Why DTC coffee brand ‘Taika’ prints a large phone number on every can of coffee they sell

Grab your snorkel — today we’re taking a deep dive🐬 into why @taikacoffee prints a large phone number front and center on every can of coffee.

Coffee Meets Health

Taika is a perfectly calibrated coffee in a can, balanced with adaptogens designed to keep you calm and clear throughout your workday. Taika also means ‘magic spell’ in Finnish.

In a crowded gauntlet of DTC beverages, Taika stands out with bold branding, concentrated distribution, and a unique take on text messaging.

A Number on Every Can…

Each and every can of Taika has the SAME phone number splayed boldly across the packaging.

You simply can’t miss it — not in a pop-up, not on store shelves, and definitely not when you’re holding it.

When you text the Taika #, their customer success team quickly replies back.

And no, they aren’t trying to bug you to buy more Taika. They offer podcast recs, wax philosophy, and banter with you.

It’s more like you’re texting a clever friend than a customer service line.

Why would they give up such precious real estate on the packaging…?

In a world where authenticity speaks volumes, Taika is making the bet that you’ll screenshot the text you got back from their team and send it over to a co-worker on Slack.

“Hey, look at this hilarious text….”

For most BevCo’s, the brand experience begins at the first sip and ends when the can hits the bottom of the trash can.

With Taika, the brand experience continues every time you pick up your phone.

Spoiler alert: by doing this, they sell more coffee.

Standardizing the Brand Experience

The text experience ensures that the Taika brand experience is similar no matter where you find the product, regardless of whether you encounter it in a grocery store, a deli, or your local convenience joint.

Similar to how Amazon brands place a 15% off flyer in the package to hopefully bring you back (but rarely do) or encourage reviews, Taika delivers a brand message with every can to remain top of mind before your next purchase.

The Idea Came from a Predecessor…

The insight behind Taika came from a previous iteration of the company: Boost Coffee

… which printed the same number every can (but much smaller). They quickly learned that engagement rate was high enough to want to go all-in on the concept…..and rebooted themselves as @taikacoffee (with a $2.7MM funding round to boot)

DTC beverage is not an easy place to brand build. Unlike furniture or home decor (which you can tangibly see), bev requires you to taste it before you’re willing to plop down $59 for a pack of 12, especially on a recurring basis.

It’s the same reason that beverage darling @recess (pre-covid) relied so heavily on branded pop-ups in densely populated areas. At scale, the tactic got people talking about their curated experience & broke their “taste-barrier”.

Where They Broke the Taste Barrier

Taika began as a B2B business, focusing their sell-through efforts in areas (LA, SF, NY) where their target of young, working professionals (21–35) were congregated en masse. Similar to Recess, they place their product somewhere between your $5 latte & your morning vitamin.

Remember the ‘taste barrier’? By targeting the retail footprint around densely populated offices and key partnerships with co-working spaces, they were able to break that barrier & anchor a valuable habit: the workday routine.

And then…

Enter COVID…

…the business model killer. The office space becomes fragmented overnight. Professional centralization changes in a heartbeat, and WFH becomes king. Not great for a dominantly B2B business.

Now what?

Taika faces a unique challenge: how to preserve their relationship with valuable working professionals at a time where word-of-mouth exists only digitally.

And how do they get those professionals to re-order?

Same Day Fulfillment

Focusing exclusively on core markets of SF, LA, and NYC, they start by making the shift to same-day delivery by partnering with Ohi Fulfilment, which offers 2-hour contactless delivery options for consumers in key cities.

B2B to DTC in a heartbeat.

A customer previously had a craving, and walked to a convenience store that stocked Taika a half hour later.

With @ohi_now, a customer has a craving, and Taika is at their door less than two hours later.

@gopuff is similarly innovating in this category.

📲 But wait, there’s more.

Remember the SMS # on every can? Wholesale margins are traditionally higher volume, lower margin.

As customers engage & discover Taika on the ground (breaking the ‘taste barrier’), they then text the SMS number & are directed to the Instagram feed or website…

…where a customer can easily order Taika right to your door. In 2 hours.

They treat wholesale as an acquisition channel for their DTC business, and pull the most valuable customers into their higher-margin DTC channel.

Wholesale Becomes an Acquisition Channel

Taika relies on SMS to build customer relationships at scale to point qualified buyers to the website.

They’re then able to circumvent wholesale costs and instead deliver Taika to your door in less than 2-hours in major markets of SF, LA, and NYC using Ohi.

By relying on a highly-engaging SMS text mechanic and lowering the barrier to re-ordering product, Taika is able to build their higher-margin DTC business off the back of a densely-served B2B network in specific US cities.

For a company that just pivoted to DTC in the COVID-era.

The key phrase?

Conversational Commerce

By treating their customers as their friends, they amplify their messaging through word-of-mouth derived from surprise and delight.

And re-acquire them later, to boot.

So, how can other DTC brands learn from @taikacoffe?

📲 Unique use of SMS to have real, genuine conversations with customers

🚚 Upgrading delivery practices to align with same-day consumption

🚀 Build higher-margin DTC biz off B2B network

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Credit Where Its Due:

H/t to the brains behind Taika @kalfreese @deprimer

Follow @taikacoffee to keep up with their impressive trajectory. Especially with the curveball of COVID in play!

If you enjoyed this thread + want to read more, the team at www.createwithcarousel.com will be sharing one business model teardown per week of prominent DTC brands. We’re a virtual studio serving eCommerce founders remotely, so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of production.

Because great creative execution is the first step to a standout online brand.