Coffee marketing: Brewing success in specialty coffee ventures

The company

Brewing Gadgets, established in the UAE in 2011, has been a pioneer in introducing innovative solutions within the specialty coffee industry. Focused on quality products and services, the company explores new offerings, forges innovative partnerships, and supports baristas in the specialty coffee sector.

Operating in 10 main categories and 68 subcategories while collaborating with over 110 brands, Brewing Gadgets has emerged as one of the top three coffee equipment sellers and service providers in the UAE. They offer a wide range of products and brands, from espresso machines, grinders, and barista tools to brewing contraptions and other accessories, while also providing after-sales services for its products. In 2020, the company ventured into the ecommerce space.

Founded by Gautam, whose family boasts a longstanding history in the coffee business, Brewing Gadgets traces its origins to Gautam's win in the 2006 India Barista Championship. Serving as a jury member in UAE and India Barista Championships, Gautam recognized the need for a centralized hub catering to the demands of specialty coffee. This realization led to the inception of Brewing Gadgets. Presently, the company boasts a team of around 20 specialty coffee experts.

"The company has conducted customer profiling and psychographics, basing its segmentation on preferences, geography, lifestyle, and other factors. Specialty coffee enthusiasts value sustainability, artisanal craftsmanship, and the overall high-quality coffee experience," says Dinesh Joshi, Tech and Digital Growth Lead at Brewing Gadgets.

The problem

During the pandemic, Brewing Gadgets experienced a surge in demand, witnessing a shift in the purchasing behavior of its traditional customer base. However, new and younger customers historically display a preference for digital shopping. Recognizing this trend, the company embraced an omnichannel sales approach, emphasizing the significance of digital channels for attracting and influencing customers' decision-making processes.

The company utilized its retail platform and Instagram to promote its digital presence. Additionally, participation in events and discussions about its ecommerce endeavors proved beneficial, especially outside the UAE.

Like any company transitioning from a single channel to an omnichannel approach, Brewing Gadgets encountered data-related issues. That is when organizational tools, like Zoho's, greatly helped resolve these challenges.

The solution

Previously, the company had used other solutions, but struggled to achieve satisfactory and integrated results. "We began with Zoho Books, then added Zoho Inventory," Joshi began.

"While researching communication tools on Google, I found Zoho Campaigns among the top suggestions. Discovering we were already using Zoho, but hadn't explored its full potential, I created an account and began utilizing it."

The benefits and ROI

Soon, Brewing Gadgets was able to experience the benefits of switching to Campaigns for their marketing requirements. "We primarily use email marketing for customer retention and launching communications, Joshi said.

"It offers benefits such as focused audience engagement, and targeted messaging, enhancing repeat purchases and customer retention, and driving OMNI traffic to other marketing channels. Zoho Campaigns functions as an omni-communication tool, seamlessly integrating WooCommerce data to create customer profiles and personalized communications. Its profound tracking insights enable precise campaign effectiveness measurement, drastically reducing effort and enhancing accuracy."

Zoho Campaigns has created a significant impact on their initiatives.

"We were among the first to get into ecommerce in the coffee equipment business," Joshi noted. "Currently, 90% of our business is offline-focused. Additionally, for those who frequently visit our offline stores, we aim to engage them by offering an online experience. To encourage customers to transition online, we send teaser emails or messages through Zoho Campaigns. For instance, we might offer a 5% discount or an additional service to prompt them to book through our online platform."

Having closely worked with the luxury segment in his career, Joshi believes that data-sensitive people are not keen to receive promotional messages on WhatsApp.

"Email marketing still has a vital role when it comes to customer engagement," he explained.

"The audience here is focused. The target audience has given you consent to engage with them. They are willing to know about your brand."

He goes on to expand on the scenarios where email marketing can work wonders.

"At the time of a product launch, emails are a wonderful means of explaining details of a new product, which can be conveyed either through written words or visual content," he began.

"There are umpteen ways to engage a customer. This is where the art of email campaigns comes in. Art is how good your creatives are when you engage via emails. Ours is a serious business. Our customers, who seek detailed information about specialty coffee, are directed to our blog page from our emails so they can read those in-depth pieces on coffee. So broadly, our emails are used for product and service newsletters, any campaigns we run, and new launches. In all of this, timing is critical. The right email getting delivered to the right segment in the right time frame makes a lot of difference to an email campaign. Zoho Campaigns helps me segment my audience and know what they are reading and understand them better."

Looking ahead

In the last few years, Brewing Gadgets has captured quite a wide customer base for themselves and is now looking at the larger GCC market and India market closely.

"There is huge potential in India; the specialty coffee scene looks promising there. Additionally, our team is exploring Zoho CRM. In the next three years, Brewing Gadgets aims to increase digital platform revenue contribution by 35%, achieve 15% year-over-year growth in the service business through digital channels, and leverage AI and image-based solutions to streamline product search and customer journey workflows."

To know more, visit Brewing Gadgets.