Treat Mom To A White Praline Mocha at Cuppy’s Coffee

Once a year we honor our mothers with flowers and gifts for all they’ve done for us. This year why not make Mother’s Day an experience she’ll never forget?

Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More is a great place to take your favorite lady to enjoy a true Italian espresso, latte or cappuccino. On Mother’s Day, mothers receive 25% off our featured drink the White Praline Mocha. A terrific blend of white chocolate, espresso and praline flavors is sure to delight any palate, especially moms.

Our beans are hand picked and roasted to perfection to extract all the natural flavors of the bean. You and your mother will definitely notice the difference.

Also, enjoy a free extra shot of espresso in any sized coffee drink during the entire month of May with coupon. Only at participating Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More locations. See store for details.

Going Mobile: Can Your Open Store Benefit From the Use of a Mobile Unit?

How can I get my name out in the public? How can I get more customers into my store? These questions have undoubtedly entered your mind as a store owner at one point or another. John F Kennedy once stated in a speech “Ask not what my country can do for me, but what I can do for my country.” Now you may be wondering how that applies to me owning a store? The answer is simple; the country represents your customers. You want to drive traffic to your location, you want to increase your sales, but most of all you want brand recognition. To achieve this you must ask ‘not what your customers can do for you, but what is it you can do for your customers’.

 

The Cuppy’s Coffee Mobile unit may be just the ticket for you establish your customers and future customers. Face it, not everyone knows of your store and/or its locations. You have to remedy that. Go where your customers are shopping, go where your customers are celebrating, and go where your customers may be relaxing in the sun for the day. If they won’t come to you, you in turn will have to go to them. Mobile unit owners are having great success at community events whenever they attend. Some owners have even purchased multiple units in order to attend multiple events at the same time.

 

Increasing awareness of your services in your community should be one of the utmost goals as an owner. Advertising only reaches a certain target of the public whereas public venues may increase your chances of be noticed by more of a cross-section of the population.

 

If you want to improve visibility and think you can benefit from the addition of a mobile unit, contact your Franchise Systems Manager for assistance. Keep in mind there may be restrictions on owning and operating a mobile unit in your city or state. Here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself before proceeding.

 

·        Can I afford to add a mobile unit with my budget?

·        How will I use the mobile unit to increase visibility?

·        Do I want to use it just for events?

·        Do I want to set up a temporary location?

·        What laws or codes do I need to know before purchasing a mobile unit?

·        Where will I park my unit when not in operation?

 

There are more questions, but this list is a starting point in your decision to order a mobile unit. Creating community awareness and visibility will pay off in the long run and a mobile unit may be just one vehicle to get you there sooner.

A Letter From The President

Knowledge is power as the old adage goes. Information about the coffee industry is very abundant. With the growth of the internet, sources for information on any given subject is just a click away.

Materials for promoting and marketing your store successfully can be found on numerous web sites (Entrepreneur.Com; StartupNation.com). I encourage you to research this information. If applicable, why not implement the strategies from today’s brightest minds?

 Another source of marketing information can be found at our corporate headquarters. Our Marketing Department stands ready to assist you with any questions you may have or to go over your suggestions. But one of the least tapped sources for information is your employees. Face it, they’re there in your store everyday and may have suggestions to bring in the customers. Listen to them, your employees may be the best thing to happen to your location.

Another source may be the very people you are marketing to, your customers. Countless ideas and strategies are ‘out of the mouth of babes’.

Your continued success goes hand in hand with your continuing education about this fun and dynamic industry. Happy researching

 

Doug Hibbing

President

Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More

FranSynergy Acquires Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More

Business is a fast paced and sometime difficult road to manuever. It is also a series of evolutions from startup to completion. And it is in that process that Cuppy’s Coffee is proud to announce that FranSynergy has acquired our fast growing coffee company to navigate it thru the next stage in that evolution. Below is a copy of the letter sent to all franchisees acknowledging the transition and welcoming the new management team to Cuppy’s Coffee.

