July | August 2022
From the Publisher
The founder and publisher of Roast magazine, Connie Blumhardt has spent 25 years in magazine publishing and has worked in the coffee industry for the last 20 years. Connie brings the same passion and commitment to this industry journal that is present within the roasting community.
With each issue, Connie brings insight and inspiration to the pages of Roast with this column.
Connie Blumhardt, Publisher
THE ONLINE REVOLUTION HAS NOT ONLY expanded ways for businesses to find their customers, but also for customers to find their businesses. This allows for a huge variety of business concepts to be successful. Want to find coffee from Nicaragua and sell it to Nicaraguan people in the United States? That’s now possible. Want to specialize in wood-roasted coffee? You will find people who want wood-roasted coffee. Not every concept will become a successful business, but every concept will get its chance to connect. How your concept gets attention (connects) and consistently keeps that connection (sticks) is the fundamental job of branding.
As our article on coffee branding in this month’s issue points out: The scope of coffee brands is expanding and becoming less uniform, which mirrors the expanding variety of business concepts being tested. I find this tremendously exciting as it reflects the incredible creativity and passion of the people in our industry. This requires that businesses are able to define their mission, and to communicate that mission clearly and consistently. “Brand,” in the largest sense, is woven into everything that your business shows—inside and out. If your mission is an unending pursuit of coffee quality, then not only does your packaging need to echo that, but your internal training materials, your cafe design, and your interactions with customers need to echo that as well.
As businesses expand, there is always temptation—either by conscious decision or slow erosion—to expand or muddle the core mission. The drive to capture more market share, fend off a competitor, or take on special projects are business realities. Successful companies consciously use these things to enhance their core mission, or they don’t do them. It won’t matter if a new packaging concept is the coolest you’ve ever seen if it doesn’t support your company’s purpose; in the long run, it won’t help your company thrive. Be conscious in your decision-making, be purposeful in your approach, and be consistent about how your mission is reflected in your brand.
Warm regards,
Connie
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