Today we toured the headquarters of Café Britt, further learning about coffee plants, but also about roasting them. Café Britt roasts and markets coffee along with chocolate in the Americas, but many Costa Ricans don’t drink their coffee. I think this is because of the way they advertise. They used to advertise their company in Costa Rica when they weren’t so large, but stopped when they were more well known. Our speaker compared Café Britt to Ferrari in that Ferrari doesn’t need to advertise to be well known and successful. Most Costa Ricans are familiar with the coffee and consider it luxury, which is why many Costa Ricans may prefer a cheaper alternative like the 1820 brand which can be found everywhere in Costa Rica. Only after the pandemic did they begin to focus on marketing to Costa Ricans again because exportation became difficult, so I predict that more Costa Ricans will be drinking their coffee again soon.

Café Britt, as opposed to Doka Estates, only roasts and markets coffee instead of actually growing the crop. This means that Café Britt is a consumer of coffee plantations like Doka Estates and lies further down the supply chain. Doka Estates prioritizes the production of coffee beans while Café Britt produces the packaged and roasted coffee beans. We didn’t dive into the details of the actual processes of creating the final products, but I don’t believe that Café Britt’s success lies within the “make” portion of the supply chain. It lies within their marketing. Although there’s precision and care when roasting, tasting, and packaging the coffee, there isn’t anything unique in these processes that makes Café Britt stand out. Any other coffee roasters will be doing the same or similar processes to yield equal results.

We spent a lot of time learning and discussing the ways Café Britt advertises to different people and countries. They try to stay up on trends and appeal to younger audiences to build long lasting customers and expand their influence. They also do research in each country that they want to expand into asking questions like: Where does most of this country’s population lie? How do they enjoy their coffee (e.g. at home, at a cafe, made quickly, etc…)? What are the legal requirements and regulations for selling coffee in this country? All of this attention to detail makes Café Britt’s marketing much more influential on their success than their actual making of the roasted coffee.

Upon concluding the tour, I can say that Café Britt’s approach to selling coffee is one of the right ways to do it. With a reliable product and genius marketing, I can’t see this company failing. However, If I had any influence on Café Britt’s decisions, I would focus on attaining a customer base in Costa Rica. I can see that, with most of their sales being made internationally, their income can be unreliable when a catastrophe like the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With that being said, they still seem to be steadily growing.