“The Internet has made a tea-drinking nation like India more coffee aware and provided an outlet for many coffee start-ups to reach an audience they would otherwise miss.”
-Abhijit Shetty, Seven Beans Coffee Company (via NDTV)
Blue Tokai and Sleepy Owl agree that they wouldn’t have been able to launch a coffee start-up without the Internet.
Thanks to the pandemic, coffee lovers had to shift from getting their daily coffees at their favourite cafes to brewing their own coffee at home. Gone are the days when everyone bought Nescafe. New but small brands are taking over the coffee industry with Gen Z and Millennials as their target audience. Two companies that took first mover opportunity in the cold brew sector via digital platforms in India are: Sleepy Owl Coffee and Blue Tokai Coffee.
Let’s dissect their Instagram profiles step by step!
Followers:
Sleepy Owl has around 43.6k followers. Considering they established their company just a few years ago in 2016, they’re progressing quite well. With around 300+ posts, their engagement is great with lots of comments from new-comers, loyal fans and interested individuals.
Blue Tokai, on the other hand, has around 67.7k followers with 1000+ posts. This company was founded 3 years before Sleepy Owl, in 2013, setting the foundation for high-quality coffee roasters and brewers, operating via social media platforms. However, this brand has grown into plenty of cafes spread across Indian cities.
Content type:
With the CEO of Instagram declaring that Instagram is not just a square-photo sharing platform and that they would like to be more video-oriented now, majority of the Instagram business pages have shifted to making more of Reels and IGTVs.
Sleepy Owl understood the assignment very well. They’ve put in a lot of efforts to produce aesthetic and informational Reels. Their Reels mainly capture short recipes. To make things easier for people to try these recipes, they’ve used the
‘Guides’ feature successfully to compile them all. They post videos to promote new coffee flavour, collaborations, tumblers/mugs and more. However, they have no long video content aka IGTVs or IG Lives.
Sleepy Owl Coffee has tried to boost their loyal customers’ accounts by reposting their photos as posts on their page. They get the aesthetics and the customers like the clout. Win-win situation, right? I think so too.
Blue Tokai, however, isn’t as active as Sleepy Owl on Reels. Their Reels are mostly limited to reposts of their customers’ recipes. Now these Reels are oddly very well shot and produced. Which brings me to the question- Is Blue Tokai Coffee in a paid partnership with such content creators? We can only speculate as they haven’t mentioned anything specifically. Their posts’ content is quite similar to Sleepy Owl Coffee’s.
Now, IGTV is where Blue Tokai Coffee concentrated on. They have held multiple IG Lives and reposted them as IGTVs, thereby increasing engagement. Lastly, in an attempt to be an ally to all during the tedious second wave of COVID-19 in India, they compiled verified resources in their ‘Guides’ section.
Interactions:
Online coffee brands have to build close communities. For this, they do it all; from limited edition products/hampers to unrelated, fun discussions.
Sleepy Owl regularly reposts stories shared by their customers on their own stories. They even share some of the reviews they receive via Instagram Direct Message. They’ve named this effort- ‘Brew Stories.’
Furthermore, they released a limited-edition Coffee Beer in collaboration with Goa Brewing Co., which was only available in Mumbai and Goa. The founders tried to show transparency in their production by explaining the entire process of building a new product. Lastly, every year an ‘Ask Me Anything’ post goes up on the Instagram page, wherein followers are encouraged to ask the founders anything and expect an honest reply from them.
Between these two contenders, we have a clear winner in this arena: Blue Tokai. Read ahead to know why. Blue Tokai has short and continuous efforts to maintain the hype and interaction. They keep IG Live sessions on topics like Anxiety, Superfoods and Sustainability. Later these IG Lives are posted as IGTVs. It started off with a Ask Me Anything with the one of the founders, Matt Chitharanjan, then went on to be #CoffeeBytesByBlueTokai and the most recent series is- #BTHuddle.
They had created a book club for a short period, where they posted book suggestions and encouraged followers to discuss in the comments. Currently, they have started a Taster’s Club for coffee enthusiasts in collaboration with professionals.
In the arena of limited-edition products, Blue Tokai has tried them all. Easy starter kits to brew coffee, brewing workshops, coffee body scrubs, pantry hampers and more. Lastly, they too repost stories of their customers and ask for topic suggestions for the next #BTHuddle!
Brand voice:
The brand voice of both companies is somewhat similar. I would broadly classify it into two: authentic and passionate. These artisanal coffee brands want to provide you with the tools and the right insight regarding coffee preparation to get the absolute best out of their products. However, Blue Tokai Coffee has been seen going over and beyond just their products. They’re trying to build and help a community by taking the initiatives mentioned above. Passion can be seen clearly through their swift replies to queries put up in the comment section. The replies are proactive and witty rather than being templatic in nature. Passion for their products can be seen through not only the content posted but also the suggestions provided to their following.
Target audience:
Though both the companies call out to individuals aged 18-35 years old, a slight difference can still be seen between the two.
Sleepy Owl Coffee has slightly more informal content. With many non-coffee recipes like ginger ale, cocktails, muffins and popsicles. Mostly, teenagers and young adults are open to try such uncommon recipes. It also tries to make sure there is zero plastic packaging, and all packaging materials are 100% recyclable. Another serious cause Gen Z is passionate about.
Blue Tokai Coffee has a larger variety of coffee flavours for millennials with matured taste buds. Moreover, they sell French presses, hold brewing workshops and have a Taster’s Club. All of these products are suited to adults with a passion for learning the art and science behind coffee as well as a constant disposable income.
Push and Pull Mix:
Both companies have a similar push and pull mix. Some people may argue that their Instagram strategy is more push-oriented than pull. However, I beg to differ. These artisanal coffee brands started retailing their products on only digital platforms and since then have built an extremely loyal fanbase. They don’t indulge in influencer marketing wherein individuals keep bombarding customers with promotional posts. Moreover, they do not send across unsolicited messages to potential customers.
Both companies’ bios are equipped with the right information about their products and where they are operating, along with links to their websites. All the products along with their prices are displayed in the ‘View Shop’ feature, right below the bio.
However, they do indulge in soft push marketing by frequently showing Instagram Story Ads. All their Story Ads have an appropriate CTA at the bottom. Same is the ordeal with the captions for their posts.
To conclude, what brand of coffee you drink and how you take your coffee have become a big personality trait for GenZ and millennials. They call themselves- “caffeinators.” Purchasing good quality coffee and coffee brewing tools has become a form of self-expression for some. Companies like Sleepy Owl Coffee and Blue Tokai Coffee are banking on these emotions to sell their products, but at the same time form a community of caffeinators.
Maybe, “what coffee brand do you like?” could be the next ice breaker question!
Fun fact!
Ah, no more typing! I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
z
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