006: READY TO LAUNCH
They say the hardest part is starting.
I’d ADD the Hardest Part is launching.
Launching means that everything you’ve started now needs to go out into the world. All of your hard work will now be judged, appreciated, ignored, second-guessed, and analyzed by all, including family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers.
Yet, that’s only IF they see and come across whatever it is you started and then launched. There is so much crap flooding our feeds that just getting anything in front of people is a very difficult feat nowadays.
No matter how many times you launch something, there’s always some level of nervous excitement. There are many questions you ask yourself before that launch day arrives.
Will it be what I envision it to look and feel like? Will it meet my expectations?
But most importantly, will it connect with others? Will they find the value in it? Will they buy it? Will they continue to buy it?
In this case, it was a simple product. Ground coffee in a tin can. How hard can that be to produce, market, and sell?
When the products and packaging started to arrive, things got a little more real. The digital designs that were created in previous posts, 005: Building the Brand, Part II and 003: Building the Brand, Part I, were now arriving in tangible form.
Now that the packaging arrived, I needed to take another trip Up North to share them with The Cottage resident expert, Grandpa Deano. For over 50 years, it was he and Grandma Joyce (primarily her) who created the timeless aesthetic of The Cottage, which has inspired much of this brand.
Together, they built a summer retreat that was filled with love, games, and plenty of memorable meals. It was a full-circle moment taking pictures of the tin around the areas of The Cottage that have stuck with me the most: the croquet set in the yard, the dock, the geraniums in the log that is the same one on the label of young, 3-year old me watering them, and in the kitchen at the table where Maffles and ettique lessons were enjoyed for decades.
The ironic part is, neither of them were ever coffee drinkers. In fact, at 90 years old, Cottage Coffee was the only cup of coffee Grandpa had ever fully drunk! He has tasted coffee before, but he’s NEVER drunk a full cup.
The coffee part of the brand, as shared in 002: A Thing For Coffee, comes from my dad’s side of the family, Grandpa Dawson and Grandma Jo. They were the ones who hosted those afternoon coffee breaks just down the way from The Cottage. It was this combination of family experiences that inspired the creation of this tin of ground coffee.
On a stormy June morning, we brewed the first-ever pot of Cottage Coffee, sipping it around the kitchen table overlooking Lake Charlevoix, where countless meals and late-night card games have been enjoyed.
It was a brief visit because I had to drive back down to Grand Rapids to prepare for the scheduled launch date on Tuesday, June 24th. It would be a password-protected “Friends + Family” launch, allowing me to work out any online ordering and shipping kinks with people I could count on to support me and provide immediate feedback and insight into the customer experience.
Now, it’s a bit of a waiting game to hear and gather feedback. Understanding what and why people like or don’t like the coffee, the tin, the experience, etc., will help shape the next round and the next phase of the brand.
Haven’t ordered a tin yet? Buy it now and please let me know your thoughts!
