roy Morgan Research, says fast food’s place at the table is not in jeopardy: “Fast food and takeaway have experienced a drop off since 2003, however these have been very slight and recent trends suggest these activities are now holding steady. With the ease, taste and convenience of fast food and takeaway, they will always likely hold a significant degree of popularity among consumers.”

 

 

Homepage image credit: Wadem, via Flickr

Top9 coffee print advertisements

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It’s the drug du jour and a product represented by brands creatives both imbibe and gag to work on. For consumers, it’s about as emotive as a commodity can become. So how have creative executions changed, influenced and been influenced by and for coffee?

First up, two gems that any top list with an historical aspect won’t be complete without: the embarrassingly sexist look to yesteryear and the Leonetto Cappiello poster.

Cappiello’s posters adorn the walls of many a cafe, kitchen and office space. Whether a function of history’s hindsight or simple brilliance, he blurred art and advertising:

We did want to stick to a single ‘gratuitous oversexualisation of a commodity product’ ad, but couldn’t. So we stuck to one brand. Lavazza not only takes the cake, but bakes it and coats it in euphemistic icing, in the following sample:

The brand goes some of the way to redeeming itself with ‘sexuality justified by country of origin’ allusions in its Romulus, Remus and the She-Wolf image below:

And it finds its feet again in this cloying Italian romanticism. Note the nod to Venice, the question of whether the flood is of coffee or water and the sculpture’s choice of beverage.

Then of course there’s the rising juggernaut of instant espresso – Nespresso. Going against the tide of cafe coffee and bringing it back to home or office preparation – as well as quietly bucking the trend away from physical distribution networks – Nespresso played its sponsorship dollars well using powerful symbolism and intelligent media placement.

For sheer cleverness, if not taste, we have to hand it to Finnish McDonald’s for this piece of work:

And finally, one from home, for bean roasters and Australian cafe pioneers Campos by y concept design.

Now we’re sure we’ve missed your favourite brand or execution, and there really is a wealth of SME coffee marketing out there… perhaps a list to come? Let us know your thoughts.

Nespresso: how sachet coffee became high fashion

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The Nespresso coffee maker juggernaut is continuing to impress coffee drinkers, with the growing brand announcing the launch of a new Sydney flagship store.

Christophe Cornu, chief commercial officer of Nestle Nespresso SA, said the opening of the The 330 square metre ‘boutique’ in Pitt street Mall caps a year of global expansion, and marks Australia’s performance as one of the fastest growing Nespresso markets worldwide.

Marketing magazine got the thoughts of Public Design Groups Jason Pollard on how Nespresso has become such a popular accessible luxury experience.

“There is an the abundance of good coffee in Australia, and the failure of Starbucks, proves how Australians feel about coffee,” Pollard tells Marketing magazine, “so for me, the fascinating thing about Nespresso is the way it has commoditised coffee, it’s a remarkable achievement. We’re told coffee should be fresh, made in front of you, yet here we are, happily buying up the machines and the packets. It’s diametrically opposed to everything we were told coffee should be.”

Pollard thinks that getting A-list celebrity endorses has certainly played its part in Nespresso’s growth.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve been successful,” he says. “Look at the dollars they’ve put in, with John Malkovich and George Clooney, the advertising, and store designs for what is essentially a straight-forward machine and something that comes in a packet. It’s impressive.”

“Nespresso has turned coffee in to trophy shopping. Its about the experience, consumers will walk around after shopping and have their Prada bag and be quite happy to have the Nespresso bag next to it. Nespresso has turned into one of the brands we’re proud of. It’s so cleverly done. It’s so well integrated: packaging, store experience, advertising; everything is very highly polished.

Whats Nespresso to you? Classy coffee, cheap and nasty, or nothing at all? Tell us what you think of Nespressos marketing on Twitter via @Marketingmag or on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/clP1n1

Moccona continues emotional marketing strategy

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M&C Saatchi has launched a TVC that continues its campaign of emotional branding for coffee brand Moccona.

Continuing its run of ads linking the brand to romance or ‘emotional’ situations, the TVC, entitled ‘Candles’, introduces Moccona’s Inspiration Range.