Dear Franchisees,

Cuppy’s has grown leaps and bounds since our humble beginnings in May of 2006. We currently have more than 231 franchisees nationwide and 73 open stores, with many more stores in the works!

It’s our ultimate goal to see the Cuppy’s brand grow strong and be successful. In order for this to happen, change is inevitable. Our objective is to always keep you, our franchisee, up to date as these changes occur.

With that in mind, we have some really exciting news! We are pleased to announce that FranSynergy Inc., lead by Dale Nabors, CEO, has acquired Cuppy’s Coffee & More, Inc.

Dale Nabors has over 25 years of franchising experience and worked for the Dwyer Group from March, 1995 to August, 2000….

To read the entire letter follow this link.

McDonald’s Foray into Specialty Coffee

     The McCafe. The McDonalds® hamburger empire has for some time been interested in serving espresso based drinks in its stores. This year there has been considerable press concerning the financial impact this venture will have on the specialty coffee industry. Although mainly targeted at Starbucks® the nation’s leading coffee company, the questions still begs to be asked: How will McDonald’s venture into the specialty coffee industry affect your store sales?

      McDonalds has always had a very lucrative morning breakfast rush with coffee accounting for 5% of the ticket. Their coffee has somewhat been palatable to the consumer in a rush to get to the office. But with more and more consumers willing to spend the extra money for a premium coffee, McDonald’s tactics makes for a very good reason to capitalize in this segment of the coffee industry. In a recent interview in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution columist Leon Stafford asked Don Thompson, president of McDonald’s about their venture into the specialty coffee arena:

Q: McDonald’s is upgrading its coffee products, rolling out more

premium blends. Some have even speculated that McDonald’s could be taking on Starbucks. What are your thoughts?

A: Espresso-based drinks [are] a huge market opportunity. Our efforts in this arena are not focused on any competitor. What they are focused on are our customers and what their drinking habits are. And when you look at the espresso-based drinks, it is a category that is growing tremendously.

   The remaining interview focused mainly on McDonald’s business strategy and relationships with its vendors. It may be to early to gauge the impact that this move will have on smaller coffee shops around the country. But the announcement may have impacted stock market shares for both McDonalds and Starbucks.

      Other analysts and consultants have a different take on McDonald’s move. In an online interview with columnist Kristen Cole for WCBSTV.com Judy Ganes had this to say:

     “For the consumer it’s a win-win,” said coffee consultant Judy Ganes. “There’s better coffee at more locations.”

     Ganes tracks production and pricing of coffee and says Starbucks first poached from McDonalds’ playbook by offering drive-thrus and breakfast and lunch. Now the roles have reversed.

    “McDonalds is hoping this brewing competition will add a billion dollars to its bottom line and is also promising consumers their coffee will cost 60 to 80 cents less,” she said.

     But one thing is for sure, consumer’s will have more choices for its specialty coffee needs. To compete for those choice demands, smaller coffee shops will need to start building a loyal customer base today. When McDonalds roles out en-mass its McCafes, coffee houses will have already established their customer base. As the novelty of the McCafe wears off, this will be one of the best opportunities to fill a void left during and after the Starbucks/McDonalds battle for coffee dominance.

     Creating an atmosphere where your customers want to be is very easy to obtain. Customers want to feel special, make that happen. Get to know your customers by their first name and their choice of coffee. Customers want a quality cup of coffee for the prices they’re paying. Other ways you can build and keep your loyal customer is to educate them to the subtleties of espresso based drink. Today’s connoisseurs are more than eager to take in information about what’s going into the preparation and production of their coffee. Offer your customers loyalty cards for their patronage. It doesn’t have to be a lot, it’s the gesture that makes all the difference. Select a few loyal customers and teach them how to make an espresso based drink. Occasionally offer a class on the nuances of coffee in your store.

