Would you like a coffee with that?

Coffee is the commodity that lifts most people from under their duvets, and now it seems to be the lifestyle product that brands are incorporating into their retail offerings to lift money from their customers wallets.

Several retail brands have included a café space alongside or within their shop spaces to diversify their brand’s brick-and-mortar locations. From Carhartt, to Ralph Lauren and Lacoste.

But what are the hidden, or not so hidden benefits of doing this for brands, and why should you perhaps as a brand consider the power of coffee?

 

Fashion brand Ralph Lauren first created their coffee concept in their New York Flagship, taking over a whole floor of their shop to house a swanky café space and hangout. Ralph’s coffee is also available to buy in London at their Bond Street store. Their coffee location in London is more of a pop-up style coffee shop – allowing guests to pop-by, or chill on their terrace and relax.

 

Carhartt wants to encourage a new form of loyalty through creating a coffee bar that sits as an add onto their physical locations. They have created an accompanying line of merchandise, and coffee loyalty cards to not only entice their customers back to purchase their usual products but endless cups of coffee.

Lacoste has joined these two premium brands with the opening of their first café – their ode to Paris. Their concept is smaller, and more compact akin to the smaller Ralph Lauren coffee offering in London. It is set amongst a Parisian-style courtyard and wants to transport its visitors to a Parisian Jardin. Not only can customers buy a speciality coffee, but an indulgent pain au chocolate to have on the go...

TOO Takeaways:

- These premium retailers are using an extension of their brand to empower the communication of emotional attributes in their Lifestyle Fashion Brand, pulling consumers in in a new and meaningful way.

- Gaining a consumer’s admiration or loyalty is becoming increasingly challenging with the intervention of tech, and the influence of social media on customers and their loyalty or purchasing power. Coffee, or the addition of a café concept instore, has become a new way of gaining loyalty, or attracting new customers.

- A blended retail and hospitality space is valuable for increasing the dwelling time of your customers in-store, and therefore for maximising the overall engagement with your brand and central offering.