Week 3 Part 2
For this assignment I decided to analyze five local Portland, OR coffee shops.
I have included the five coffee shops, media links, and their last date of posting below.
In analyzing these five coffee shops, it was important to take into consideration the difference in their following and products. I assembled the list in order of least amount of Instagram followers to highest amount, ranging from 2,228 followers to 45.7k. This difference in size drastically alters the way the business will interact with consumers. I exclusively focused on the use of Instagram for this assignment.
Guilder, the smallest of the 5 shops, has one location in NE Portland. Guilder splits their shop and their product in two by promoting their "Juniors Roasted Coffee micro-roastery" separately. Guilder is the smallest shop and their Instagram has a personal feel, promoting products through photos of employees. Their posts are not curated, but they feel personal which represents the small scale of the brand. Guilder posts approximately every other day, and don't always clearly advertise a product, but focuses on promoting community and their core values.
Prince Coffee, the second smallest, has two locations, one in NE and the other NW Portland. Prince knows they are known for their in-house made stroopwafels and focuses on promoting them. This is a smart move because it allows customers to connect them directly to a unique product. Their posts work to invite customers into the store with posts about events, displaying fresh baked goods and coffees, and capitalizing on the environment their cafes provide. They post less regularly than the other businesses, posting about once a week or every other week. They do however regularly repost customer tagged photos. When they post it typically focuses on variety of the products they serve.
Upper Left roasters is slightly larger than Prince, and significantly larger than Guilder, and has locations in SW and SE Portland. Upper left also sells in-house roasted coffee and markets it in on the same account, unlike Guilder. One thing i notice about upper left is their use of a simple logo, an arrow pointing to the upper left being used in a majority of their posts. I believe this is important because this simple logo becomes extremely recognizable without having to say their name in every post. Posting approximately every other day, Upper Left typically focuses on one product per post, from their meals to their drinks, upper left focuses on sharing specific products. For me personally this works well because on their page you can see what they offer specifically. Opposed to appealing to their variety in every post, they market one item which is smart.
Good Coffee is significantly larger, double the following of Upper Left. Good Coffee has 4 different locations and a designated location for their roastery. Good Coffee is where I start to notice a considerable separation in how the first three shops use social media and how Good Coffee uses it. Good Coffee is more established as a brand along with a coffee shop. Good Coffee's instagram uses "view products" feature to link you directly to where you can purchase merchandise. Their instagram focus is on sales and less about getting customers to their cafes.
Approximately double Good Coffee's following is my last business, Coava Coffee Roasters. Coava has coffee shops in both Portland and San Diego. Their use of social media combines a little bit of what the other four shops do. Although rarely, Coava does use the "view product feature". Their posts frequently feature staff and they primarily focus on selling their roastery coffee. One thing that I noticed Coava doing more often than the other shops are promotions. Giveaways are a good ways to promote your brand, especially on Instagram. Followers will post Coava posts on their own feed, tag friends to follow Coava, and will do free advertising for Coava for the chance to win a free product.
From analyzing these business social media I have learned important tools to having a successful instagram. All five of these shops use their instagram stories to repost customers posts, which is almost a modern day yelp review and advertisement in the same post. Giveaways are an excellent way to communicate with your customer and expand the traffic to your profile. The one thing that stood out to me the most was the way Upper Left displayed their product on their profile. While it is important nowadays to have a visually stimulating feed, it can distract from your product. Upper Left did a great job at allowing most every post to be a single advertisement of a specific beverage or a specific bite. I know what Upper Left's product is and that inspires me to want to go there. I have seen what they have to eat and I have been told about what drinks they have. They do a good mix of promoting a single item and making their feed overall connected and enticing.
//commented on: Robert Echardt, Casey Ryan, and Allison Vincent
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