HoNo big marketing campaign works for the coffee shop industry
Blue Bottle still works well in its digital marketing by using content marketing and leveraging with other brands to strength its personality
If I asked people the best coffee shop or coffee chain in their minds, 99% of them would give the same answer — Starbucks. Every year, Starbucks has launched many events or campaigns to promote its brand image. For example, in November 2021, it launched the ‘Red Cup’ campaign to celebrate the holiday; in 2020, the #Whatisyourname campaign helped promote its humanitarian value.
But, I wonder, can other brands emulate this strategy model? The answer is NO!!!
For boutique coffee shops or smaller coffee chains, Starbucks has a size as well as capital that they cannot match. Even if they can afford tremendous spending on advertising and blow up a trend on their brand. The limited number of offline stores will also make them unable to make ends meet.
So, what can a relatively small brand do to gain a stand in such an intense industry?
In my mind, Blue Bottle Coffee is an excellent example of winning customers by using a completely different strategy than Starbucks. If I summarize Starbuck’s concept as a longitudinal style, it digs into the idea of equality. Then, the method of Blue Bottle must be horizontal style. It provides multiple ways for customers to enjoy their brands.
Leveraging with brands that have same personality
Whenever it comes to co-branded products, most of the time, the company thinks of collaborating with big names or celebrities who are rich in traffic. The hope is that a short-term breakout product will raise brand awareness or lead consumers to follow the trend. But Blue Bottle chooses to work with brands or co-branded artists that are mostly niche and unique in style.
Blue Bottle X Cavern New York
Cobranding with Cavern New York, Blue Bottle launched its customized scents candles. They expected this candle to tell the story of where the coffee beans originated, with the scents of coffee blossom, dewy leaves, and fresh moss.
Blue Bottle X Human Made
Blue Bottle Coffee had corporated with NIGO or Human Made two times. And it launched some peripheral products related to its coffee, including the coffee bottle, hats, T-shirts, and so on. The co-branding products all obey the minimalistic aesthetics as the brand image.
Blue Bottle X Cody Hudson 2021 Holiday
To celebrate the new open store in Chicago, Blue Bottle corporated with a shape and color designer — Cody Hudson, who helped design brand-new visuals for Blue Bottle Coffee. The new outlooks for its coffee bottle, shop front, packages, etc.
Does it help Blue Bottle to earn its customers?
In 2016, Blue Bottle Coffee only had 26 Stores worldwide. However, in June 2021, it had 99 stores. Its rapid global expansion could somewhat indicate the success of its marketing strategy. But, of course, its expansion is not possible without Nestle’s acquisition.
More importantly, its digital marketing strategy helped it build a unique marketing position in customers’ minds. In the eyes of today’s coffee lovers, the blue bottle logo is linked to a minimalist, boutique coffee experience.
Blue Bottle coffee lovers refer to it as the Apple of the coffee industry
How does this work? Even if they have no vast advertising campaign
Looking for the same aesthetic appeal and brand philosophy
Neither Human Made, Cavern New York, nor Cody Hudson are trendy brands or artists, but their unique niche vibe fits well with the concept of boutique coffee. For example, Cavern New York’s product design — white bottle and simple logo — is consistent with Blue Bottle’s aesthetic. And Cody Hudson’s graphic design is also structuralist, which means lots of color blocks and simple graphics.
The right-time selection for collaborations
Blue Bottle Coffee always selected to corporate with local brands or artists before their new store opened. Even if those partners do not carry a lot of traffic on the social platform, they still influence the local area. In this way, Blue Bottle accurately creates buzz for their new store, with limited spending.
As a result, the brand’s target audience was precisely screened
By carefully selecting the partners who have the same temperament, the output of Blue Bottle’s brand image will be more coherent. Another thing is that the brand also actively selects its ideal customers.
The price of its partner’s products is not low! For instance, the price of a candle from Cavern New York is roughly about $30, and it is positioned as a luxury candle and niche fragrance brand.
Imagining the customer’s persona of the Cavern New York:
They must be a group of people with high requirements for their daily lives; simplicity fits their aesthetic and above-average incomes.
By cooperating with brands that share these qualities and through the social media matrix, Blue Bottle Coffee has precisely selected its audience — those who have a high quality of life and a minimalism lifestyle.
