How did you invent Fenster? Part two. Positioning the offer
So, the idea of a coffee shop is ready. Now there is an interesting question that is often not paid enough attention to. This is positioning. The word is capacious and general, but I will try to explain.
By positioning I mean not the technical, but the “front” part of entrepreneurship. In short – what and for whom you offer. That is: target group and unique market offer.
Well, it is clear that it is pointless to compete with all the surrounding coffee shops – they have already formed their own circles of consumers and their reputation, which are very difficult to interrupt and it may take years or a lot of money. Of course, as always, neither of them is available.
Therefore, you need to find your “chips” and find those who may be interested in it, but so that no one else has it. Actually, in my understanding, this is positioning.
The most important problem of a new coffee shop is that no matter how incredibly delicious coffee you make, for people walking by, you remain one of the dozens of coffee shops around and they do not understand why they should take their coffee from you and not from Stretch or Starbucks around the corner.
That is why you need a set of tools for a very clear positioning, your own distinction and a way to convey information to your potential visitor.
Now about Fenster in this context. For myself, I formulated the marketing task quite simply: what can I offer that no one else has and what will attract my visitors to me?
High quality and lowest prices, blah blah blah. The path to nowhere and sheer nonsense. We will talk more about quality. Prices. A typical problem for beginners. Only debts can be earned on low prices. Profits are earned only at reasonably high prices. Especially when the product is just coffee. And this is also another topic.
I’m talking about real features. Beacons. Something that attracts without any explanation and reflection. And for Fenster, cornetocino became such a beacon. I will write about it in detail in the next issue, but briefly it should be noted that this coffee drink has become the central element of the coffee shop’s recognition and without which Fenster would be impossible.
The features of this drink: no one else has it, at least in Vienna, it is very interesting and unusual, it is tasty, it is cool to take pictures and post on Instagram and other social networks, it is a completely new and unknown product in a very conservative sphere.
It should be noted that the success of cornetocino has become so overwhelming that I created a whole section of creative coffee drinks just to clearly set the boundary with other coffee shops: there is Fenster, and there is everyone else.
Among other coffee drinks, you can taste the following things: marshmallow cocino, oreo latte, espresso orange, chili espresso, etc. Over time, we began to make alcoholic cocktails: coffee variation of Christmas punch, summer cocktails, cappuccino lemon cheesecake, even a very interesting and suitable for Vienna Mozart espresso, as well as many others!
So, a very important feature of Fenster was an interesting and quite a large map of coffee cocktails headed by Cornetocino. And in the structure of profits these drinks have a very large share. Sometimes about 50%. But the value of this approach is not so much in profits as in the unusualness of both serving and taste. And this unusualness leads to the fact that many visitors, and often just passers-by, constantly take pictures of our drinks and post them on social networks, creating free advertising for us.
But this is not enough. It is not enough to have only interesting and “hip” drinks. Because at least 50%, and often up to 70% of our visitors drink “ordinary” coffee – espresso, Americano, cappuccino and so on. So their tastes must be satisfied absolutely!
That is why I paid a lot of attention to the formation of classic coffee drinks in such a way as to gain regular visitors, but at the same time to preserve the quality that I consider special and high. Actually, the main idea in the preparation of classic drinks is traditional tastes, but with the most modern technologies and means.
Well, and of course, specialty coffee. At first, I bought beans from my favorite Viennese roasters, and later began to roast them myself. Now Fenster, in my opinion, is one of the best in the specialty segment. Because we use the most modern equipment, including for brewing filter coffee, because we use the best beans in the industry, and of course we use processes, including our own development, to make coffee.
By the way, I don’t know where else in Vienna, except for Fenster, you can taste Gesha coffee, including from ninety plus, and several types of it at the same time. And both in the filter and in espresso.
As a result, Fenster became a coffee “department store”, because we had an offer for every taste: new trendy drinks, classic coffee, and the best specialty coffee. Though with syrup, though with marshmallows, though espresso with cappuccino, and though – the best superfine coffee in the world. The choice is made by the visitor. And our task is to make it impeccably tasty and of high quality.
But only coffee. In Fenster you can not buy a crumb of food, socks or cola. Nothing at all. Except coffee. In drinks and in beans. By the way, earlier several times a day, and now from time to time, people come who offer to sell pastries and the like. Because no one can understand how it can be that there is a coffee shop without food.
In fact, Fenster has a lot of features that infinitely affect its positioning, which will be discussed in the blog all the time and will eventually form the whole picture in the imagination.
And I, as always, for coffee!