I wrote a piece the other day called “Vida e Caffe- Pushing the franchise?” and received an e-mail from Grant Dutton from vida e caffe, just informing me of some more things.
Grant said that some of the points I raised in my article were issues they discuss in depth before opening any of their new shops. Furthermore, Grant made me aware that vida e caffe do not franchise, and that 90% of their stores are owned solely by their company. He believes this helps them keep true to their concept and passion which is vida e caffe, which is a good point. Instead of just randomly franchising to anyone who can afford a franchise, vida e caffe have a hands on approach to their stores.
I should add here that I never meant that each shop was losing the vida e caffe touch(Staff enthusiasm, good coffee etc), but rather that the sheer number of stores opening up in Cape Town was just making vida e caffe more of a common sight, rather than something special.
As Grant went on to say, there will always be a fine balance between growth and brand equity. This is true as we all know there is always going to be a problem in this sense when your brand becomes as popular as vida e caffe, and the need to open new stores arises.
One other thing I never mentioned is the sheer popularity of the vida e caffe brand. I read an article a few years ago which mentioned something about brand popularity and how you know when a brand has done something to set itself apart from others. I think the example was Coca-Cola, and when you order a drink at a bar you say “Vodka and coke” or “Vodka and cola” You don’t even think of saying “I will have a vodka and Pepsi” By saying cola or coke, you mean Coca-Cola. “Coca Cola” is a brand name of cola, and the brand is so successful that the brand name “Coke” has taken over the actual name of the drink which is cola. The particular brand of cola(Coca Cola) has actually taken over the name of cola.
To make this easier to understand in the coffee sense, I often get people saying to me “Let’s go get a vida” In essence, the name “vida” has come to replace the word “coffee” Such is the popularity of the vida e caffe brand. And this is something that I’m not sure you can particularly set out to achieve when starting a company. It’s just the merging of various factors of a brand that hits a note with the public, and makes that brand so much more successful than others. Vida e caffe have successfully managed to hit that note, and whether they know how they did this or not, they have done something right along the way.
Sean Lloyd
Editor
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