Run by first time café owners Tracey & Michael McPhee, Alowishus Delicious is an award winning café in Bundaberg, Central QLD.  Opening 4 years ago, Alowishus has grown incredibly quickly, now operating with approx. 30 staff members and floor space more than twice the size they started with.  Many long hours, systemised operations and consistent marketing has driven the growth of this flourishing business that now also runs a fast growing catering arm, a 2nd location and gelato bar.

Tracey has ordered promotional paper cups from MyPaperCups on a number of occasions and was kind enough to share her thoughts on marketing and the use of coffee cup advertising.

Q.  What sort of marketing have you used to promote your business? 

TM:  We are very strong on social media – particularly Facebook.  We might run the odd newspaper or local magazine ad but a lot of our business is driven by a Facebook page.  We spent a lot of time building our Facebook followers (now over 5000) and then more importantly, consistently sharing what we’re up to as a team, new products and offerings we have and how we’re working with other community groups and charitable organisations.

Q.  Why do you use your own Alowishus branded paper cups rather than generic cups? 

TM:  We have been using them for quite a while now and for a couple of reasons.

1. We’re really big on branding. You’ll find our brand on almost every piece of packaging we have because when our products walk out the door we want other people to know where our customers got them from.  We can put branding up within and outside our café but what better advertising than to have your customers walk your brand out of your business and promote it around town for you when they order a takeaway coffee.  The café industry can be very tough and you need to do what you can to make your brand stand out and give yourself every opportunity to get in front of customers – and not just the ones walking passed your door.
2. The other thing for us honestly was the cost per unit. Our Alowishus branded paper cups actually ended up being almost the same price per cup as generic ones from a local wholesaler!

Q.  What’s the one piece of advice you’d give a cafe owner that is considering getting their own branded cups? 

TM:  Get a graphic designer to do your artwork. If you’re going to put your brand out there – make it look as good as it possibly can be – this isn’t a huge cost and can make such a difference.

Many thanks to Tracey McPhee of Alowishus Delicious for her time and thoughts.

To check out more about Alowishus Delicious simply head to their website and facebook pages.