Many people tend to launch a roastery because they have a love of coffee and want to share it with the world. That said, a passion for roasting is unlikely to guarantee sales. Notably, there are several factors to consider when trying to get customers to choose your product over the competition.
To run a successful roastery, it is essential you build up a strong brand reputation and get repeated sales from returning customers. For many business owners, surprisingly little time is spent roasting, as the majority is focused on marketing, securing sales, and maintaining customer loyalty.
Well-designed custom coffee bags can do the majority of that work for you. Custom coffee packaging can be tailored to the brand and product, making it instantly recognisable and alluring to customers. More so, custom coffee bags can help consumers get to know your brand better while boosting brand recognition and mindshare.
To learn more about how custom coffee bags boost brand awareness, I spoke with Jack Armstrong, the co-founder of Denmark’s Mood Coffee Roasters – a brand that boasts some of the most unique and aesthetic coffee bags in Europe.
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Sign upUnderstanding the role packaging plays in a business
Mood Coffee Roasters was launched amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, during Denmark’s second social lockdown. Alongside two business partners, Jack had the idea of setting up a roastery that made specialty coffee more accessible. “We’re not fans of pomp or pretence and we really like to keep things simple,” explains Jack, who is also head roaster at Mood. “Both our coffee sourcing programme and roasting style reflect that.”
The brand’s intention is to harness the “mood” a great cup of coffee provokes, as well as the community it gathers. As coffee consumption is highly sensorial, factors such as sight, smell, taste, touch, and even sound can affect the experience. Right from the start, Mood Coffee understood it was important to create an experience for its customers through its packaging. In order to convey the ‘mood’ the brand wanted consumers to feel, it created customised coffee bags.
The watercolour backdrop design on Mood’s coffee packaging was a happy accident, created by Jack’s business partner, Josephina, while she painted with her children. The team decided the red and yellow colours were warm and inviting – an exact representation of what they had envisioned for the brand.
Mood’s custom-printed side gusset coffee bags feature a slight texture, with the brands’ logo situated toward the bottom. The packaging is then adorned with cards that help differentiate between the coffees, roast profiles, and brewing methods.
Without a doubt, the bags have been a huge success and talking point. The unique design encourages customers to post images and videos to social media platforms such as Instagram. “Denmark has an amazing variety of coffee, so our packaging has helped us to differentiate ourselves from the local market while also helping the brand gain recognition outside of it,” Jack says.
Designing coffee bags with businesses in mind
Notably, Mood has garnered sales from across Europe and encourages customer feedback to help better its practices. One customer revealed that Mood Coffee was the only brand allowed on the kitchen counter as the coffee bags perfectly matched the kitchen’s aesthetic.
The design of Mood’s coffee packaging not only catches the eye but also helps customers instantly identify the brand. Locals often associate the colours orange, red, and yellow with Mood. More so, the classy look of the packaging has helped position Mood as a luxury coffee brand.
Mood Coffee Roasters source ethical, high-quality specialty coffees, which often come at a higher price. However, the brand’s investment in luxury, stylised packaging helps place them in a position to charge a premium price for its coffees. In turn, this allows Mood to offer more support to the producers it partners with.
While Mood has reordered a second batch of 250g coffee bags that feature the same design, the brand is looking to develop its packaging further for future print runs. For instance, the second run of coffee bags is made from different packaging materials. Mood recently moved away from using aluminium-lined coffee bags to those that feature a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) exterior and a polyethylene (PE) interior, which makes the bags easier for customers to recycle.
Jack is also looking at a slightly simpler design for the brand’s wholesale coffee packaging. “We want something that will look at home on anyone’s shelf.” More so, Mood is considering moving the resealable zipper from the front of the bags to the top, which will make them easier to open. Reusable tubs for local wholesale clients are also in the pipeline to reduce unnecessary packaging waste.
A further adjustment the brand is looking to make across its packaging is to use a different texture, as labels struggle to adhere to the current material. This has meant the brand has less flexibility for identifying coffees and adding essential information for the consumer. “In future, I think I’d design the labels first, and then surround the design of the bag around that, so I can include all the information I want,” Jack says.
What to consider when designing custom coffee packaging
When it comes to creating custom coffee bags that reflect your brand and contain essential information for consumers, there are a few factors that Jack suggests you consider.
His first suggestion is to partner with a designer that understands what works for the brand and can create an innovative design to convey that. Then, you must partner with a packaging supplier that understands what your business is trying to achieve and can clearly communicate with you, the customer. “Investing in custom packaging will not come cheap, and neither will having your own brand,” Jack advises. “However, it is definitely worth it, especially if your aim is to sell expensive coffees.”
Another suggestion is to consider production. For instance, prior to running Mood, Jack spent years working and packing coffees in busy roasteries. Therefore, he understood the requirements to make packaging seamless in production. Additionally, you will have to consider the packaging materials, both for environmental reasons and to ensure they are able to maintain the freshness of the coffee.
Your coffee bags should help provide customers with the best experience while also having a minimal effect on the environment. Investing in renewable packaging materials, such as kraft or rice paper, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), or polylactic acid (PLA), can help boost the sustainability of the business.
At MTPak Coffee, we offer roasters and coffee shops a range of 100% recyclable coffee packaging options that can be custom-printed to your business specifications. Choose from renewable materials such as kraft paper, rice paper, or multilayer LDPE packaging with an environmentally friendly PLA lining, all of which minimise waste and contribute to a circular economy.
More so, we give you complete control over the design process by allowing you to build your own coffee bags. Our design team is available to help you create the ideal coffee packaging. Plus, we can custom-print coffee bags using innovative digital printing technology, with a quick turnaround time of 40-hours and 24-hour shipping time.
Images from Mood Coffee Roasters
