Blue Brew Coffee Shop
Sophia Schwalbach,
Communication ‘19
& Daniel Rivera,
BS Business Management ‘18
Have you ever heard of college students willing to wake up at 4:00 AM on a Saturday morning to make and serve fresh coffee during a torrential downpour? Fifteen Blue Brew students did just that - with a smile on their faces - at the Penguin in the Park race this spring. We served nearly 200 cups of coffee that day knowing that, by participating in this community event, we would gain exposure and customers to the shop. This was one of twelve community events we participated in during the 2017-2018 academic year, as community engagement became a top priority of our marketing and operational strategies.
Blue Brew has taught us much more than how to make the perfect of cup coffee, it’s taught us that bringing a business into fruition is difficult and tiring but quite possibly the most rewarding experience.
We also practiced fine-tuning our day-today operations and creating our marketing promotions. An example, our customer incentive #HappyHourWednesday between 2:00-3:00 PM, which increased sales by 50% on Wednesdays, but decreased our profit margins by 20-30%. Our most profitable endeavors were working with organizations on large-scale promotions. We simultaneously concentrated on brand awareness on social media, and gained 861 new followers. A highlight of the class is researching and developing drinks, promoting and launching products, and analyzing through data their level of success.