Creative Writing

 

SAY HELL YEAH TO GOOD FOOD! That’s the motto at Fresh from Hell, a health-conscious restaurant planted in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, where you can find an assortment of juices, smoothies, salads, sandwiches, and soups made to order with the freshest of ingredients.

On your way up 47th Street, you’ll pass the Atkinson Theatre where Waitress, starring Sara Bareilles (a Fresh from Hell regular!), is currently in its second run. After crossing over 8th Avenue, it’s hard to miss the bright orange Fresh from Hell awning that shines like a beacon of healthy living calling you to come enjoy a fresh meal.

Inside the glass doors, you’ll immediately find an accent wall adorned in an orange peel textured wallpaper, serving to remind you of the health benefits you’re bound to endure while consuming your purchase. Neon orange bar stools, vinyl window designs, and branded menus all serve to support the bright, energetic feel of the shop.

You can find the cleverly described “hellthy” menu options Fresh from Hell offers on the menus located on either side of the front counter. With drinks such as If the Glove Fits and smoothies named What the Hell, it’s easy to see that owners Gabriel Formento Lauro and Bryan Ware were interested in making healthy food more approachable by incorporating a comedic touch.

Stemming from a background in branding and design, Gabe tells us the secret to his branding success is that before he even began sketching ideas for the store’s artwork, he had a heart-to-heart with Bryan to decide on the true purpose and personality of their business.

“You have to be consistent,” says Gabe when referring to his brand image. “People want to change up their logos after six months, but you have to pick something and stick with it.”

That’s just what they did. Gabriel even went as far as to create his very own font for his logo in order to keep his branding consistent throughout the store. The font, which is simple and devoid of any frills, appears on the menu, shirts, storefront, and business cards alongside imagery of fresh fruits and healthy foods. The simplicity of the font places emphasis on the simplicity of Fresh from Hell’s food choices – no additives, no useless extras, just fresh food the way it was meant to be eaten.

In the cramped quarters of their New York City brick-and-mortar, Gabe tells us Your Brand Cafe has been a lifesaver in terms of storage. “We just don’t have that much storage space,” says Gabe. With a minimum order quantity of only one case per product, YBC allows small businesses to maintain their stock without spilling over.

Personally, I could’ve stayed in the Fresh from Hell shop all day. The bright oranges and reds are warm and welcoming, and the large storefront window offers a nice view of 47th Street. When poised with the question of which drink to purchase, my instincts kicked in. As a firefighter’s daughter, my immediate reaction was to go for the Fireman – a carrot, ginger, beet, pineapple, and orange concoction. I watched as my drink was made to order before happily strolling out to the New York streets to carry on with my day – now with a sidekick for my immune system.

So next time you find yourself in Hell’s Kitchen with a hankering for a nutritious and delicious meal or freshly squeezed refreshment, make sure to stop by Fresh from Hell. Gabe and Bryan are certain to treat you to a nice Flu Shot (don’t worry; no needles required for this one) or some Hellth Insurance (sans the insurance salesman).

Happy eats!


For those of us who weren’t born with an iPhone in our hands, we can remember the good ol’ days when a hashtag was actually a pound sign or number sign. Fast-forward to 2006 when Twitter was born, which breathed new life into the pound sign, now known as the hashtag. Twitter’s interface allowed users to begin using hashtags to identify a tweet on a certain topic, so basically, you can think of a hashtag as a way of categorizing social media posts. For example, ABC refers to Thursday nights as #TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday) as a way to turn their regular Thursday night programming into a social media event. If you’re an avid #TGIT fan (like myself), you’re aware of the fact that #TGIT is directly connected to writer/producer Shonda Rhimes who has three back-to-back shows during the Thursday night-time slots (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder). Using hashtags for her TV shows has many different benefits. Viewers can search or click the corresponding hashtag (#GreysAnatomy, #Scandal, or #HTGAWM) for a show and instantly read commentary by other public accounts; this is what you’ll hear referred to as “live-tweeting.” If enough people are tweeting with the hashtag during the same timeframe, the hashtag will appear in Twitter’s “Trends” widget located on the lefthand side of your main Twitter desktop page. This is all free advertisement for Shonda’s shows. Hashtags have allowed creators to form a buzz about whatever it is they’ve created – as long as they follow proper hashtag etiquette, which I will discuss later in this post.

