Creative Strategy of Coffee Shops to Compete Amidst Tight Market

The coffee shop business is a business that many people are involved in. More and more brand emerging, the competition is automatically getting tougher. In the end, each player is again required to innovate in order to keep getting loyal customers. Then what are the tips?

To answer that question, #TuesdayStartup This time, he invited the Founder and CEO of Kopi Mantap Jiwa Billy Kurniawan as a speaker. Promise Soul is a coffee shop that uses draft grab-and-go. Since it was founded two years ago, Promise Soul now has 800 o throughout Indonesia, thanks to the partnership program. The following is a summary of the results of the discussion:

Make sure whether passion or just follow the trend

For young entrepreneurs who are interested in getting into the coffee industry, he suggests checking first what this is passion or just follow the trend. According to him, this is a basic foundation that must be strengthened before moving on to the next process, such as research on the origin of coffee beg, method roasting, to set the selling price.

If according to interest, then there is a specialization that can be developed to provide added value to the company brand the. Coffee itself, he continued, still has a lot of room to be developed.

The reason is simple, coffee is one of the main commodities in Indonesia with a lot of demand. Everyone, from various age groups, social status, gender, can be a separate market for each brand.

"So you have to find your identity first and find out marketso as not to get the wrong target. Coffee is needed personal attachments, there must be a story behind it. If the Promise of the Soul is about passion, we want to accompany friends who are working on something appropriate passion them," he said.

If you're just chasing trends, without being followed passion strong in coffee, according to him, it will be difficult for a brand to survive. The reason is, what is definitely being targeted is competing with brand and provide advantages that do not exist in competitors.

Meanwhile, if you only want to compete, in the end it is a price war. Coffee quality and other components have to be lowered in order to offer a single cup of coffee at a low price.

Make product market fit

In the industry food and beverages (FnB), also need product market fit to get products that consumers like. Billy recommends using the five senses. From sight, make sure the logo brand must represent his identity.

From the taste, the taste must be prioritized because the tongue cannot be deceived. Then, from the touch, it is necessary to make sure that the packaging must make it easier for consumers, not bother them.

Fourth, the sense of smell speaks of the aroma of coffee. Aroma is the most important key in making coffee because it speaks of quality. Lastly, hearing, when a brand well received by consumers for sure Word of Mouthit will be tight.

"For brand just starting to find out marketFirst, you can make your own survey by making samples."

At Promise Jiwa, the company regularly makes internal surveys for each product to be released. From there, there will be a rough idea of ​​how the consumer responds, whether it needs to be continued or improved.

When you get a profit, he also suggests focusing on growth. This profit should be reinvested until brand it becomes a sustainable business.

Because, he views that being a market leader is very important and his competition for grab-and-go more intense.

There is no zero cost, but can apply minimum cost

In order to start a new business, Billy made sure that nothing could be said as zero cost. The coffee business, when adjusted to the target consumer, requires equipment that is not cheap. It is an investment that can be useful for the long term.

He told me that he was founded in Jiwa with an initial capital of Rp. 70 million. This nominal is included in the rental fee for the first outlet at ITC Kuningan, Jakarta. At that time, he wanted to prove whether the hypothesis of the coffee shop grab-and-go really can be a real business.

"When you know the outlet has traffic high, must do continuous improvement. This means that we have to invest in better tools so that consumers are not disappointed."

For its marketing, Promise Jiwa relies heavily on the existence of Instagram as its marketing medium. In order to have brand awareness and exposure strong, but thin capital, he decided to do a product barter collaboration with brand local.

"creative marketing it's important because it has to be survive with existing capital. Collaboration with brand local, make the product barter better because giving money is cost."

Login to the platform online

Coffee shop with concept grab-and-go at this time very helpful at all with the presence GrabFood and GoFood for delivery online. Billy said the portion reached 30% of the total orders every day.

Of course, this concept can be further strengthened if brand it has its own application. But if you only provide an application to order, it's not enough. Applications must provide added value for consumers with features, such as loyalty programs, check the nearest location, free merchandise, etc. "Promise Soul is also on its way [to the application]."

Moving according to the trend, he continued, is a way of anticipating that a brand not only be limited hyping. Therefore, at this time, Promise Jiwa is also releasing other product verticals for toast.

"We ensure the synergy between the two brand this [Soul Promise and Soul Toast] can work. That's why we make our own toast develop own taste, not that toppingIt's sweet because many have sold it."