Mocconas marketing director Hilary Pulver indicates that the brand wanted something that stepped up the consumer’s emotional connection with the brand, but that would still deliver sales results

“We’re really happy with the outcome and the TVC, which is supported by outdoor, radio, online and magazines, promises to be a real success,” said Pulver.

One sip at a time

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Gloria Jean’s Coffees is all about coffee. It positions itself as a coffee specialist passionately committed to creating the ultimate coffee experience from bean to cup. This involves not only providing its ‘guests’ with a quality cup of coffee, but with a welcoming, warm coffee house environment, whether they are on the go or are looking for somewhere to stop and take some time out.

Gloria Jean’s Coffees, named as one of the top 30 fastest growing franchises in Australia by BRW, has 489 coffee houses across the country, serving five million coffees each month. Since 2004, the company has been established worldwide with 915 stores across 35 countries, and it is still Australian-owned.

Despite its prevalence across Australia, Gloria Jean’s has achieved its brand recognition with limited advertising – it ran its last campaign in 2007. The challenge for this campaign was to reinforce the position of Gloria Jean’s Coffees as Australia’s top provider of quality speciality coffee.

Client: Gloria Jean’s Coffees
Agency: 303

Objectives

The brief was to broaden the understanding of the product offering to an audience that may not have previously considered the brand, reinforce the positioning of Gloria Jean’s Coffees among its already loyal following, maintain growth in a competitive coffee environment and set up a distinct positioning.

A key objective was to also increase purchase frequency by highlighting other occasions during the day when customers could take time out or recharge with a coffee by emphasising ‘on-the-go purchases’. The challenge was to reinforce the company’s image – building on the understanding that enjoying a quality coffee was an opportunity to take a break in a busy world.

Strategy

There were two key target audiences for the campaign, including existing guests (encouraging them to extend their purchasing habits) and potential guests (building an emotional connection to show that ‘Gloria Jean’s Coffees is my kind of coffee place’). Jon McKie, managing director of 303 Sydney and the strategic planner on the campaign, indicates that he wanted to retain loyalty with existing guests by demonstrating they couldn’t get the same emotional connection that they get at Gloria Jean’s Coffees anywhere else.

“We wanted to generate a ‘wow’ factor – but in the sense that ‘Wow, Gloria Jean’s Coffees is unexpected. I didn’t realise their coffee was this good.’ Plus, we wanted to attract new guests, especially a younger audience, by promoting a contemporary brand image. This group leads a particularly hectic life and they need to know that Gloria Jean’s Coffees delivers the product and the quality anytime. How do you now encourage hurried, harried customers, in major metro areas, to change their habits and move to Gloria Jean’s Coffees?,” asks McKie.

Gloria Jean’s Coffees national marketing manager Nicole Saleh also wanted to amplify the in-store experience, bringing a thoughtful playfulness to life and encouraging people to bring Gloria Jean’s Coffees into their daily routine.


“[It’s] to show that we’re a good company, doing good things as well as providing good product,” says Saleh.

Creative director Julian Watt from 303 and his team developed the strategy ‘Live life one sip at a time’.

“The combination of product, place and people makes this a really great offering, and our campaign invites people to enjoy life a little more. This creative concept had to flow across everything – from counter cards to the TVC to posters to the website. Have a sip while you’re on the go and who knows what will happen next,” explains Watt.

Execution

The rationale for the execution, titled ‘Boy Meets Girl’, was to establish the campaign idea, ‘Live life one sip at a time’, where two people meet over coffee, but their awkward shyness doesn’t allow them to connect until after many coffees, thus demonstrating the benefit of visiting Gloria Jean’s Coffees, which is of course the coffee, the expert process and roasting, the training of baristas and the taste, all delivered quickly and efficiently. Originally created as a 45-second story, the TVC was cut into 30-seconders and cut-down 15-seconders.

The website was revamped to demonstrate how the company creates an emotional connection with guests, maintaining the feeling of the strategy. The site design aimed to be fun, light, entertaining, more informative and interactive than the previous site, with information on everything from how to own a franchise to finding employment.

303’s head of digital Nic Chamberlain says, “We wanted to capture the spirit of the Gloria Jean’s Coffees brand, the sense of fun, escaping from the norm, the feeling of relaxation, while at the same time giving people more information and the chance to interact with the brand by signing up to the club.”

