12May
What’s in a Name?
What’s in a name?
We suspect a coffee’s name has a lot to do with the appeal to buyers. When we tallied the order totals from the #bhstrojancoffee Rally, we were surprised to find that three of our favorites, Neapolitan Blend, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Tanzanian Peaberry, had far fewer orders than any of the other coffee beans we offered.
This was despite the fact that we had given away samples of both Neapolitan Blend and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, and promoted them during the Rally as two of our favorites. A respectable number of Maui blend was sold, however, even though it was not sampled or promoted as heavily. So we asked our friends who’d had a chance to try those three varieties, and the reviews were just as favorable as the reviews for the other varieties.
That got us to thinking. One reason for the disparity in sales, we are guessing, is that the sellers weren’t promoting those three varieties as heavily as we were. A second, and more concerning thought, though, is that buyers were intimidated by the names of the coffee varieties, and more drawn to names and graphics that were familiar to them, such as Maui blend with it’s surfboard graphic.
The funny thing is that we were already planning to use some fun names on the retail labels for other varieties of coffee, which we’ll be sharing with you in the coming days. But we got to thinking, maybe we need to rename the two coffees with the African origin names, so they would be more familiar and appealing. Because seriously, they are great coffees – it is a shame there weren’t more orders for those.
So we’ve decided to test the waters – we’re going to rename both the African origin coffees, and give the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe a new graphic as well, to see if those changes have an effect on their sales. Tanzanian Peaberry will now be marketed as Wild Safari. The new name and graphic for the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe will be released next week.
What do you think? Is Wild Safari a more appealing name than Tanzanian Peaberry? Are you more likely to try that coffee variety now? Feel free to comment below, or on our Facebook wall, and let us know your thoughts!