Caravan’s digital strategy has allowed the group to attract consumers to the coffee side of the business through targeted communications, Jess Wright, marketing & sales director for Caravan Coffee Roasters, told MCA’s Hostech conference.
Speaking during a panel session at the event earlier this month, Wright said the group’s personal database has been a powerful tool to help identify and target customers who want to trade up to specialty coffee and “actually generating sales.”
“It could be a craft beer audience, or someone’s who’s into natural wine, or people going through the doors of Caravan restaurants,” she told delegates. “It’s easy to spend a lot of time and money on ads and putting out the wrong stuff, but the biggest digital tool that really works is our CRM.
“There are 100,000 people on our CRM across both [the coffee and restaurants] businesses.”
In addition to its eight London restaurants, Caravan also operates three brewbars in the capital. The roastery business offers coffee pods, beans, brew kits, and subscriptions.
According to Wright, the business has amassed a large pool of supply partners and is now available in over 1,000 places across the UK, including partnerships with major supermarkets such as Waitrose.
“We collect data via the website and incentivise people with discounts on mailing lists,” she added. “For restaurants, it’s through Seven Rooms.
“We also work with supply partners to gather data, but the CRM database is more powerful for us.”
When asked about customer reluctance to share data, Wright said people are now more aware about regulations and know where their data is going.
