Invitation only coffees - rmiguelcoffee.com

by HB on Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:55 pm

Last month's poll posed the question "Have you purchased 'ultra premium' priced coffees for espresso?" What prompted it was the evidently growing popularity of truly premium/reserve/limited edition coffees on the market. When I think of unique and interesting coffees, Paradise Roasters is one of the first places that comes to mind. Today Miguel sent an e-mail to his customers announcing his latest venture, RMiguel:

Announcement and image posted with permission

EDIT: Updated picture.

I'm both scared and excited. Scared to find out (a) if I'm on the list, and (b) if I can afford it! And excited that the market is opening wide enough that such an undertaking is possible. Good luck Miguel!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I want to announce my new venture, R Miguel Coffee. This is the realization of a goal I have had for many years. My website is up now but has yet to have all areas filled out. http://www.rmiguelcoffee.com Much more content and info to come soon.

I am excited to be able to offer coffees that I have become very passionate about. Our first offerings from Panama will be available in a couple of weeks. I will still be serving as green buyer and roastmaster for Paradise Roasters for the foreseeable future. R Miguel will specialize in coffees so rare and exquisite that offerings will be limited to a small group of consumers. That is why I wanted you to know about this first.

Please add my email address for this new company miguel at rmiguelcoffee dot com to your address books and contact me there for anything regarding this company.

Thank you and keep your eyes peeled for some very exciting news to come soon!

R. Miguel Meza

by **ppopp** on Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:22 pm

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm sure that raising the awareness about ultra-premium coffees will encourage many growers and processors to improve their practices, and the trickle-down effect will probably mean better beans and processing for all of us.

On the other hand, this reeks of wine club-style snobbery. Especially with the words rare, exquisite and especially invited bolded in the announcement. Plus, I'm sure I'm not on his list. And that hurts my feelings ;-)

by **Ken Fox** on Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:14 pm

ppopp wrote:Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm sure that raising the awareness about ultra-premium coffees will encourage many growers and processors to improve their practices, and the trickle-down effect will probably mean better beans and processing for all of us.

On the other hand, this reeks of wine club-style snobbery. Especially with the words rare, exquisite and especially invited bolded in the announcement. Plus, I'm sure I'm not on his list. And that hurts my feelings

Miguel is a great guy and has done a lot for high end specialty coffee.

At the same time, I think that this website, as currently designed, is not projecting the marketing concept in the best possible light. I think Miguel would do better with a different approach.

ken

by HB on Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:25 am

Ken, if you have specific ideas, feel free to share them here or directly with Miguel. The website has been tweaked closer to its final forum. As for the "exclusiveness", all you have to do to get invited is fill out your info on the contact page (up to the first 500 people or so). As he explained it, the number of active customers and size of a given lot will determine who is on the buy list and who's on the wait list.

I don't see myself using super premium coffees for espresso, but I will certainly try it for vac or presspot. A little coffee goes a long way with those preparations, which means a net cost of a few bucks a cup even at Esmerlda prices. If it doesn't impress, it wasn't a huge outlay.

by **luca** on Sat Nov 17, 2007 3:23 am

Ken Fox wrote:Miguel is a great guy and has done a lot for high end specialty coffee.

At the same time, I think that this website, as currently designed, is not projecting the marketing concept in the best possible light. I think Miguel would do better with a different approach.

ken

I agree, but I think that we will all basically regard the heavy-handed marketing spiel as irrelevant once people have actually tasted the coffee and reported on it.

Cheers,

Luca

by **Ken Fox** on Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:22 am

HB wrote:Ken, if you have specific ideas, feel free to share them here or directly with Miguel. The website has been tweaked closer to its final forum. As for the "exclusiveness", all you have to do to get invited is fill out your info on the contact page (up to the first 500 people or so). As he explained it, the number of active customers and size of a given lot will determine who is on the buy list and who's on the wait list.

I don't see myself using super premium coffees for espresso, but I will certainly try it for vac or presspot. A little coffee goes a long way with those preparations, which means a net cost of a few bucks a cup even at Esmerlda prices. If it doesn't impress, it wasn't a huge outlay.

I have no talent whatsoever in advertising, so my suggestions wouldn't be worth much. The whole tagline of "needing to be invited" to buy something is just too "over the top" for me and appeals to motivations I don't find very flattering in people.

I have been "invited" to buy a great many things in my life, and fortunately for my financial situation, have resisted most of those offers

ken

by HB on Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:49 pm

Ken Fox wrote:The whole tagline of "needing to be invited" to buy something is just too "over the top" for me and appeals to motivations I don't find very flattering in people.

I agree, the emphasis should be on the uniqueness of the coffee finds. Evidently you comment was already been taken into account because the graphic now says "exquisite coffees without equal." Still a bold statement, but it's about the coffee, not the buyers.

by **Abdon** on Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:55 am

HB wrote: Still a bold statement, but it's about the coffee, not the buyers.

That's the root of the problem; this type of marketing approach is usually designed with just one thing in mind; to attract the kinds of dollars (or pounds, yens, liras, etc) that actually cares about this sort of ''exclusivity''. Some will enjoy the coffee as they drape themselves in its privileged pedigree, others just find it very hard to see the coffee as it hides behind the perceived pompous gimmickry.

I wish Mr. Miguel best wishes on all his endeavors. I have no reason to doubt that his skills are worth the premium he seeks. I'm just the kind of person that is turned off by this sort of thing. I guess that at the end of the day all that matters is that Mr. Miguel meet his business marketing goals and that his exclusive clientèle is happy.

by **John P** on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:13 pm

On the surface it is an intriguing and overdue idea, but for the quality of coffees he will purportedly be sourcing, the copy on his website needs to be the same caliber. First rate coffee with third rate copy describing the venture is not the way to go. It's a public website; nothing new is being revealed here. But for something that could be a groundbreaking idea if done right, the marketing of the concept needs reworking.

Example:

...so startling and so rewarding...so immensely flavorful

"so" is not a valid descriptor... unless you are targeting thirteen to nineteen year old girls, as in, "Like, she's so..." and "I'm so..."

And

worth the price of admission

Welcome to cliche city.

Lastly,

exclusively by invitation only

Kind of redundant. "by invitation only" is exclusive... no need to say it.

$150 coffee. $10 PR.

For R Miguel: You're at the top of your game. Find a PR rep that is of the same caliber.
Continued Success.

by **prettydeceextrap** on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:38 pm

Does anybody know exactly what kind of prices this venture is looking to charge? It seems like many online roasters already offer some pretty premium coffee, available to the public, and running anywhere from 20-50 dollars per unit (whether its 12, 14, or 16 oz). Are they having such trouble selling these that there is a need to establish a buyer's list to assure sales? Are the prices going to start running towards the triple digits? Are we anticipating any sort of "fall from Paradise" so to speak. Oh, man. Ignore that last pun.


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