Now, what’s interesting to note about #TGIT and the insanity that is Shondaland (Shonda Rhimes’s TV production company) is that each of her shows (as well as the TGIT hashtag) has its own emoji connected to its hashtag. Did that just blow your mind? Hashtags with custom corresponding emojis are referred to as “hashflags” (It’s not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.), and are only available on Twitter’s interface. Hashflags are a unique invention that were first utilized by Coca-Cola for their #ShareACoke campaign in September of 2015. Any time a user tweeted with the hashtag #ShareACoke, an emoji of two Coca-Cola bottles would automatically appear alongside their tweet. While the novelty of an emoji linked to your hashtag is neat, it will cost you a pretty penny (not quite small business friendly), and hashflags only appear during the time of the campaign. After your campaign time has ended, hashflags will disappear from any tweet containing your hashtag. I guess this means Shonda Rhimes must be making plenty of dough to be able to afford those hashflags every single week.

In 2010, Instagram launched, creating a new platform where the hashtag would once again flourish. Instagram, a social media platform where users are invited to share captioned pictures, has some of the best potential in regards to advertising for small business. Why? It’s f r e e. Think of your Instagram post as a free billboard that exists on every single road on the planet. You take a picture, add a caption, and voila, people all over the world can see your products. Maybe you’re reading this and thinking I post on Instagram, but I only get 4 likes! How can you tell me this is an international billboard when I’m only getting 4 likes? Easy. You’re either brand new to Instagram (which means you haven’t garnered enough followers to receive more likes) or you’re just not properly utilizing the platform. Remember when I mentioned “hashtag etiquette”? Well, without further ado, here are my Five Simple Hashtag Rules:

  1. Make it short and sweet. Longer hashtags are much harder to read. No one wants to spend 10 minutes trying to decipher your 15-word hashtag. Stick to no more than 4 words, and try your best to limit any conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

  2. Stay trendy. You’re using social media, so you might as well take advantage of all the trendy hashtags the youngins are using, such as #SquadGoals, #OutfitOfTheDay, or #Instamood just to name a few. But my products have nothing to do with those hashtags, you say. Make them. Let’s say you’re in the tea business. Lay out some loose tea, a mug (or a cup with your logo on it), some honey, and a tea infuser. Snap the picture. Voila, now you have tea #SquadGoals.

  3. Don’t overdo it. Only use each hashtag once in the post. Using a hashtag multiple times in one post won’t make your post show up higher in a search or multiple times in a search. It just looks repetitive (and kind of annoying).

  4. Be relevant. Use hashtags that describe your post. We’ll stick with the tea example. Hashtags such as #loosetea #tea #hottea #earlgrey #healthy #sleepytimetea #smallbusiness, etc. are great for garnering likes. You want your post to show up in as many hashtag searches as possible, but you want to appear in searches that actually relate to your product or company. Sketchy companies tend to hashtag celebrity names (such as #JustinBieber or #Adele or #Beyonce) to garner more likes on their posts, but all this really does is confuse your actual followers. Don’t do this. Trust me, it isn’t worth the extra likes to lose followers.

  5. No emojis or punctuation. Adding punctuation to a hashtag breaks the hashtag. For example, using #Can’tStopMe would break the hashtag after the letter n, so the only searchable part of your hashtag would be #Can. See the problem? Also, on Twitter, you cannot include an emoji in your hashtag. I talked about hashflags earlier, but the only way to have an emoji included in your hashtag is to pay Twitter. You cannot add it yourself. You can include emojis in hashtags on Instagram, but to keep yourself straight, it’s best to just leave the emojis out altogether.

