FEATURES
IN THIS ISSUE
14 Heat up Sales by Helping
Customers Cool Off
JUNE
The latest on cold and frozen drinks and blends.
By Jeremy Nedelka
18 The Franchisee's Perspective
Franchisees can benefit from the knowledge, experience
and scale of a brand's parent company.
By Brenda G. Russell
2013
Volume 20
Number 6
22 Starting from Something
Ensuring a smooth transition when taking over an existing store.
By Brenda Porter-Rockwell
25 Regional Update: Embracing Quirks
Quirky coffee shop design can attract a young, hip crowd.
By Ed Avis
22
FROM THE EDITOR
14
Describe Your Shop in One Word
G
eneric" and "broadly appealing" aren't descriptions coffee retailers dream of. Trying to be
all things to all people is usually a losing proposition, and it seems logical that a specialty
coffee retailer should specialize in something. How would your customers describe you? How
would you describe your target market? If either answer requires more than a handful of words,
something could be wrong.
Jeremy Nedelka, editor
Defining your niche isn't always easy, but there are shortcuts available. For many retailers,
opening a franchise solves the problem of building a brand from scratch (see page 18, The
Franchisee's Perspective). A parent company's marketing and development teams can provide invaluable resources. Other
retailers prefer a greater challenge, re-making an existing coffee shop in their own image (see page 22, Starting from
Something). Deciding what to keep and what to change, though, can be more challenging than starting from scratch.
As industry veteran Jack Groot points out (see page 6, Jack's Blend), defining what a store isn't can be as difficult as pinning
down what it is—especially when customers' tastes and expectations change over time.
So what best describes your operation? Modern, convenient, eccentric, low-cost, exclusive, quirky (see page 25, Embracing
Quirks), or something else? Visit our Facebook page and share your coffee shop's description—n as few words as possible, of
course.
"
Jeremy Nedelka, Editor
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