San Francisco Bay Coffee.

A family-owned coffee innovator shares its purpose.

Standing out meant defining integrity in an industry rife with empty claims.

Services

Positioning
Corporate Narrative
Copywriting
Go-To-Market Strategy
Campaign Design

From its founding in 1979 by the Rogers family, San Francisco Bay Coffee has always had one clear mission: produce the best tasting coffee out there. And that meant honing an innovative production process done with integrity at every step.

Dedicated to doing things differently, the company had a unique and rich story to tell – a story few people had heard before. As John Rogers passed the baton to his four children, this was the perfect time to tell it – an opportunity to differentiate against the big corporate players that had mimicked San Francisco Bay Coffee’s innovations and the trendy, overpriced “third wave” coffee shops popping up left and right.

Our role? To give the brand a voice and articulate why its unique approach to coffee should matter to coffee lovers – while setting the brand apart from your average cup of joe. The campaign needed to feel authentic and honest – ringing true to the founding family’s values, including their inherent modesty. Ultimately, it needed to help position the brand as the choice for taste in coffee today.

What We Learned Along the Way

Modesty can be both charming and challenging.

There is something refreshing about businesses that pride themselves on honesty and rally against empty claims. The branding challenge for these businesses is finding a balance between modesty and taking credit where credit is due. When brands strike that perfect tone, it just clicks.

Family business is a different kind of business.

Every business has its own way of working and the dynamics of a family-owned company are unique. When embarking on a brand project, it’s critical to get the entire crew around one table. In addition, having the right point person as the project champion can help get everyone singing the same tune.

Authenticity isn’t overrated.

Nothing beats being able to reimagine a brand in a way that still feels authentic to the heart of the brand and what its people believe in. When the brand’s differentiator feels authentic, the entire organization can get excited about the new trajectory of the brand, confident that this is a story they can stand behind proudly.

Emotive Brand helped us realize the full potential of our business. Our story became clear, rich, and unique – it finally felt worthy of our coffee.”

Pete Rogers, CEO, Rogers Family Company

Bringing Strategy to Life

Coming to Life

The brand comes to life when authentic images and brand messaging collide. The new brand look could help the brand articulate its story of integrity across digital platforms like the website.

A Modernized Take

San Francisco Bay Coffee didn’t want to lose the iconic nature of their logo. A balance of the old and new, we updated the logo to feel fresh, while still maintaining the established integrity of the brand.

From Bean to Brew

The visual language needed to bring the sensory experience of drinking San Francisco Bay Coffee to life and tell the story of a brand that prides itself on a purposeful process.

Experience that Works

Know the industry like the back of your hand.

Coffee is a familiar topic, but it took in-depth research about the industry – the history, the key players, the trends, the target audiences, even the science of production – to bring the right positioning into focus.

There’s no substitute for face to face.

Client and agency were a long drive apart. But making time to get everyone in the same room for workshops and presentations was key to developing trust, understanding, and, ultimately, building consensus.

Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

Transformative projects can feel overwhelming for a business used to the status quo. That’s why knowing where priorities lie from the start and creating checkpoints throughout the process ensure the right things get done at the right time.

A logo update doesn’t mean a loss in brand equity.

Getting ready to launch a major campaign requires taking a step back and assessing brand assets. It’s an opportunity to refresh a logo without losing the equity a brand has worked so hard to build.