Coffee shops: Brewing up success with branded coffee cups and social media

When you think of your local coffee shop, you instantly think of their logo, their colors and their cup! Branded coffee cups are everywhere you turn – from people carrying them in the street, to them being advertised on TV. Seeing that recognisable cup might even make you feel like purchasing your favorite coffee, which is what the branded coffee cups are intended for, of course. It isn’t just the big brands that use this strategy, recognisable cups along with a strong social media campaign is a recipe for success for smaller businesses in addition to ones that are known all over the world.

Getting noticed using branded coffee cups

Brand awareness is really important in getting noticed. If you see a coffee in a plain cup and you see one in a colorful cup with an eye-catching logo – which one are you going to want to buy your coffee from? Think of your local high street, there are likely SO many coffee shops, some being more popular than others. The competition is ever growing, so it’s important that you brand your business and do it well. The appearance of the cups isn’t that important as long as they look fairly attractive and have a certain individuality about them. The most important thing is people seeing those cups and instantly knowing where they come from. Stay away from designing something that looks “trendy” right now but could lose its edge further down the line. The best branded coffee cups look timeless, while continuing to have an image/slogan that catches the eye of potential customers.

The social media epidemic

With more and more people displaying their daily life for everyone to see on social media, this is a place where coffee cups are getting even more attention. Instagram in particular is used for this purpose, with many individuals and even businesses focusing on the aesthetics of the pictures they upload, rather than anything else. This means bright and attractive cups are going to get the most attention on social media. If you have an “instagrammable” brand, you can guarantee to generate business and you might even get companies approaching you to work with them. A huge percentage of those who use Instagram seem to have some kind of caffeine addiction because branded coffee cups are featured frequently. Not convinced? #coffee has over 76 million tweets on Instagram alone.

The habits of the British visiting coffee shops

Those weekly trips to your local coffee shop all add up and this is very apparent with the latest statistics in from Britons on average. Your average british person will visit a coffee shop around 152 times a year and spends a staggering £2,111 during this period. When you consider the fact you can make a coffee at home for mere pennies, this is truly shocking! A study by Research Without Borders (RWB) discovered that the biggest coffee drinkers are located in the South West and East Anglia. You might think that the coffee era is at its peak and won’t get any bigger but this is not strictly true. High street coffee shops are said to grow by a further 29% over the next five years, which means even more competition in terms of branded coffee cups. The busy lifestyle that the majority of Britons have is the reasons why so many grab a caffeinated drink on the go on their way to work or just when running daily errands. Studies have shown that while most females will get a coffee on their way to work, men are more likely to dash out of the office for their coffee an average 10 times a week, which of course could get them in trouble!

Responding to the demand of takeaway coffee

Coffee shops can be appealing places to enjoy your drink, after-all they are pretty comfortable and usually have free wi-fi facilities. They are also great social gatherings to spend time with friends/family. However, many people simply don’t have the time to drink their coffee in the shop so will go for the takeaway option. A recent conference showed that the number of people in the UK getting their coffee to go is increasing. The key in making customers return to YOUR shop again and again is by having coffee cups that are branded with your stores information/logo. Takeaway coffee cups are everywhere and by having a great one, you are going to get into your customers mind without them even realizing. This will result in them only wanting to use your services when they require their daily fix of coffee.
Getting closer to your customers by making them promotors
Customers are already promoting your brand in some way simply by purchasing items from you. By them grabbing their coffee in the morning in your branded coffee cup and taking it to drink in the office, this is a method of marketing. Their colleagues might subconsciously notice and become customers too! Consumers posting pictures of their coffee cups on Instagram (with all the right filters of course) is even more positive promotion for your business. The likelihood is, they will not even use the name of your brand on their post, they are just posting about their day and coffee is often the first part of the day for many people. Coffee is personal, it gives people energy, it’s relatable and this is one of the reasons why it’s such a big seller. It’s highly recommend that you have an Instagram page for your brand and drum up ‘followers’, You can host little competitions on Instagram, where you entice customers to post with their cups and giving the best photo a prize. By using the hashtags of your brand, this is going to REALLY get your name out there and you should notice a big increase in customers. Think of the most popular coffee brand in the world, STARBUCKS. They have over 15.4 million followers on Instagram and 29.2 million posts with Starbucks as the hashtag. Notice what’s trendy right now and utilize social media (particularly Instagram) to promote your business and branded coffee cups.