     The ideas to build and sustain a customer base are numerous. Acting now will ensure that whenever McDonalds does roll out their national cafes, you will have already secured your niche in this competitive market.

Marketing: An Expectation Economy

To successfully market to your target audience, it is necessary to understand the trends in which they, your audience, pays attention to. Watching and tracking cross-industry trends can help you better focus your advertising and marketing dollar more effectively. The following excerpts from an online article is a start to address capitalizing in on your share of this dynamic market.

Sure, we know that what you really, really want is to be told which trends will dictate your industry. If you’re in automotive, you want to know about the future of transport; if you’re in food and beverage, you’re no doubt interested in everything healthy and green and organic. And of course you have a near-obsession with what your main competitors are up to. But in an EXPECTATION ECONOMY, business professionals should obsessively think and look cross-industry, as opposed to suffering from industry tunnel vision.

Here are three reasons why looking cross-industry isn’t just great for inspiration, but a prerequisite for understanding how to fuel innovation in an EXPECTATION ECONOMY:

First of all, focusing solely on your own industry will obscure the fact that in economies of abundance, consumers are increasingly spending their ‘play money’ on goods and services that net them the experience, the indulgence, the excitement, the satisfaction they’re looking for at a specific moment.

Secondly, limiting yourself to your own industry will make you miss important changes in consumer expectations, and will thus put you at risk of disappointing or even annoying consumers. Every industry has its own ‘innovation competence’, and the innovations they’re bringing to market not only excite their own customers, they also shape their expectations for other industries.

Last but not least, if you’re obsessed with what your direct competition is doing, you will always end up copying new concepts in your industry. Which means that, unless you’re comfortable with being a ‘smart follower’, this is not going to unleash your innovative brilliance.

Now, all of this is of course not to say that you shouldn’t actively track what’s happening in your own industry. But in the next 12 months, do also constantly ask yourself: who are our other competitors? What experiences could our product or service be traded in for? And what can we learn from other industries setting consumer expectations across the board?

Tracking and understanding THE EXPECTATION ECONOMY is not a science; in fact it’s a nice mix of experience, intuition, and knowing your sources. Grab your notebook and camera and start taking EXPECTATION ECONOMY notes and pictures.

Find competitors and non-competitors, big and small, who are setting consumer expectations much higher than you’ve ever been able to. Then compile what you think are now the global standards for whatever it is you do, and from there start thinking about new goods, services and experiences that at least incorporate those standards, and preferably outdo them.

With a little practice and perseverance, you will begin to see trends that you as an owner can utilize to capture your target market. Sometimes, being the biggest is not necessarily being the best.

(Courtesy: TrendWatching.com

Read the entire story at

http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/)

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

As a teenager and then as a young adult growing up in a small Iowa town, I wore the popular fashions of that time period. As I got older I realized that in order to be successful and compete in my chosen field that change was needed.

Today, change and innovations are expected in this diverse and dynamic economy we live in. With the new direction and marketing concepts we’ve initiated, we’ve taken a long hard look at our company and have come up with some fresh and innovative ways to increase our visibility and brand image.

Our cups, you will soon see, have changed. Today’s consumers are more earth conscience. Our cups are made of recyclable material to help combat pollution and environmental waste. Another benefit  is that our new cups are used for both hot and cold drinks, saving you money. This decision to be more earth friendly, is undoubtedly one of the best decisions I’ve made as president.

But what is change without updating? Look for our new and improved company logo. The decision to improve our logo increases our visibility with consumers and will help to build Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More into a nationally recognizable brand. 

Bellbottoms, big hair and polyester have passed, hopefully not to return anytime soon. Being more earth conscience, recycling and increasing our visibility with our logo will help us all to compete and prosper for today and tomorrow.

Doug HibbingPresident

Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More

Cuppy’s Coffee Franchise System Managers – Your Coach, Your Mentor, Your Best Friend!

