Given the late nights and early mornings of this holiday season, my best friend has become my morning coffee and its name this year is Kicking Horse.
Started as an entrepreneurial venture ten years ago by Toronto transplants Elana Rosenfeld and Leo Johnson, Kicking Horse Coffee has grown into a grassroots jolt of word of mouth emanating from a tiny hamlet in interior B.C. called Invermere (population 2,500) and is spreading quickly east and south. With year on year growth of +50% and without a hint of advertising, the ripples of peer-driven Kicking Horse buzz are getting wider. Here's why...
Kicking Horse's Word of Mouth Highlights:
- A Special Provenance - brewing coffee in the interior B.C. mountains more than 3,000 feet above sea level and near the pristine Columbia River has very positive allusions as their website states "having the right altitude creates the right attitude"
- The Good Cup - not only are all their brands Fair Trade, they are also Organic - empowering their consumers to participate in good business practices one cup at a time
- Flavour, Flavour - they have a roster of 21 different flavours with very funky handles like 454 Horsepower Dark Roast, Cliffhanger Espresso, Three Sisters Medium Roast, Mocho Yoho Dark Roast and KickAss Dark Roast, reinforcing their laid back and approachable West Coast roots
- Pursuit of Great not Just Good - you can tell just by talking to the owners, the passion they have for coffee and the understanding that they need to be exceptional to be noticed from the "Big Boys" of coffee - being particular on shade grown coffee, packaging fresh coffee on the day of the roast and scrutinizing complementary distribution partners and retail networks all help
- Badging - it starts with a great logo that pops off the shelf, gets reinforced by relevant sponsorships in environmental and outdoor racing competitions and finishes the sale with a friendly and approachable business culture and rags to riches story people rally around (I personally love the web news on Kids Day at the plant - very hard hitting stuff) .
The Laws of Word of Mouth Kicking Horse if Practicing:
Although self-admittedly not expert marketers, Kicking Horse coffee are quite adept at:
#1 - The Law of Stopping Power - their line extension names scream "relax, I'm interesting, try me" and tell stories of the legends and folklore of Kicking Horse Pass. In fact, their KickAss Dark Roast was so laid back, one Ontario grocer was asked to take it off the shelf, pity we're so uptight here in the East.
#12 - The Law of Community - over the last 10 years, Kicking Horse's brand and product positioning and practices have supported its fair trade business practice and outdoor-friendly roots, carving out a passionately loyal audience to themselves
#19 - The Law of the Cause - there's something special going on in Invermere, in a world of corporate takeovers and fraud and overhyped ads lacking authenticity , Kicking Horse is the real mccoy - a "nice" company producing "better for you, better for the world" coffee that is gratifying to share with others
With $10 million in expected sales this year, expect Kicking Horse to make its way onto your kitchen table soon. In talking to the founders, you should also expect to see the company to come down from the mountain and build a number of coffee school/flagship cafes in a city near you. Cheers to that.
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