The festive season is typically the busiest time of year for many businesses.
Celebrations, parties, and get-togethers punctuate the four weeks up to New Year, while consumers spend money on everything from decorations to gifts.
For many, an advent calendar is an essential part of the festive experience. Filled with anything from chocolate to diamonds, and everything in between, advent calendars provide businesses with an opportunity to boost sales and promote new offerings.
As a product, specialty coffee has all the qualities to form part of a fantastic advent calendar offering.
Coffee is available in hundred of varieties, allowing roasters to build an advent calendar that provides value and a fun exploration experience for both existing and new customers.
Creating a coffee advent calendar can help roasters diversify their offerings and open up new sales channels. It can also introduce their brand to a greater range of customers who may appreciate the novel aspect of the product.
Read on to discover how roasters can benefit from offering coffee advent calendars.
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A brief history behind traditional advent calendars
It is believed the concept of the advent calendar was born in Germany during the early 19th century.
The tradition began when German Protestants would count down the days of Advent by burning a candle each day or marking the walls and doors with chalk.
Traditional 19th-century advent calendars were made of wood. The idea of advent calendars modern-day consumers are familiar with only appeared in the 1920s. These were printed calendars that boasted small boxes customers could open.
Over time, advent calendars have evolved to form part of the festive sales cycle for several businesses. They are a highly effective way to attract new customers and offer something new to existing ones.
Typically, advent calendars comprise 24 doors with a different offering hidden behind each one. Usually, this offering is a sample size of a regular product offering.
Alternatively, some retailers will use advent calendars as an opportunity to launch new products or offer a limited edition item.
For example, Onyx Coffee Lab’s 2021 advent calendar treated customers to twenty-four 50g samples of their coffees for $175.
This year, the brand is offering a custom-printed coffee advent calendar that boasts 24 unique coffees and a specially designed board game.
Another example is the coffee advent calendar offered by 19Grams Coffee. The brand offers coffee calendars for ground, whole-bean, and coffee capsule offerings.
The filter and whole-bean offerings come in 24 individual tins, each with a customised colour-coded label.
Each tin has a QR code that leads consumers to interesting background information on the coffee’s origin and processing.
Why should roasters offer coffee advent calendars?
Roasters can benefit from offering specialty coffee advent calendars in several ways, as they can help customers find their favourite style of coffee, which may increase customer retention.
When sales increase, roasters have more room to experiment with coffees they may usually avoid during the year.
For instance, coffee advent calendars can be an effective way to launch a new product, whether that be a new roast profile, origin, or offerings, such as specialty coffee capsules.
As advent calendar offerings come in sample sizes, customers may feel more at ease, as they will not have to commit more money than necessary to try something new.
Offering coffee advent calendars may also allow roasters to learn more about their customers, such as which products they like most, and why.
Feedback like this can equip roasters with the data needed to make more informed business decisions, which, in turn, may save costs.
Coffee advent calendars may also serve as an opportunity to educate consumers about specialty coffee.
By offering samples of different roasts, origins, or varietals, customers will be exposed to a wide range of coffees with interesting backstories.
Printing QR codes onto each of the 24 coffees in the calendar can add another layer of interactivity for customers.
Instead of crowding the package with copy, a QR code can lead customers to brew guides, tasting notes, processing information, and details about the coffee farm.
What to consider when offering coffee advent calendars
Before launching a specialty coffee advent calendar, there are some things roasters will have to consider, as changes will have to be made to production lines and business operations.
It is estimated a retail business typically does around 30% of its business during the festive season.
Many roasters will have anticipated the demands of the festive season and will have stocked up.
When deciding to offer advent calendars, roasters may have to order additional stock to account for it.
Additionally, they will have to decide what sample sizes will be used in the calendar. The majority of roasters tend to offer 50g samples, however, some may range between 30g and 80g.
More so, roasters will have to consider the packaging design for both the calendar and the samples inside.
Notably, advent calendars are predominately Christmas-themed. Roasters must find a clever way to incorporate their branding and bag design into this theme.
For example, roasters must ask themselves if the sample pouches will be individually designed to match the content, the theme, and the brand? Or will they only customise the advent calendar?
These decisions can have an impact on the cost and profitability of such an offering.
Another opportunity that presents itself with advent calendars is the launch of new packaging design or rebranding.
For example, roasters can do a warm test on how customers react to a switch from classic coffee bags to custom-printed coffee boxes or tins.
Custom-printed coffee boxes can be one of the most effective ways of boosting a brand and reaching new corners of the market, as well as helping to increase customer loyalty.
The team at MTPak Coffee has expanded its range of sustainable, 100% recyclable coffee packaging to include custom-print coffee boxes.
Made from 100% recycled cardboard, our coffee boxes can be fully customised and transformed into a branded coffee advent calendar.
Using our innovative digital printing technology, our design team is able to custom-print on each side of the coffee box to feature information about your brand.
Furthermore, we can help custom-print labels for each of the 24 coffee samples inside.
To package each sample, roasters can choose from our range of eco-friendly coffee packaging made from renewable materials such as kraft paper, rice paper, or multilayer LDPE packaging with an environmentally friendly PLA lining.
MTPak Coffee offers our clients a quick turnaround time of 40-hours and 24-hour shipping time.
