La Colombe Coffee: The Tangible and Intangible Elements of Brand Identity

La Colombe Coffee Roasters was founded in 1994 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the notion that “America deserves better coffee.” The company provided attractive cafés and an online coffee subscription program to its customers. It supported ethical trade in the sourcing of its products and coffee innovation, which had led to the Draft Latte cold coffee, a ready-to-drink product available both at La Colombe Coffee Roasters cafés and in a variety of retail outlets. The company hired a customer experience consulting firm to design its virtual presence and provide a seamless experience for consumers both through its cafés and online. It operated in a high-margin competitive industry with a high rate of company shutdowns, making customer interface and product innovation essential. With new equity invested by a highly-successful venture capitalist, the company had to now decide whether to scale up into a mass market company or continue to serve a niche segment through its artisanal cafés.

This case is intended for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on strategic management, marketing, and entrepreneurship. The case can be used at the start of the course to introduce topics such as branding, global sourcing strategies, diversification, and the role of competition in shaping a company’s business model. When used near the end of the course, the case allows students to apply these concepts and consider the challenges that the company faces. The key decision-makers in this case—the two co-founders of a niche coffee chain in a highly competitive industry—are facing issues related to competition, growth, and expansion into new markets. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>understand a company’s business and brand strategy and how it is positioned relative to competitors in the external environment;</li><li>analyze the pros and cons of scaling up a business versus catering to a niche market;</li><li>understand the challenges of a service business in an industry where maintaining active customer interfaces is the key to success;</li><li>examine international aspects of a business by studying its global value chain, especially the sourcing of a specialty product; and</li><li>understand how a niche company can compete against industry giants.</li></ul>

• market position
• brand identity