I’ll leave you with one last piece of hashtag advice. This one is for Facebook. In 2013, Facebook started allowing the use of hashtags. The use of hashtags on Facebook can be somewhat tricky to fully understand. The only way a hashtag can be properly utilized on Facebook is if your post is public. If you are posting from your personal account (not your business page) and your post settings are set to “friends only,” using a hashtag will do absolutely nothing for you. However, if you remember to set your post settings to “public” whenever you would like to utilize a hashtag, your post will appear publicly in the correlating hashtag search on Facebook. This allows your post to reach more people as long as they are intentionally searching that specific hashtag. Personally, I’m skeptical of Facebook’s utilization of hashtags. I don’t think they are necessarily helpful, but if a specific event has a hashtag and you would like to take advantage of that hashtag’s popularity, I could see where including that hashtag in your public post would be useful (as long as, again, it is relevant). With a public business page, hashtags can be used just as you would use them on Twitter or Instagram. It’s a search tool, so just remember to be very specific with your hashtags and try to connect your posts to currently popular (and relevant) hashtags in order to garner more attention.

Good luck on all of your future hashtag endeavors!


If you’re a bit of a grammar snob (like yours truly), you’ll recall that ringing in your ears that happens every time someone uses a double-negative, chooses the wrong verb tense, etc. Well, that ringing is the same feeling anyone in the marketing or branding industry hears when someone uses the terms marketing and branding interchangeably.

By definition, marketing is “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services.” And branding is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.”

Notice how the definition of branding incorporates the term marketing. That’s because branding is a type of marketing. Think of marketing as a gigantic umbrella with all sorts of strategies underneath it; branding is one of them. With that said, don’t forget that branding is one of the most important strategies under that umbrella. If you don’t have a brand, you’ll have nothing to market.

I was watching an episode of Billion Dollar Buyer a few weeks back (great show for anyone who owns a business), and one of the contestants owned a luxury tie company called Lazyjack Press. This episode was a great representation of how important branding is for a company. Miriam, the owner of Lazyjack Press, had been using a pair of sunglasses as her logo for her tie business, which was causing a lot of confusion among her customers as well as for Tilman J. Fertitta, the investor hosting the show.  Fertitta required Miriam to tackle the issue of her confusing logo before he could invest  in her business.

That’s how Lazyjack Press’s logo went from this to this.

When your logo (your brand) has nothing to do with what you’re selling, your customers will be confused and your business will suffer for it. Your brand is who you are. It’s what you do, it’s why you exist, and it differentiates you from all the other businesses in your field. Consistent color schemes, imagery, and fonts help to create a concise and cohesive brand. I mean, personally, I think if Harley Davidson’s logo had a bouquet of flowers in it instead of that big, burly eagle, there’s a good possibility it wouldn’t have been as successful as it has been. You never want to give people the wrong idea about your business.

Here’s where marketing comes in: you use marketing to sell your brand. Marketing is really just an umbrella term for how to sell your products. There are countless strategies that fall under the marketing umbrella. You can use social media, your business could open a brick-and-mortar, you could create a website, you can sell your products at a convention, you could print and post flyers. There is no end to the different and creative ways you can market your products and your business. Just remember that your business’s brand needs to remain consistent. Your brand is your business’s identity. Don’t confuse the general public. There are so many companies out there in the world that it can be easy to become lost in the chaos, so you want to remain firm in your brand identity. Revamping a logo or updating your website is something extremely crucial for a business, so never shy away from that – just remember to keep your brand consistent if it’s working for you. Sometimes companies need to go back to the drawing board for their brand, and that’s okay. But once you’re settled into a brand, resist the urge to make any monumental changes. That is the only way your marketing strategies can be successful. Like I said before, you can’t market a company if you don’t have a brand. It doesn’t work. Create your brand. Stick to it. And market it however your heart (and budget) desires.


As the team here at Your Brand Cafe works to expand our eco-friendly product line, we wanted to be sure to inform our customers as to what eco-friendly really means and how to properly dispose of the products purchased from us.