Results

The results of the campaign were positive from the start. According to Saleh, Gloria Jean’s Coffees reaped rewards almost immediately – within the first two weeks of the campaign being on TV, sales increased 6.22% over the same time the previous year and transactions increased 6.6%.

“This means that the number of actual sales increased, as did the amount of each transaction. It was clear that the new positioning changed our guests’ view of us plus it has attracted new guests,” says Saleh.

“And something else happened – people starting emailing us about how they felt about the campaign, [which] had never happened before. We [have] never received emails from guests – now it’s about three per day and they’re all positive.”

Visits to the website increased as well – month-on-month traffic grew 9%, with daily traffic topping 2600 unique visitors as the TV campaign launched.

“There’s a clear steady increase in site traffic, and what’s particularly pleasing is the average site visit is over two and a half minutes, so we know people are browsing the site’s content,” explains Chamberlain.

Coffee breath to become more prevalent

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According to Datamonitor’s ‘Hot drinks in Australia to 2013’, Australian’s taste for coffee and tea will not be sated anytime soon.

The report expects the category to grow from $1,350 million (2008’s value) to $1,473 million by 2013. Datamonitor’s report suggests manufacturers market differentiations such as organic and antioxidants.

The study found that the average Australian drinks one of seven coffees outside the home. It also indicates consumers are attempting to replicate cafe quality coffee at home with strong demand for high quality roasts driving retail coffee sales to $752 million.

This positions Australia as second in per capita consumption of coffee in Asian economies as of 2008. Despite this swelling demand, instant products account for more than 80% of Australian sales. Datamonitor is forecasting $46 million growth in the at-home market over three years, to $798 million by 2013.

“In contrast to the western economies, Australians prefer their coffee with milk. So, whether it is the Australian-invented flat white or other favoured coffee variants such as cappuccinos or caffe latte, milk variants are in huge demand. However, cafés are not a quick pit-stop for caffeine intake. Rather, Australians prefer to sit back and spend hours drinking coffee in a cafés making it a place for leisure and business gathering,” said Niraj Lalka, senior consumer analyst with Datamonitor.

The report points to ”the unsuccessful attempt by the US coffee chain, Starbucks, to replicate the US model in Australia is indicative of very specific expectations of Australian consumers, which are difficult to meet by regular western practices.”

Donut Kings launches coffee campaign

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Donut King is launching a campaign for their new coffee offering.

The new coffee blend, entitled Royal Bean, is being supported by an integrated campaign including TVC, TV program sponsorship, direct mail, giveaways, print, OOH and in-store promotion.

The development of the blend has taken a year and involved internationally-recognised coffee experts said Donut King.

According to Andrea Gartside, acting marketing manager, the campaign is targeted at drawing the whole family to Donut King, allowing parents to take a coffee-break while the children enjoy Donut King’s traditional sweet offering.

“During the past year, we’ve been working hard to not only get the blend of coffee beans right in Royal Bean to meet the taste profiles of customers, but also investing heavily in training our store staff to brew the perfect cup of coffee,” said Gartside. “Coffee already accounts for a strong percentage of our store sales and with the launch of Royal Bean we’re looking to grow this further.”

Donut King is part of a group including Brumby’s Bakeries, Michel’s Patisseries and bb’s café.

The results are in … and the future for Starbucks isnt bright

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The announcement by Starbucks recently that they would be closing 61 out of 84 stores across Australia received plenty of coverage in the mainstream press and also in the blogosphere – if you dont believe me (and were, perhaps hiding under a rock last week) just take a look at the list of articles below.

Theres been quite a bit of speculation around what Starbucks long-term plan for coffee in Australia is, especially considering their strategy up to this point has seen the company in Austraslia run at a loss of nearly $63 million in the two years to last October.

So in the interests of democratic debate, we posed the poll question last week:

With a different marketing strategy, do you think Starbucks will be able to survive in the Australian market?

The Australian marketing community has been busy voting, and theres no question how they see the future for the global coffee company – and its not good.

