The Coffee Foundry
When Sur La Table acquired Seattle Coffee Gear, they suddenly had a whole new customer to speak to. I was tasked with figuring out who that customer was, how to talk to them, and making company-wide decisions on how copy and design would show up across the category.
The Problem
When Sur La Table acquired Seattle Coffee Gear, the brand expanded into a category of customer it had never spoken to before. The consumer was discerning and Sur La Table needed a defined strategy to reach them. I asked to take on the opportunity.
The Approach
I started by doing research. I spoke with Seattle Coffee Gear employees who had a wealth of knowledge in the category, dug into trends to see what was already performing well, and spent time understanding third wave coffee culture from the inside out.
This was not a customer who wanted convenience messaging. They cared about how temperature affected their pour over, sought out things like washed light roasts, and were willing to spend $10,000 on the right espresso setup.
Taking what I had learned, I built a strategy and style guide that would define how the brand spoke about coffee across every channel.
The Work
I started with a company wide style guide defining the voice, tone, and standards for how Sur La Table talks about coffee. From there came enhanced product pages with custom HTML, a dedicated web page for the category, email campaigns, longform Youtube video scripts designed to educate, and paid and social assets.
The Result
In its first quarter, The Coffee Foundry's paid-ad campaigns outperformed the coffee category by 4%. Based on early trajectory, the sub-brand was projected to become one of Sur La Table's top three revenue-generating categories by the end of its first year.