Competitors will copy your drinks, your captions, and your menus. So what, if anything, is truly yours?
Welcome to Operator Notes, a weekly newsletter written by coffee operators, consultants, creators, and practitioners who spot trends and share insights on what to do about them.
This week’s edition is written by Garrett Oden, publisher at Fresh Cup.
✉️ Operator Notes: practical advice from people working in coffee.
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They Say There’s Nothing New Under the Sun
They are right.
I’ve worked in coffee marketing since 2014, both in-house and for clients. In that time, I’ve had my work copied plenty of times, and I’m sure I’ve done my share of copying too.
When I managed a cafe, we launched a mocktail-ish signature drink menu. A few months later, another local shop rolled out a suspiciously similar menu of its own. It felt like a scam, a violation of our effort somehow. We took the risk and put in the hours to try something that hadn’t been done in our city, and they just copied it.
The business owner groups I follow are littered with similar stories. Stolen drinks, copycat tasting notes, seasonal events. It’s a rite of passage of sorts in this industry. We’re all building on the work of the people who came before us. That’s true in marketing, and in pretty much everything else.
It’s probably happened to you. It will happen again. And truthfully, I don’t think it matters.
Compete on What Can’t Be Copied
Your competitors can copy almost everything. Almost. What they can’t copy is how your customers feel about you.
That feeling is what brings people back through your doors instead of the shop down the street. It’s the barista who smiles when they walk in, it’s the customer who bumps into a friend because your cafe is the hangout space, and it’s the owner asking your kid how their cat is doing after a recent trip to the pet hospital. It’s a sense of shared mission, of being around people who ‘get’ you, of belonging.
That’s the secret sauce, and nobody can do it exactly like you.
You can leverage this a variety of ways:
Lean into relationships, community, and storytelling. Make friends with customers, and introduce them to each other. Create opportunities for customers to share their stories, both with you and with each other. Host events, feature customers on social media, and grow the circle of regulars who know each other. That fabric of connection becomes something that can only exist in your space with your people, a community fingerprint you can’t duplicate.
Give signature drinks a story. Fairgrounds Craft Coffee in Chicago serves an espresso old fashioned in honor of founder Michael Schultz’s grandfather, who loved old fashioneds. Adelitas Coffee Company’s Mexican mocha in Wichita is a nod to the Carlos V chocolate bar owner Oscar Pineda grew up eating. The signature drinks that are inspired by real-world stories and don’t just jump on viral trends are the drinks that give your cafe its soul.
Make the barista part of the drink. At Caffè by Mr. Espresso in Oakland, the Sugo, a super-strong brewed coffee, needs a barista to explain it. It’s become an “if you know, you know” drink for locals. The “I’ll let you in on how this works” conversation is part of the experience of the drink, and the moment of connection that is the real secret recipe.
Go Deeper
The Coffee Marketing Pyramid
A framework for turning your brand’s reason for existing into marketing that doesn’t sound like everyone else’s.
Experts Share Emerging Coffee Industry Trends of 2025
Chris Deferio on hospitality as the real differentiator, and Abbey Chiavario on brands trading polish for personality.
Your Values Are on the Wall. Are They on the Floor?
How to turn brand values into small, teachable actions your baristas can take at the counter.
How Coffee Shops Are Breaking the Rules to Create Signature Drinks
Caffè by Mr. Espresso, Klatch Coffee, and Fairgrounds Craft Coffee on building drinks customers can’t find anywhere else.
