Illy Coffee

Illy Coffee
Marco Arrigo, Director

Illycaffe was established in 1933 in Trieste, Italy by Francessco Illy. When he founded the company, Francessco’s dream was to produce and sell the best coffee in the world. Illycaffe has built on that dream and become the leading espresso coffee, enjoyed in over sixty countries. The company is committed to a marketing philosophy of “One Brand, One Blend’.

Objectives

• To be visible within our own marketplace
• To demonstrate our success and leadership within our own marketplace
• To meet and retain existing clients
• To identify new leads that will generate long-term business
• To maintain consistency against competitors that exhibit sporadically or infrequently
• Occasionally to launch a new product – launching at shows is best

Approach

• We deliberately select niche shows as these are the ones that work best for us. Those that incorporate lots of food or beverage categories don’t, by their very nature, provide a targeted audience. In our experience, exhibitions can’t get too niche
• Our product is 100 years old so we’ve nothing new to say. We provide a beautifully designed coffee bar and talk to people. With a straightforward, no-frills offer, our product becomes more accessible and our message easy to understand. That means that visitors are more likely to make the commitment to come onto the stand
• We enjoy setting ourselves up against our competitors as we’re confident enough to know that our offer is, very simply, the best
• We’d much rather get two really top pieces of new business than 100 minor orders and everything we do is geared towards achieving that

The Stand

• It’s important for an aspirational brand like ours to have a well designed presence. We build a coffee bar that’s low-key and not unlike a VIP Green Room. Its always well conceived and welcoming which means some visitors will return four or five times just to relax and unwind after trawling round the show. The ambience of our stand will always attract people who like our product, like us - and nine times out of ten, buy from us.
• Our simplicity always overshadows the competition, most of which try too hard to produce something glamourous or seductive. However much they spend on something big and flamboyant, our simple approach wins hands down every time
• We commissioned Italian architect Luca Trazzi to design our stand. He’s also designed three sets of our exclusive Illy coffee cups as well as the Illy Bar concepts, so retaining his signature for our stand demonstrates our commitment to design integrity
• We only offer espresso because that’s the best way for people to taste the true flavour of Illy. Again, it simplifies our offer and people find that attractive in an environment when they are being bombarded with messages and stories
• Of all the events we do, our stand at Bar* is the biggest opportunity to make a statement to people that matter
• Prior to the show we will invite people we know to visit us on our stand
• To those that don’t know us already (although almost everyone does) we need to communicate what we do and the aura of our product. We’re lucky because coffee fills all the senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. It's very tactile and the way we present ourselves shows who we are and what we’re capable of. We use Bar as an opportunity to target the big prospects and would expect to convert three or four into long-term clients – that’s one of our objectives for taking part.
• People who don’t know about us wouldn’t buy at an exhibition. We’re an "aspirational coffee" brand and our whole presence taps into that aspiration
• Very occasionally we might link up with another brand and, for instance, launch a coffee cocktail. Exhibitions are great for this kind of activity because people can experience what you’re promoting. The face to face, touchy-feely aspect of shows is tailor made for product launches
• We often launch complimentary product at events – espresso cups, for instance. People like these as they perceive them to add value to our coffee. They are also an excellent brand extension for us as they are relevant and we can position ourselves alongside good design and designers, quality ceramic and so on, all of which fits with the way we approach our stand design, too.

(* Bar. An annual event for the drinks industry that takes place at Earls Court 2 in June.)

Marketing

• Dovetailing other marketing activity with our presence at an exhibition is really important. It adds value because all the different strands converge to create a more powerful message. It makes the overall investment more worthwhile
• On a day to day basis, we use PR to raise awareness in the press around key buying times
• PR also covers sponsorship of parties and other society events where our brand will be synonymous with quality and class. We’ll provide the right equipment and people to make sure that the product is served and presented in the right way. We maintain rigorous standards and our public persona is important
• We advertise in our trade press and let people know we’re exhibiting. This involves only about four trade magazines but they reach the right people
• Its important to let our clients and other prospects know we’re going to be at an event, invite them to the stand to relax and chat with us
• We will have an advertisement in the show catalogue because it has shelf-life and can be used for reference purposes until the next show. If that’s a year, then our money has been well spent
• We never, ever mention customers in our marketing. Who our clients are and what business we do with them is a matter of complete discretion
• We like to have our coffee served at events and parties connected with the show and that means maintaining a good dialogue with the event organisers. If they know they can trust us to deliver a top product they won’t get anyone else in to do it. It's good for us and it's good for them to be associated with a brand as fine as Illy
• We will always add some PR to our marketing activity in the run up to a show. Investing in a presence means capturing all the associated opportunities and appearing in event previews is important

Measuring

• The cost of exhibitions, make them hard to justify; they can be an expensive way of winning new business not least because you’ve got staff out of the office where they might be making more headway. The up side, however, is that if it’s a good show, we know that our prospects will be there and there’s a good opportunity to do business we might not have done otherwise
• We research exhibitions thoroughly before deciding to take part. There are really only a couple worth doing each year. We see who else is there and check for our competitors (we like to juxtapose with them) and what other high calibre brands have booked stands. We take a close look at the quality of the attendance figures and so prefer shows that can provide genuine statistics and research. The kind of satellite events that take place are also indicative of the quality of the show, as are seminars or workshops and the status of the people speaking at them. If any of these points don’t measure up we wouldn’t take part.
• All leads that we take at an exhibition, we monitor very carefully. We’ll follow up within a few weeks and build on the relationship that we started on the stand. We’d expect to convert a new lead to new business within about six months.
• Of the people we meet at an exhibition, some would buy from us anyway, others wait for a show to meet you, sample the brand and compare you to competitors. It's important to know which is which because it helps you assess the success of the event and whether or not you’ll go back there again
• We will always benchmark the standard of other exhibitors. If they’re good, we’re in the right place. If not, the exhibition generally doesn’t work for us in the long term. Again, it’s important to know that you’re spending your budget wisely and getting a return. If you do, you go back; if not you look elsewhere for a more meaningful result

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