Mudhouse Coffee Roasters Update Branding

THE BACKGROUND

Mudhouse started in 1993 with nothing but a coffee cart on a downtown, pedestrian mall. Over the years they acquired a loyal local following, and garnered many national accolades including Finalist in the International Roaster of the Year Award, and articles in USA Today, the Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. In 2014, Mudhouse launched their own coffee roaster business, and developed a first generation e-commerce site. Good Soil was hired to help separate the brand from masses of specialty coffees, and make Mudhouse Coffee Roasters a national player.

THE STRATEGY

The Mudhouse founders had done a wonderful job of creating a brand that was a perfect reflection of themselves – quirky, caring and anti-coffee elitism – but now with a $20 a bag price tag, what they needed to do was establish themselves as serious coffee roasters. Through a combination of brand positioning, identity design, packaging, print advertising, social media, and promotion strategy, Good Soil elevated the brand status and gave consumers a reason to believe that Mudhouse Coffee Roaster coffee was worth every penny.

THE WORK

Brand Positioning

With an eye to the client’s need to promote their serious roaster side, Good Soil developed a brand positioning based on their premium coffee bean selection, meticulous roasting process, and bright, flavorful coffees:

“At Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, we believe a great cup of coffee starts with … great coffee. Not the kind of that has been candy coated or over-roasted to hide its imperfections. The kind of coffee that is rich, and flavorful, and pure.

That’s why we identify the highest quality beans at their source, roast multiple batches of each coffee constantly checking for bright, lion-hearted flavors, and carefully track and record every step of the process so that our coffee is perfect out of the pot every time.

So whether you take cream, sugar or nothing at all, make sure you start with the beautiful coffee that begins a Brilliant Black.

Point-of-Sale and Print Campaign

mudhouse coffee roasters box and bag designed by good soil agency

Packaging

Good Soil created a new shipping box and coffee bag informed by Mudhouse Coffee Roaster’s new brand positioning.

Good Soil knew that updating the look and feel of Mudhouse’s shipping box and coffee bag was an essential cue to the high quality of their brand. We can only imagine the look on their customers’ faces when they see the “Brilliant Black” shipping box awaiting them on their front stoop. Or when the coffee bag is beaming from the cabinet first thing in the morning.

Social Media

Mudhouse Coffee Roasters clients, John and Lynelle, are two of the most positive-thinking people you will ever encounter. They see beauty, intelligence, creativity and wit everywhere they go.

Good Soil focused that loving, hippie-esque personality into a branded social media strategy. The agency created posts that highlight the things John and Lynelle see as “Pure Brilliance” in the worlds of art, literature, music, politics, pop culture and, of course, specialty coffee.

Brand Promotion

Good Soil saw an opportunity to build on the Mudhouse Coffee Roaster’s brand positioning by creating a promotion that centered around hard working folks’ relationship with coffee.

Coffee is a necessity for people pulling late nights and/or early mornings. Unfortunately, most of these folks are subject to drinking affordable/work-provided, bad-tasting coffee. The agency made Mudhouse Coffee Roasters the champions of “Brilliant work fueled by the coffee that begins a Brilliant Black”, and awarded a year of free coffee to people doing innovative/breakthrough work.

BACK TO WORK

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