Coffee Shops that Bring Together the Community Have a Leg up in Marketing
Marketing is a funny thing, some people love it while others hate it. No matter how you feel about it though, marketing is also a necessary part of building a business. The days of renting a space, putting up a sign and having customers knock on your door are gone. If you want your business to have a chance at all, you must market it. This is especially true when there is an economic downturn.
Take your local coffee shop as an example, they have big chain companies to compete with, who have very large advertising and marketing budgets. It would seem they have an uphill battle, wouldn't it?
In some ways yes, but in others, no. They have a unique position wherein they can market themselves as a community resource – not just a coffee shop. If they were to leverage that, they would have a strong loyal clientele who would never dream of going to “that other” place. Research indicates that 17% of the population consumes, on average, 3.2 cups of coffee per day. That is every day. This gives the coffee shop owner a sizable base to work with, if they were to capitalize on it.
One way this could be done, would be to organize a weekly or monthly community event. There all sorts of ideas for this, but the recent power outage drove a point home in my mind. People seek community. They need it like they need air to breathe. They seek it out – whether it is online, or their next door neighbor. This is why social media takes such a tremendous amount of our online time. When our computers and lights were taken away for a few hours, what did we do? We fired up the BBQ and invited the neighbors over – even if we had never spoken to them previously. I do not think I have ever seen so many people outside their homes at one time. Of course, we do not really know what would have happened had the power stayed off for several days, but the evidence suggests that people would have stuck together and helped each other for the most part.
What if the local coffee shop organized a “Blackout Sunday”? Where the only things that had power running to it were refrigerators and espresso machines. They could have battery operated lanterns set up and board games out, maybe even have some fun card games organized. There could be activities for the kids. They could even order in catering and charge per person ahead of time for an evening of fun, food and community. We are pack animals by instinct, and seek out others to commune with. Take advantage of this!
Our social bonds grow when we actually see each other face to face. How many regular customers could you create through an event like this? I would guess quite a few, if it were done well and organized in a way that focused on all the positives of being part of a community. I would love to hear from any local cafes or coffee shops who decide to give this idea a chance, and what the results were!
