If a moveable European-style sidewalk café environment boosts sales in Philadelphia the concept could emerge as a bigger part of the marketing mix for Melitta USA. The coffee marketer the No. 5 premium brand last Saturday launched a six-week Euro Café Tour that will bring free java and pastries bistro tables and chairs and classical music to city streets and consumer events.
“We’re looking at this not as a one-time program but as a new face for the Melitta coffee brand” Chris Hillman marketing director told Buzz. “We certainly anticipate we’ll be utilizing these types of events more in the future.
“In the past our consumer support plan centered on more traditional consumer promotions. But we’re transitioning the brand more to experiential marketing to connect with consumers and give the brand more of a discernable personality and to reinforce our ‘European indulgence’ positioning.”
The brand plans 30 event days through early June; stops include the University of Pennsylvania campus train stations shopping centers and the Dad Vail Regatta. At the events visitors receive eight-ounce samples and baked goods from Philly’s own Termini Bros. bakery. Guests can take home CDs of the classical music being played—discs also
include Melitta coupons—and are encouraged to enter a sweeps for a trip to France Germany or Italy. Melitta will track local sales spikes coupon redemption and hits to a tour-themed web site. Agency: Euro RSCG Impact Chicago.
Separately Melitta also launched a supermarket sampling effort aiming to get consumers to think about its coffee estates the same way they do about wineries. “Down the road we’re hoping that consumers will shop for coffee like fine wine asking for coffee from certain estates” Patricia Poole the brand’s associate product manager-coffee told Buzz. Reps hit the road in mid-April; they’ll make two four-hour stops per day—400 total visits-at Big Y Shaw’s Stop and Shop and other grocers before the effort wraps in December.
The initiative also will take aim at rival grocery brands. “We want to show consumers an upscale product that can compete with Starbucks and Millstone. We want to show consumers there’s a point of differentiation with this product and that it has a story behind it ” Poole said.
Reps talk up the coffee’s estate origins and hand out eight-ounce samples product information and $3 coupons. Agency: Gigunda Group Manchester NH.
Photo Credit: unsplash.com/@girlinthemidwest
