Salt Spring Coffee - Organic Coffee Roaster

Salt Spring Coffee is a well-established organic coffee roasting company founded on Salt Spring Island in 1996 by a family of doers, artisans, farmers and craftsmen.

Research, Strategy, Brand Positioning , Naming, Brand Identity, Copywriting, Brand Collateral, Campaign, Packaging design, Art Direction, Photography , Ilustration, Website Design, Website Redesign, Website Development , Ecommerce, Enewsletter, Social Media, Environmental Design, Signage

OVERVIEW

After relocating its roasting facility off its namesake – Salt Spring Island to mainland Richmond, British Columbia – Salt Spring Coffee sought out a brand strategy and packaging design that better communicated its overall brand story.

Salt Spring Coffee’s dedication and commitment to quality, responsible partnership at origin, and sustainability at every level is a reflection of its pioneering roots. The company’s owners’ were early adaptors of organic farming, and owned a successful wood mill framing buildings using only local wood.

Since the beginning, Salt Spring Coffee’s history has been rich with bold new ways of doing business. A well-known leader in its industry, and a credible authority for advocacy towards social and environmental programs, the company has generally sustained a quite voice in regards to its ideology, and successes.

INSIGHTS

A comprehensive and systematic approach, Exhibit A: Design Group thoroughly evaluated all of Salt Spring Coffee’s communications and consumer touchpoints.

The analysis included completing customer intercept surveys at point-of-purchase within varied grocery store locations. The feedback provided insight into the buying behaviours of coffee consumers including their perceptions towards several leading and non-leading brands.

Additional information demystified the influence of organic farming, fair-trade, coffee origin, farmer fairness program certifications, coffee tasting profiles, and general sustainability realities for consumers including everything above affects purchasing decisions.

SOLUTION

After a thorough process we identified a brand position to communicate Salt Spring Coffee’s story, including its history, company culture, and corporate ideology.

The positioning clearly comes to life through the new packaging design  delivering Salt Spring Coffee’s authoritative voice and pioneering spirit.

Background textures reveal the company’s rich history: a timeline of layered photographs of Salt Spring Island, coffee origin, and the company’s first roaster.

The bold typographic treatment is the combination of varied text styles inspired from west coast island boat culture, wood type, travel tags, coffee sacks, and industrial shipping.

RESULTS

As Salt Spring Coffee’s long-term creative partner, Exhibit A: Design Group has applied the new brand strategy to all areas of Salt Spring Coffee’s business.

The creative platform continually adds to Salt Spring Coffee’s story at every brand touchpoint, confirming distinction and adding depth, while contributing toward the goal of building long-term brand equity, increasings sale distribution, and café partnerships.

The company continues to grow its presence despite a shrinking whole bean coffee market due to single serve coffee growth, and enhanced competition from lower-price private-label coffee.

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“Exhibit A studio consistently meets challenges and exceeds expectations.”