Signs of the Times
Indoor and outdoor attention grabbers
by Chris Ryan

(Nicole Maas)

It's a weekday morning at your café, and a line snakes through the shop. The door swings open, and a few more people squeeze in, adding to the congestion. A woman at the back of the line glances at the menu, wanting to be ready with her drink order when it's her turn. However, she hasn't been to the eye doctor in years, and with the miniscule type on your menu board, she can't tell "cappuccino" from "café au lait." Frustrated, she turns and heads out of your shop and toward one with a more readable sign.

Whether it's printed, digital or hand-written on a chalkboard, your menu is a key means of communication between you and your customer. It should be welcoming, clear and readable, as should the exterior signs, banners, prints and graphics that adorn both the inside and outside areas, giving you several opportunities to reach your customers.

Menu advancements
The menu is often the first thing customers look at when they walk in the door. They come in several forms and appearances: narrow, wide, tall, short, printed, handwritten, and on and on. A popular, traditional menu is the flat board with slats that slide into place. However, many shops are opting for digital printing, which works similarly to the board in that the printed price can go inside the menu board housing, but it can also operate as a free-standing, printed poster. Even more technologically advanced is the fully digital menu, which does away with printed pieces altogether and instead projects menu information on a digital screen. "That's the emerging trend," says Drue Townsend, senior vice president of marketing at FASTSIGNS. "It's out there now, but it's just not that prevalently used yet. It's great, but you've got to have someone that understands how to update it, and you've got to have the technology."

Competitive businesses need flexibility in making price and product adjustments. If digital menus become more common and shop owners master the technology behind them, those shops will hold the advantage of being able to update their menus instantly and with ease. Those with digitally printed menus likely cannot make menu adjustments in house, but they can update individual panels rather than having to overhaul their entire menu. "You could just update that panel with a digital print," says Townsend. "That's a pretty reasonable, affordable way to change your menu board instead of having to get a whole new menu."

Tried and true
Though menu advancements are attention grabbing, there is something to be said for a simple chalkboard. Cost effective and easy to update, it is arguably the most-used menu type at coffeehouses. At Coastal Roasters, a roaster-retailer in Tiverton, R.I., a mere 500 square feet of space houses a roaster, an espresso machine, coffee bins, tables and more. After trying an industrial-like menu featuring metal bulletin boards and a playfully styled menu consisting of laminated paper and magnets, owner Donald Machado simplified things. "We decided to go with three smaller, separate ones, which was a lot easier structurally than trying to hang something long," he says. "And it gave us an ability to organize and categorize the products that we do by chalkboard."

FIT TO PRINT: Ava Roasteria in Beaverton, Ore., uses a well-lit, digitally printed menu board with a simple typeface to make it easy for customers to find what they want. (Nicole Mass)

The boards hang from the ceiling, offering a direct line of sight for customers inside the store. Machado says the menus have been a success, fitting in nicely with Tiverton's small-town mood and the shop's relaxed feel. "It has that funky/chic vibe folks look for in a small independent café," he says.

While Coastal Roasters attracts a clientele that enjoys the casual, artsy look of the chalkboard, other shops prefer a more nuanced approach. At Crema Café in Grove City, Ohio, owner Kevin Cash says he purposefully chose a printed menu rather than a chalkboard in hopes of achieving a more upscale appearance to go along with his shop's theme. "I wanted something a little more formal because my setup is a little more of a coffee bar, per se, where I have high-top tables," he says. "I'm trying to lend a little more class instead of just a down-home feel." Though Cash prefers the formal look of his menu, he also wants the flexibility to update it constantly to reflect rotating offerings like coffees of the day. For that, he has a dry-erase white board on which he writes daily drip coffees, press pot choices and iced offerings.

The dry-erase board allows for constant updates, but it can't compete in terms of readability. The printed menu at Crema is mounted on diamond plates, is about 2.5 feet wide by four feet tall, and hangs above the cashier's head on the shop's back wall. This prime location and jumbo size offers customers prime viewing from afar. "People can read it from 10 feet away, easily," Cash says. "It's really easy to see," thanks to its organization and large type. "As a consumer, I think the most important thing with menu boards is making them organized and making the type big enough so that it's readable and not cluttered," says Townsend. "You need the ability to read it quickly and ascertain what you're trying to figure out so that you don't hold the line up."

Beyond the menu
While a menu will be your prime attention-grabbing piece of signage, effective communication will employ several other kinds, including posters, graphics and stands. One example is floor graphics. "It's a fact that when we walk, we look down frequently, and when we are waiting in line, we also look down," says Mery Santos, vice president of national accounts at Identabrew. By using a floor decal or mat to inform customers of a holiday promotion or another special offer, you can turn that idle staring into added sales

DIRECT TRAFFIC: Let people know what you have to offer and where to order it. (Nicole Mass)

Another efficient use of space is stands. Floor or countertop stands can draw attention to your products, and having a clear path from those stands to your register can help ensure that the signage will do its job. For example, a rotating floor stand located between the door and the register, adorned with a picture of a latte, could be the necessary image to get the customer to the register to order that drink. "In terms of coffee, good product branding allows customers to taste the beverage first with their eyes, which triggers their desire to taste with their mouth," says Brian Redpath of Pumpskins, a division of Cole Screenprint. "Sell the product with the taste buds of the eyes, and you will sell it with the pocketbook."

If a coffeehouse employs several types of signage, chances are good that they will complement each other in a way that's good for business. "That lets you hit all the catch points in your establishment, and if [the signage] look and feel the same, you can ingrain the look of what you're trying to establish as your image," says Townsend of FASTSIGNS. "And that's what a smaller tea or coffee shop probably wants to do, too, is create a brand and an establishment that their customers will come to know as their feel."

Attention getters
Attractive indoor signage is important, but it won't be nearly as profitable if you don't have customers to appreciate it. Window signage is one way to bring in passersby, with an image or a short phrase, but it nonetheless should be attention grabbing. "Effective window signage needs to tell passing customers why they should enter your store," says Santos of Identabrew. "Signs that display your name or logo help the customer to identify your store. É When placing window signage, maximize visibility for both foot and/or auto traffic." Another useful outdoor sign is the A-frame sandwich board. When placed outside your door, it can be adorned with an enticing image or a witty phrase like "Coffee discounts given to best dancer" to lead people inside.

(Mykl Roventine)