Calling into a company to get answers can sometimes be a daunting task itself, from being put on hold or being shuffled around the office to get the correct answer. Maybe you reach a person only to find out the information given you is not the right answer you were seeking. Medina’s Franchise Systems Managers (FSM) are here to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

The advantages may not be easily recognizable at first, but your FSM will work to your benefit. The FSM’s are trained in every aspect of the franchising process and will guide you through from beginning to end. One advantage of having a personal FSM is that you only have to make one call; speak to one person to get the answers you need. This is a key factor in saving you time and trying to remember which department or person you need to reach. FSM’s realize that you have enough contacts to keep track of and as a business owner your time is valuable. Everyday your FSM works towards being your “one stop shop” for all the questions and answers that arise while opening your store. Another advantage is the relationship you and your FSM establish will lead to a long lasting friendship. A friendship developed by working closely together to see your dreams come true.

Your personal FSM is the angel on your shoulder from coordinating with your Real Estate Specialist and Elite Project Managers to your building delivery. Need answers about purchasing, marketing or field training your FSM is trained to get you the correct information you’re looking for. Your FSM will be there every step of the way to answer your questions and concerns.   During the process of opening your business questions, problems or unforeseen events may arise, your FSM is your “go to person”.

Communications plays a key factor in your relationship with an FSM. Being in constant communications with your FSM will ensure that you’re always in the loop regarding new marketing ideas, new products and exciting events happening in the franchising community. Importantly, being open and honest will help assist you in areas that you feel are important as well as keeping the amount of information flowing in both directions to getting your store open successfully.

New CFO Joins Medina Enterprise Executive Branch

Medina Enterprises, a Fort Walton Beach based holding company, announced today the newest addition to its executive management team with the hiring of Don Ochsenreiter as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ochsenreiter brings significant financial and operational leadership to Medina Enterprises. With Medina anticipating tremendous future growth, Ochsenreiter’s primary objectives are to establish optimal capital structure for the company to facilitate its imminent growth, and to help Medina achieve this growth building a solid financial foundation.

Before joining Medina, Ochsenreiter was President and CEO for Burton Golf, Inc. for the past 13 years. At Burton Golf, Ochsenreiter repositioned and grew the leading golf bag brand to the number one market share position in golf course shops worldwide. Before recently selling the company to a strategic buyer, he managed every aspect of the company through operational and industry change. Ochsenreiter holds a B.A. in economics from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

A New Cup For Cuppy’s Coffee Owners

Rising costs and economic forecasts has led Cuppy’s Coffee to find a more reliable and cost effective cup for its franchisees. Currently, Cuppy’s orders 3 different cup sizes and 3 different lid configurations causing confusion within the company and its franchisees. (this is just the hot cups)

Now Cuppy’s Coffee is set to release a cup that works for both hot and cold drinks. The cup is also recyclable, giving cause to the environmental waste concerns of both the company and the public it serves.

The new cups features the IMx technology meaning that beverages served in the new cups maintain the ideal serving temperature of 155F to 175F longer than a single paper hot cup with sleeve. The new cup will also adorn the new revised company logo.

Now instead of using two cups, one for hot and one for cold, the new cup can be used for both. An all in one cup! The insulation properties keep cold drinks cold without the need for a sleeve and while eliminating condensation from the outside of the cup keeping it comfortable to the touch. One size is all that is needed for new cup. No need for different sized lids for the various sizes. This reduces cost to the franchisee by having a cup that can accommodate flat lids, dome lids and hot lids on all 3 sized cups. In other words each lid type is universal and fits all 3 size cups, allowing the franchisee to stock just one size, while simplifying the ordering process.

The new cup is fully recyclable which eliminates the need to double-cup requiring twice the energy, twice the waste, and emits twice the amount of greenhouse gases. This news will be great for customers and communities that are mindful of the waste management issue. At Cuppy’s Coffee the hope is that everyone will recycle the new cups.