By Tony Diehl, Co-Owner Denim Coffee 

Through all of my studies on marketing and branding, the strategies that resonated with me were from author Seth Godin (I highly recommend seeking out his books and interviews as a great resource for marketing and branding fundamentals). His core message “be remarkable” really resonated with me. Be so good that people can’t ignore you and when they experience your product or service they literally remark positively about you to others. For example, a friend says to you “You have to try this!” or they post a selfie on social media to their friends, family and peers proudly displaying your brand and product as a part of their daily lives. 

I should mention, you can build a business in a lot of other ways: paid ads, discounts and gimmicks or just situate your business location in a lucrative spot to capture an audience who doesn’t have many other options (the most average pizza you’ve ever had on the tiny crowded beach island), but for me it was all about taking the resources and opportunities afforded to me to create something special to share back with the World in such a way that they appreciate it and enjoy it so much they tell others. For me that’s the magic that I’m chasing everyday. 

With that in mind, I’ll share a few ways that we at Denim Coffee strive to make our brand remarkable.

1. Make Better Coffee

This is our mission, our trademark, our motivation every single day. Co-owner and founder Matt Ramsay fell in love with specialty coffee and has devoted his professional life to sharing that passion and amazing coffees with others. We provide our staff with the best equipment, best water (we have world class water filtration kits at our cafes to ensure that the main ingredient in coffee, water, is optimal for brewing and consistency across our shops), training/support and of course world class coffees expertly roasted. Whatever line of business you are in, don’t lose sight of the product or service you offer and ensure that it is the best it can be. It makes no sense to advertise to attract people to your business if it is an unremarkable experience. A great way to gauge this is to seek feedback from your customers. We diligently monitor feedback online and from our friends, family, colleagues who frequent our cafes. Keep your finger on the pulse of your business and how customers feel about your brand and your service/product to ensure it is the best it can be. Try your product! Taste the things you are serving, put yourself in your customers shoes and try out your service, make sure that in your experience it aligns with the promise you’ve made to make it its best. We are constantly tasting coffees, baked goods, sitting in our cafes so that we experience our brand first hand as often as we can and ensure we’re fulfilling our promise to guests. 

2. Make Your Brand Stick

We view coffee as an affordable/approachable luxury and this is how we view our physical cafe spaces. We want to be higher end but not over the top, we want guests to feel comfortable and taken care of when visiting our cafes. We treat our guests as real people with respect and appreciation to ensure a wonderful experience from the first step into the cafe to the first sip of their beverage.  We have put a lot of care and thought into our staff onboarding, orientation and ongoing performance review structure to emphasize the care and craft we except and this has shown dividends not just in the online reviews but loyalty of our customers and sharing/tagging of our brand on social media as customers enjoy their experience with us. Put some thought and attention into your branding, everything from your business name, your logo, your ceramic mugs, your seating, your branded to-go cups, your merch, your website, your instagram and even maintaining a clean restroom says something about your brand and how you care for your customers. Does all of this line up in a cohesive way to tell the story of your brand and help others identify who you are, what you do, how you do it and what you are all about? In our business example, someone sees a friend carrying one of our branded to-go cups, ask them “What is Denim Coffee?” they respond that it is their favorite coffee shop and they must try it. They go online to search us, find our Google listing, website and instagram all of which further tell our story and help direct them to a cafe nearby. They enter, seeing the “MAKE BETTER COFFEE” sign on the wall and smell of fresh coffee. They are greeted by a friendly, knowledgeable barista who helps guide them to a beverage most in line with what they are looking for. They hang out in our cafe to enjoy the aesthetics and ambiance, sipping their drink and soaking in a moment of beauty, snap a photo for instagram and tag us before heading back out into the noisy world. This is all designed and executed in a way to make our brand and experience stick with customers.

At Denim Coffee, because we have been able to clearly define who we are, what we do and how we do it, we have been able to attract a team of dedicated professionals who show up every day excited to execute on our promise to MAKE BETTER COFFEE and create moments of beauty for our guests who in turn share our brand with friends trusting us to extend the same care and craft for them. This is the power of being remarkable and we’re trying hard every day to do just that. 

One last note, this has been and will always be a work in progress. All of this must still interact with the real world. The real world is full of surprises, breakdowns, let downs and spilled coffee. Over the years we’ve done the best we can with the resources we have and continuously strive to get better as resources become available and we continue to grow the business. It’s not about perfection, it’s about doing your best and striving to be a little bit better everyday. We still have a lot of work to do and we’re always evaluating and implementing new ways to be remarkable. 

I would love to hear your ideas and feedback, please connect with me on www.linkedin.com/in/TonyDiehl and share a note if you’ve found this helpful or have ideas or questions. Cheers!🙌☕♥️ – Tony Diehl, co-owner Denim Coffee 

Learn more about Denim Coffee and their journey to make better coffee at www.denimcoffeecompany.com/MakeBetterCoffee

Connect to follow their journey at www.instagram.com/DenimCoffee

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