February 2014 • www.specialty-coffee.com | 41
Keeping things new and interesting, turning a hand carved
kuksa cup from a remote Scandinavian country to compliment
a new coee blend, into a hit promotion for their Italian-
inspired brand.
"We came out with this holiday blend bag that focused
on the Sami people of Lapland which is a group of people in
Scandinavia. We wanted a dierent way to promote the coee.
So we decided to look into the coee and we found that they
use kuksa cups," McLoughlin says. Cae Vita entered anyone
who purchased a 12oz bag of the Holiday Blend and a lucky 11
people got one of the hand carved birch wood cups sourced
from Scandinavia.
He said that while they love their Italian inspiration,
sometimes bucking their own motif is necessary.
"We've sculpted an image over the past 20 years for ourselves,"
McLoughlin says. "We're proud of that image and we stick with
that as closely as possible, but not staying stagnant."
KEEPING THINGS FRESH
Stores should vary whatever merchandise they carry. An
exciting unique item isn't always necessary. With the ease
of small-run printing and co-branding merchandise, there's
simply no reason not to change things up once in a while.
Erez Toker of Vessel Drinkware spends a lot of time
working with coee shops to create a protable and attractive
merchandising plan. New products, promotions like Caee
Vita's mug contest and varied items, Toker says, keep people
on their toes.
"Merchandise in retailers is very much like the streets closest
to your house that you drive every day, that you become
so familiar with that you forget their names," Toker says,
explaining the need for fresh items. "Customers that walk in
the store every day glaze over the retail merchandise sections if
it doesn't change frequently. It's just the way your brain works,
if there's nothing calling out attention, you'll just glaze over
and just walk by."
New products also give those strong customers one more
way to show their support of the shop, the brand and the
people that serve them coee every day. And for those regulars
who already have a shirt or a mug, Martin put it simply.
L R' .
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