Roasters Realm
by Jesse Sweeney, Caffé Umbria

As a coffee roaster, creating a successful business and marketing plan to compete in one’s own region is a difficult enough task. Creating a plan that transcends one’s region and applies successfully on a national or international level compounds that task, but done correctly, can expand a company’s opportunities dramatically.    Caffè Umbria was formed in early 2002 in what many would consider a very saturated Seattle, Wash. market. Our strategy from early on, however, was not to create another Seattle coffee company. Our goal was to create a product and brand that would appeal to coffee connoisseurs in any city or town in North America, and beyond.
   In creating our company from the ground up, we drew from the following principle: Understand who you are and project that in your product and image. Although we were a newly formed company, we were lucky to have a master roaster, Emanuele Bizzarri, with nearly 60 years and three generations of family history in the coffee business to draw from. This kind of experience not only gave us a wealth of knowledge about blending and roasting coffee, but also a great heritage to base our brand on. The Bizzarris hail from Umbria in central Italy, so we took our name and imagery from this region, known for its rustic beauty and fantastic foods and wines. Our company tagline (“three generations, one tradition”) simply states the importance of this heritage in everything that we do.
   We knew from the beginning that we wanted to create a business model that would apply not only to the crowded Seattle coffee market but to any market that we could foresee doing business in, either in the immediate or distant future. This is not to say that there were any designs on becoming a large, national roaster. On the contrary, we felt that by creating a brand that was non-provincial, we could diversify our customer base and thus remain more exclusive to our customers in each region.
   But deciding to become a multi-regional company is one thing. Actually doing it can be quite another. We realized that there is, and will always be, a great appeal to doing business on a local level. Much like us, independent restaurateurs and coffeehouse owners enjoy working with and supporting other local independent suppliers. They also like to be well taken care of.
   While an espresso bar in Idaho may be quite comfortable finding an out-of-state roaster and waiting for shipments to arrive by truck on a weekly or monthly basis, a high-volume restaurant in Manhattan is not likely to have the patience to wait a week for coffee when supplies unexpectedly run out on a busy night. Nor, for that matter, is the restaurant likely to buy in the first place from a roaster based thousands of miles away with no local contact.
   So how does a company like us compete in markets outside of our hometown? The answer is to embrace and fully understand the markets you plan to do business in, and essentially “become local” in every sense but production. In the four markets outside of Seattle in which Caffè Umbria operates, we have local agents and/or business partners who not only have a close link to the Caffè Umbria heritage, but a long history of working in the food and beverage industry in their respective cities.
   We were lucky in this regard. Although we were starting a new venture, my partners and I had worked in the coffee industry for many years, which gave us an opportunity to form strong bonds with both customers and employees. Some of these old co-workers were excited about the prospect of pioneering a new coffee in their markets and were quick to offer their services. Frankly, without having key individuals in these metropolitan markets outside our own, we would not have considered ourselves ready to pursue accounts in those cities. Furthermore, for anyone looking to break into a new market, I would urge caution and patience when looking to bring people aboard who will essentially be the face and voice of your company for that territory.
Having a local contact in a city or market is only one piece of the puzzle. Each food and beverage community has its own culture and style of doing business, and each has unique expectations from its coffee roasters. How will you deal with deliveries, freshness, training, equipment and emergency service? These are questions that someone with experience doing business in a particular community will be most capable of answering. The ability to establish a service and support network to help with these issues is another responsibility of the roaster and its agents.
   In our case, we use UPS to deliver products to our non-local customers while our local reps keep fresh supplies on hand to deal with emergency deliveries. Product is typically shipped from our warehouse within 24 hours of roasting, so even East Coast customers can receive product that is probably as fresh as that from a local roaster, and certainly more fresh than an imported coffee sold by a distributor. Equipment services are contracted out to a local espresso machine distributor or service company. Again, these are people that we rely heavily on, so having confidence in their ability is of great importance and the relationship can take time to develop. And finally, there is face-to-face time, as in one of my partners or me getting on an airplane and visiting out-of-state customers whenever we can. Even with a local rep, it is important for us to get to know customers individually and for them to know us.
   This face-to-face time is equally important for out-of-state reps themselves who can tend to feel isolated away from the roastery and all the action that occurs there on a daily basis. Our reps are brought to Seattle both individually and as a group a couple of times each year to reimmerse themselves in the company culture and to discuss what is happening in their unique marketplace. Last year we took a group of salespeople and customers to Italy to attend the World Coffee Expo in Milan, as well as visit the Bizzarri family vineyards in Umbria. This was both fun and educational, and gave everyone a greater knowledge of the rich traditions from which our company was born.
   In marketing terms, there are two levels that we primarily divide our time between. The first is the global level. For us, this meant creating a brand that is timeless and classic in nature. We have a great deal of respect for the way illy Caffè has been able to do this, year in and year out, with both its coffee and its image. The brand is simple yet sophisticated, and although it may be one of the largest specialty roasters in the world, it still maintains a level of exclusivity and quality, both within Italy and around the world. If one thinks of espresso, one thinks of illy. Caffè Umbria, in many ways, was modeled after this image of a roaster who has the single-minded focus on coffee and espresso, and avoids overreaching into the multitude of other coffee-related products. In thinking about the great food and beverage brands of the world, it is typically those that produce and sell one thing that stand out the most.
   The other marketing focus takes place at the local level. By building an image that is global in scope, while working locally to provide great service and build personal relationships, we hope to offer the best of both worlds. While most boutique roasters may not be able to afford national advertising campaigns, all it takes is a commitment of time and energy to build goodwill and recognition in local markets. There is no end to the work that can be done on a grassroots level, from performing demos at local gourmet markets to co-sponsoring a food-related event to donating your product to a charity auction. All of these actions build relationships with members of the food community while simultaneously spreading your message to the end consumer and getting your product into their hands to try.
   Again, I cannot overstate the importance of having individual representatives in each sales market who understand your company mission and whom you trust completely to carry it out. You can roast the freshest, highest-quality coffee, have great packaging and marketing materials and still go nowhere without committed individuals who believe in your company and have the ability to impart that message to the right types of customers.
   Once the seed of success has been planted within a few key customers in any market, it is amazing to see how quickly growth can take place. Word of mouth is the most important advertising tool for a company like ours, and there is nothing like a happy customer to take that word and pass it on to other people in the restaurant or coffeehouse community. Once this local buzz has begun, the company can continue to thrive by supplying consistently superior coffee and by giving consistently great service.
   It may sound overly simplistic, but with a great product, a strong, clear brand image and a few determined individuals you can count on a measure of success as a roaster whether your target market is the neighborhood or the world. Having a simple plan does not necessarily make the job less demanding but at least everyone will know what they are working toward in the first place—and that makes a world of difference.

Jesse Sweeney is co-founder and director of marketing for Caffè Umbria. He can be reached at jesse@caffeumbria.com.