I currently manage and am head barista at a cafe/coffee house in SoCal. Though we are in a heavily populated area, our community is very Main Street when it comes to coffee. They've all been raised on Starbucks basically. In the past 6-7 months, we've revitalized and rejuvenated our coffee selection, from sourcing better beans to offering drip via V60 and Chemex to cold drip iced coffee, new specialty drinks such as Shakeratos and Flat Whites, and eliminating blended drinks and focusing on traditional Italian preparations of espresso drinks (ie, only a 6 oz Capp). We are steadily gaining a bigger following, but every time a newspaper article comes out or a "Best Of" issue of our local area magazine comes out talking about coffee shops, we are nowhere to be found. The consistent choice for best 'coffee' is at a local place that offers everything from a 20 oz Capp (yuck) to flavored coffee to diner food breakfast. Their only advantage over us is that they have been in business a lot longer than we have.
I have not done aggressive marketing, but I have worked hard to try to get people hip to what we're doing. Though no matter how hard I try, it seems as if we don't even exist as a coffee house. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of how to get our name out there, or things that have worked for you in gaining some recognition as a true specialty coffee shop. Thanks in advance,
Zayde
You need to be a member of Barista Exchange to add comments!
Replies