Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/258589
40 | February 2014 • www.specialty-coffee.com cute sells. "We sort of have this fun branding that we do, we use a lot of animals that you'd nd in the city," Martin says. "e animals are cute, the kids like it. We did a one-o of some onesies, sold like a billion of them," Martin says. While he may exaggerate, the holidays have le his merchandise shelf nearly empty. "Cute is easier to sell than edgy because it appeals to more people." Urban Been Coee stickers have become a hit in the mostly young, and tragically snowy Uptown neighborhood. Martin says selling an experience of carefully craed coee has created fervent fans that wanted a way to give back to the store. "e sticker thing was an easy way to nd an outlet in an inexpensive way ($2) for people, if they like our stu, to advertise our brand. People love the stickers – it's a cute little raccoon face," he says. Martin said he's seen those stickers in some interesting places. "I think it's funny when you see them at dierent coee shops, or on a laptop in a Dunn Brothers," Martin says. "I've seen them in the bathroom at other coee shops – that I did not put there!" He said with all his merchandise, the distinct artistic style is branding in and of itself. "I didn't want the T-shirts or the mugs or the hoodies or the stickers to just be a walking billboard for Urban Bean. I wanted it to be some fashion that you could wear," Martin says. He said he's seen other shops make big mistakes when approaching merchandise, and ultimately damaging their brand. "Especially people in the coee business, they're young and think, 'Oh I'll have my friend draw this.' But how does that tie in with your brand?" Martin asks. "What is your identity? ose are the most important things." Max McLoughlin, the graphic designer at Cae Vita, an independently owned café with 11 location across the country, asks those questions all the time. Creating designs for the cafés across the country proves a unique challenge, but one he faces with the playful spirit of their mascot, "Pulcinella; It really represents us as a company—he's a kind of jester gure in Italian folklore." He says that character really ts with the company motivations as well as their source. "We try to get a lot of stu from Italy. Our cups are from Nuova Point. We just try to do really, really good quality stu but with fun imagery on it," McLoughlin says. As a Farm Direct, Small Batch roaster, quality and sustainability is really important to our brand as a whole. e clothing, however, is distinctly Cae Vita. While he keeps an eye on the trends, McLoughlin said he tries to stay ahead of the industry. With those far-ung stores, it's not enough to watch local trends. "We try to move forward and bring something new into the coee world," he said. P C P , - . 38-43 branded merch SCR0214.indd 40 2/6/2014 12:40:22 PM