Branding Strategy of Contemporary Coffee Shops in Indonesia

Abstract

The popular lifestyle of consuming coffee has spread in major cities of Indonesia, especially in the category of milk coffee. The existence of these contemporary coffee shop brands today has become a lifestyle as opposed to the big café brands because it has an affordable value and indulged by youthful people. Likewise, the visual and verbal styles of these brands have become distinguishing visual styles. Some brands of coffee use vocabulary related to feelings as their brand name, for instance Kopi Kenangan, Kopi Janji Jiwa, Kopi Lain Hati, Kopi Bersahaja, Kata Kopi, Kopi Sejiwa, Kopi Ruang Hati and Kopi Bahagia. The phenomenon of the performance of verbal brands represented through logos makes contemporary coffee shop brands have formulated visual homogeneity in their marketing strategies. This study aims to describe how the branding and marketing strategies of these brands. The method used is a content analysis and online marketing analysis through Instagaram in targeting markets, especially adolescent people in big cities in Indonesia. Content analysis is applied to determine how many visual and verbal elements in the coffee brand activity, whereas online marketing analysis to map the market and illustrate how the role of marketing media, especially social media. However, the result of this research has revealed that the homogeneity of branding has become a paradox of branding: creating brand blur as well as consumer disloyalty.