Building your Café Brand

Creating an effective branding strategy for your café or coffee shop is a must when reaching out to potential customers. There’s much more than just having an eye for design when you want to engage with and create a unique and personal experience for each guest. In this article, we’ll discuss what creating a brand really means and how it can benefit your small business growth. Moreover, we'll provide you with a checklist with you some practical examples which you can immediately apply to your café vibe. Follow along, it’s easier than it may seem.

1 - More than a Logo

Building a brand is not just making a funky logo design, it’s much more encompassing. It’s your entire identity. If you want to catch hold of the growing cafe trend, your brand should grow in line the core value and vision of your business, it will be the direction and motivation for employees and will be the main source of earning loyal customers.

2 - Define what’s unique

Essentially, building a brand or reputation is just exploring the answer to “What is your business all about?” and “What will you be remembered by in years to come?” Maybe that’s the taste of your lattés or the visual appeal of your logo? Perhaps somebody who’s not interested in going to a café will pass by and see you smiling inside the store, or notice the attitude you serve customers with., That is also your brand. Like this, they’ll naturally remember you in weeks to come when their cake appetite has returned!

"We believe the key to success is differentiating yourself from other businesses. Recognise what makes you unique and work to those strengths. ...Enjoy what you do, your passion will express itself through the products and services you deliver." PC: Tony @willow_floristry

3 - Everything is your Brand

When you have cultivated such a mindset that you are your brand and your brand is you, you’ll naturally display it everywhere potential customers eyes might linger.

Here’s our checklist of where you could practically channel your philosophy and vision:
- Business and Loyalty cards 
- Boards and Menus
- Messages to Customers (SMS, in-app, email)
- Social Media (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter)
- Stickers
- Food and Beverage (Design, Packaging)
- Shop signs and Window Graphics (Inside and Outside)
- Interior Design

Each element is an opportunity to express and expand your unique café personality. Understand how to choose the right café location in order to utilize your surroundings to cater for your brand. Observe every little detail and "put your name on it". If you didn’t get the point yet, I mean... E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. You’ll want to show the world who you are once you’ve developed a certain sense of confidence and sense of… well, you. This way of perceiving your brand lifestyle will help your customers to feel your café is their second home.

If you need ideas on creative ways to build your identity, you can check out our blog The Top 10 Most “Look at me!” Cafés on the Planet

4 - That Personal Touch

Taking the example one of our Loyverse POS users in Barbados, Deborah, whose initial idea was to base her accessory brand on the diverse product range her store provided calling it “options accessories”. After basic research she found the name already taken on Facebook, so she decided to add one simple word, completing the name “Best Options Accessories”. Such a small touch, but it’s also her surname, and it now gives her store that little extra vibe that gives a greater sense of belonging. That personal touch, which can be applied in myriads of ways depending on you, your culture, your vision… etc. is precisely what you should be aiming for when making your café brand.

Spreading your identity to others with an array of creative methods will create a certain ‘business aura’ around your café attracting people from far and wide. Saying that you can only achieve this result when you work in synergy with your staff building your café reputation as an individual and collectively. With that in mind, make sure you stay tuned for the next article where we’ll tackle the crucial question regarding how to choose your employees.

Sources:

https://www.deluxe.com/sbrc

https://burningred.co.uk/