86 percent of you are happy to proclaim Good riddance to bad, ahem, coffee, while only 14 percent of you voted that Starbucks would e back stronger than ever

As a coffee lover myself, I cant say I was devastated to hear about the Starbucks announcement, although I am not convinced that weve heard the last of them over here in Australia.

Trimming the fat

Starbucks US founder and chairman Howard Schultz was quoted in various sources as saying that the Australian
closures would help support the continued growth of our international
business, which leads you to believe that this is a global corporate decision to cut the fat before launching even more aggressively into the Chinese market, a strategy the company has openly discussed.

But I would argue this doesnt mean that Starbucks is gone for good from our landscape. I actually think they may be ready at some point in the future to reenter the marketplace here, but in a form we wont necessarily recognise.

Two-pronged attack

The future for Starbucks in the US looks like it is going to revolve around a dual-pronged marketing strategy, one that pitches the company at two different markets simultaneously. On the one hand, Starbucks is pursuing a new price promotions strategy, something previously anathema to the expensive coffee brand. A Businessweek article from July 9 explains how the brand has been trialling a number of price promotions across the US during July and seeing which are successful, before deciding whether this is a strategy they will roll out nationwide:

Through July 14, coffee drinkers in Atlanta and Indianapolis can get
a free 12-ounce hot or iced coffee every day with a similar card.

In
other cities around the country, Starbucks is making twice-a-day
customers afternoon coffee easier on the wallet. Depending on the
city, customers with a morning receipt can buy a 16-ounce cold beverage
for $2 after 2 p.m., or get a $1 discount on a cold drink after 1 p.m.

And elsewhere, the company is selling discounted drinks throughout the day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

For Starbucks, a brand built on premium price and a premium image, there is a danger that a coupon- and reward-driven promotional strategy will tarnish the position of the brand in the marketplace. But as Brad Stevens, vice president of customer relationship management at the embattled coffee company, concedes, with the economy the way it is right now, people want value, but they want value that is relevant to them.

Its a dangerous route to take – to tread the thin line between mass product commodity and premium brand experience – but one that Starbucks sees as crucial to revitalising the brand in the face of a slowing world economy that could hit coffee-lovers where it hurts – their disposable income.

Coupled with a price promotions strategy geared towards encouraging more footfall to the stores and a sense of value around the Starbucks offering, the company is also pinning no small part of its future hopes on a small, sleek stainless-steel saviour, in the form of the Clover coffee machine.

A very clever little machine

The Clover has been the talk of barista circles and coffee clubs across the US since its launch in 2006, with customers even queueing around the block for a cup of this precision beverage. With baristas able to control every aspect of the preparation – dose, water temperature and brew time – the Clover excels in its treatment of single origin coffees with complex flavour profiles.

But thats all coffee geek speak. How does this magical caffeine contraption hold the hopes of Starbucks as a brand on its polished drip-tray?

A key criticism of the Starbucks brand in recent years, which seems to have translated directly to in-store sales, has been the fact that the company is no longer perceived as the little Seattle start-up, purveying great coffee with knowledgeable staff and a relaxed ambience. In an internal memo (leaked to the press, and to me from Wired magazine) from new CEO Howard Schultz, the trouble with the now cumbersome coffee giant was made clear:

Im not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly cant get the message from being in our stores… at a minimum [we] should support the foundation of our coffee heritage.

And Schultz wasnt just frothing at the mouth – he announced sweeping changes to the way Starbucks would operate, bringing the grinding and roasting processes back in-store, and most importantly trialling their secret weapon – the Clover – in some stores.

In my 25 years at Starbucks, the Clover machine unquestionably delivers the best cup of brewed coffee I have ever tasted. The Clover represents for Schultz the future for a Starbucks he envisions as delivering exceptional quality coffee.

Back down under?

So the big question then remains, how will this strange Frankenstein marketing strategy work for the brand? How will it combine price promotions designed to bring in the masses with a strategy geared towards attracting the coffee connoisseur?

And ultimately, will this double threat marketing eventually see Starbucks launch another assault on the Australian market? I think that if the brand manages to turn its fortunes around in the US, we may well again see the green circle on the side of more Australian coffee cups. With its focus on premium coffee, a move back into the Australian market – with its high level of consumer coffee knowledge – is not off the cards.