Meraki The Coffee House is the first third-wave coffee shop in the city of Surat, India. The cafe started as an in-house project back in 2016. The cafe focuses on creating a community of authentic coffee lovers in the city and serving them the best coffee possible. This concept was expanded into two big retail coffee shops. When the shift was made it was important to design the brand as well as source coffee and cups for the business.
Meraki was just an idea when I got the opportunity to be a part of it. While discussing the vision, we decided to conduct user research for the products in form of an in-house cafe. After the user research phase, we discussed the branding of the cafe which included the logo, menu, the interior of the cafe & products. While the cafe was making a profit, it was important to maintain the balance of sourcing the capital between staff, inventory, interior, and other miscellaneous expenses. To overcome this challenge we made a milky way map to understand and allocate resources according to the requirements. From here on, I was required to work on the marketing strategies and ideas for the brand.
As a UX Designer, Meraki hired me to understand the local market and demands. Figure out what products to sell and whom to sell. Create a brand identity from the scratch, at the same time helping them educate and create a community about coffee. I had to create a storytelling brand through their interiors and cups, the story of the brand, and "crop to cup" for the coffee. Coming up with creative marketing strategies and figuring out some of the business aspects was something I learned while working together towards the same goal. Furthermore, designing processes to make it easier for coffee roasters to contact us and work with us.
What started as a User Research experiment, ended up in two successful coffee shops of the brand Meraki. We built a community of coffee lovers and educated them via workshops & coffee tasting sessions. Managing and creating an Instagram page with almost 10k followers
I learned how to design processes that are sustainable when it comes to longevity. Understanding that design needs to work in cooperation with the business and marketing aspects of the brand. I got to learn how to utilize sources to keep the coffee shop business profitable and always seem attractive to the customers even during tough times like COVID-19. Overall I learned how to design experience and an enterprise while I was working with Meraki The Coffee House