coffee business strategies

The September Fresh Cup Magazine includes a comprehensive feature article titled Your Board Room that discusses simple strategies and tactics for successful menu positioning in retail coffee shops. “A good menu design educates your customers about your products and creates some expectation about the experience they will have,” says Andrew Hetzel, managing director of Cafemakers, [...]

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I’m not an interior designer and have limited abilities with respect to to furnishings and color (I recently told my painter to “surprise me” when remodeling my house), so you can imagine my surprise to have been contacted back in March on the subject by Specialty Coffee Retailer magazine. Not only was I quoted in [...]

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I was asked to comment for an upcoming article on the topic of how (and why) coffee shop furniture and decor items can be used as retail branding elements, but may have gone a little overboard with my reply. The topic of branding, after all, is a fairly complex one and ties into a number [...]

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On Monday, Albina Press founder and multiple barista champion titled Billy Wilson opens his new coffee brewpub concept in the Pearl District of Portland. The coffee shop, named simply Barista, will feature coffees from a trio of outstanding coffee roasters, allowing customers to choose and compare favorite espresso espressos. Congratulations to Billy and I look [...]

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I liked this short and sweet article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning that highlights the importance of using social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to develop a personality for your business. The concepts presented are realistic, particularly the notion that blogging helps to develop deeper customer relationships, thus building a stronger emotional commitment [...]

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