Daniella Lobanova, Magdalene Halikias, Manuel Meraz, Paulina Harkabuz

1) Who are the key players in the coffee industry? What are some of the ads that coffee

companies placed during the COVID crisis?

Some of the key players in the coffee industry today are Starbucks with over 30,000 retail

locations, followed by Dunkin’ Donuts with about 11,000 locations across over 30 countries. The

third largest coffee company is Tim Hortons with about 4,300 locations. Some smaller but well

known players in the industry are McDonald’s, La Colombe, Blue Bottle Coffee, Peet’s Coffee,

Caribou Coffee and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. During the COVID-19 crisis, many companies

took the opportunity to create advertisements concerning or revolving around the pandemic.

Starbucks, for example, showed a picture of a single coffee cup, with the words, “THANK YOU

FOR WEARING A MASK IN STORE” on the bottom right corner of the photo. This

advertisement was created in August 2020 and is obviously concerning the pandemic. Starbucks

also established its “Starbucks at home series, which features people teaching others how to have

the Starbucks drinks at home during these times where people are being encouraged to stay at

home. This might be bad news for producers of ground coffee which is sold to people who want

to make their own coffee at home as it increases awareness of the products Starbucks sells which

fill a similar role. Tim Hortons created an advertisement, “Come as You Are” in June 2020. The

video talks about welcoming customers back to their locations after businesses begin to reopen

after closing due to the COVID crisis. The advertisement shows different people and talks about

homeschooling, interacting with others, and having “much-needed alone time”. McDonald’s, as

well as other food chains, has created an ad that emphasizes their contactless order system.

Although this ad is not directly about their coffee, McDonald’s has created multiple ads during
COVID that showcase their famous McCafe coffee. The contactless order ad was aired in August

2020 and showed how customers can safely and easily still order McDonald’s through their

phone, whether it is by delivery or curbside pickup. Also noted were that a majority of these key

players in the industry decided to put their advertising on hold in the midst of the pandemic.

Most of the key players, such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and The Coffee Bean Tea & Leaf,

just posted their response to Coronavirus on their respective websites, with information

pertaining to new store policies, cleaning and sanitation efforts, etc. Meanwhile, Caribou Coffee

workers joined a national campaign for better Coronavirus protections, while Peet’s Coffee

stayed relatively silent on the whole situation.

2) Look into Cafe Bustelo's ads. How are they different from other companies? What

makes them unique? What are they lacking?

Cafe Bustelo launched their first advertising campaign in 2019. The ad featured retro-like

graphics with upbeat Latin music. The advertisement ends with “Cafe Bustelo Estuvo Aqui”

which translates to, “Cafe Bustelo was here”. The graphics stuck to their brand colors, yellow

and red mainly, not adding any real-life like feel. The ad is unique because of the cartoon-like

graphics and because of the fact that there are no written or verbal words other than the tagline

and the lyrics from the song. The ads give you an insight into the brand and their style. While the

subject matter of most coffee advertisements has to do with how coffee will brighten up your

morning and set the tone for your day, Café Bustelo is unique as it celebrates Latin culture

through coffee. Starbucks, Folgers, Lavazza etc have gone the usual route of ads nowadays

where they play too much into emotions and you almost don’t realize it is an ad until the end of

the advertisement. Their “Cáfe Bustelo Was Here” video advertisement includes Latin music,

visuals of two men playing a game and a couple salsa dancing. Even though the advertisement
was for coffee, what the viewer associates with the brand from this advertisement is the catchy

jingle, and the celebration of Latin culture. But this is a double-edged sword. Even though the

focus on Latin culture is a very integral part of the brand, at the end of the day, Café Bustelo is

selling coffee, and we would love to hear more about the coffee itself in their advertisements,

and why we should be buying their coffee over other major retailers. I think what they’re also

lacking are just more ads to play on television. Because it’s such a niche product, I feel as if the

espresso is an important factor in the brand and they could place more of an emphasis on the fact

that it’s espresso-style coffee, and normally people don’t gravitate towards espresso(or don’t

even know how to make it). Cafe Bustelo is targeting their Latin communities as well as other

communities that are not familiar with their coffee, however, the advertisement lacks a

connection. To gain the attention of new customers, an advertisement must try to form some sort

of connection with the audience. This advertisement does not stand out enough. The ad simply

shows coffee being poured into a mug and two figures then dancing in the background.

3) Discuss what are some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for Café

Bustelo that you can infer based on the report of this article. Make sure you provide at

least three examples per quadrant of the SWOT matrix.

Strengths

Strengths of Cafe Bustelo include their wide variety of products. They sell instant coffee, ground

coffee, whole bean coffee, K-Cups, Iced Espresso, and Espresso capsules. They also have their
website in English and Spanish, allowing a larger audience to have the option of how to view

their site. Another strength of Cafe Bustelo is that they are active on social media and recently

partnered with Florida Int’l University. Partnerships help gain exposure and increase brand

awareness. Cafe Bustelo is also a brand that stands out and has a unique history compared to

more mainstream brands, which gives it a more wholesome, down-to-earth vibe.

Weaknesses

To begin with, there is no storefront for Café Bustelo. In 2017 and 2018, they had a pop-up café

in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, but none of them were permanent. I think that if

there was a permanent storefront for Café Bustelo, they could really capitalize on the Latin-

inspired coffee experience and rituals. For example, along with coffee, maybe they could also

serve traditional Latin and/or Cuban pastries to enhance the coffee experience. Their ads also

focus less on coffee and more on culture, when there should be a happy medium and equal

representation of both. In comparison to other key players, Café Bustelo also has limited social

media success. While Starbucks boasts over 18 million followers on Instagram, Café Bustelo has

just under 30,000. I think Café Bustelo would really benefit from implementing a more

aesthetically pleasing and cohesive feed, creating Instagram campaigns and hashtags to raise

awareness. For example, Starbucks recently created #CreateYourCozy to advertise the return of

their Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and incorporating more stories from employees and customers alike

to make the Café Bustelo more authentic, relatable and interesting.

Opportunities

I think one of the biggest opportunities is creating ads aimed at a more broader audience. I think

the fact that this brand is a more unique, specific coffee brand and style would seem pretty

appealing in the eyes of younger people, more “hipster” people, etc. The first words that come
into my mind when I see the brand and the design is quirky, so I think playing into that and

creating more ads targeting younger folks would help. The packaging and aesthetic of the brand

reminds me a lot of La Colombe, which has a few brick and mortar cafes, which I think Cafe

Bustelo should see as a big opportunity as well. In a city like Chicago, I think having a store

location would be beneficial to them.

Threats

Cafe Bustelos’s main threats are other coffee brands. Café Bustelo is best known for their ground

coffee which is sold at various stores alongside their competitors. They have to compete with

Nestle and Folgers, to name some of the more well known ground coffee brands, as well as

smaller, more artisan coffee brands, such as Lavazza and Nespresso. Nestle and Folgers have the

advantage of being bigger, to the point where they are synonymous with ground coffee you can

buy at the store. Another major threat for Café Bustelo and all other ground coffee brands is

people opting to buy their coffee from establishments like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, where

they can just go through the drive through and have their coffee made for them in minutes.