Last week saw the establishment of Guardian Coffee,
a coffee shop incarnation of the liberal newspaper. Surprisingly for an
enterprise associated with a national news publication, the launch was handled
with a very softly, softly approach, building gradual momentum on twitter
rather than announcement with trumpets and fanfare.
But was this such a bad thing?
The launch strategy actually demonstrated The
Guardian’s report with its readership and an awareness of the way news is being
both gathered and consumed. News is no longer a one-way service, more a
starting point for debate. This theme continues in the coffee shop itself,
which projects select (and yes I do mean selected), posts from The Guardian’s
twitter feed on its walls.
As could be suspected, the enterprise was met with
mixed reviews and a fair few snide remarks. Some wondered whether it
represented a much-needed revenue stream in the face of slumping print sales,
whilst others pondered how The Guardian’s left-leaning ethos might impact on
the menu. How could a straight black or flat-white be made more politically
correct?
Traditionalists may snigger at The Guardian
branching out into coffee, but to me the move is so blatantly in line with
brand values that it does seem a natural rather than radical step. A Guardian
oyster bar in One New Change would be laughable, but set in socially mobile
Shoreditch, serving locally roasted coffee and sandwiches on ‘un-levesoned’
bread, Guardian Coffee is supremely self-aware.
It merely supplies existing fans with another way to ingest the brand.
By Polly Robinson