Your Brand Cafe now proudly offers an Eco-Friendly alternative to clear cold cups, white paper hot cups, lids for both, and food containers. All of these items can conveniently be located on our website. Eco-Friendly products are great and have the opportunity to be a wonderful help to the environment if utilized and disposed of correctly. In order to provide some insight to the proper way to treat our PLA and bagasse products, we want to first supply you with the knowledge of how those products were made.

Your everyday plastic container is made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic which is the most common and most recycled plastic on earth. But if you’re looking for a compostable product as opposed to a recyclable product, your best bet is probably our PLA-lined hot cups and dessert cups, PLA clear cups, or our bagasse food containers.

PLA plastic – or if you want to get all scientific, polylactic acid plastic – is compostable, biodegradable, and is derived from renewable resources like sugarcane or corn starch. Because of its natural make-up, some PLA naturally breaks down when exposed to the environment (as opposed to PET plastic which needs to be recycled in order to be reused). Other types of PLA require a specific environment in which to degrade. I’ll explain what that means for your plans of disposal later (AKA: 3 paragraphs from now).

Your Brand Cafe not only offers PLA cold and hot cups and lids, we also offer food containers made from bagasse. I bet I can guess what you’re thinking: Cool, Ashley, food containers made from bagasse… that means nothing to me because I don’t what bagasse is. Don’t worry, neither did I. So I did what every professional writer/blogger would do… I Googled it. Bagasse is made from the leftover residue after the extraction of juice from sugarcane. Pretty sweet, huh? (Insert drum punchline rimshot here; sweet… sugarcane… ha… okay, moving on.)

So let’s talk about the real issue with plastics in general: how to discard them. Before you recycle any of our plastic products, be sure to check the recycling number embossed on the bottom of the product. On the PET cups, you’ll see a 1. This same recycling number will be found on other items such as soda bottles, water bottles, salad dressing containers, etc. You can toss this plastic into the recycling bin and know that it will most likely be recycled into furniture, polar fleece, tote bags, and maybe even new containers.

On the PLA cups, you’ll see a 7. Using this handy-dandy cheat sheet, you’ll see that recycling symbol 7 encompasses miscellaneous plastic. Don’t let this confuse you. Just because a recycling symbol is located on the bottom of these cups doesn’t insinuate that you need to recycle them. The best way to dispose of these cups is to send them to an industrial composter. While PLA is biodegradable, the process of biodegradation (the breakdown process that occurs naturally) could take years which means composting is the safest and most efficient way to be sure ordering these cups is even worth your time. If you’re going to purchase the PLA cups and then toss them in the recycling bin, you’re actually doing a disservice to the planet. We suggest buying an industrial composter or finding a compost farmer who will pick up your composted materials, take them to his farm, and use them to create soil. Having your customers participate in composting is a fun way to get them excited about your green business practices. Trust me, they’ll love it and appreciate it.

And you’ll notice that the bagasse containers are not given a recycling number. That’s because the bagasse containers purely belong in a compost bin where they can be broken down by either earthworms or natural microorganisms and eventually turn to soil.

Hopefully, this explained the basics of what we mean when we say “Eco-Friendly.” I’m no scientist, but I tried my best to break down all the crazy terminology you’ll see all over our Eco-Friendly page. If you ever have any questions about our products, you can always email us or give us a call.

Until next time,

The Team at Your Brand Cafe


In celebration of expanding our eco-friendly line of products, Your Brand Cafe would like to share with you some information on our own community and how utilizing our compostable cups and food containers can help your community.

Half a mile from our office space in Ball Ground, Georgia resides the beautiful Etowah River, and about 7 miles away sits the Upper Etowah River Alliance office. The UERA, which encompasses 390,400 acres, is a community-based organization dedicated to protecting the

Etowah River

Etowah River through education and conservation. They believe in a cooperative approach that balances the needs of a healthy environment with those of the land owners. With 76 native fish species, the Etowah Watershed is one of the richest in the world. The UERA’s vision is to inform and educate citizens committed to working together on conserving, sustaining, and enhancing the beauty and environmental health of the Upper Etowah River Watershed. Their mission is to provide regional leadership, resources, consultation, training, and educational materials to protect, conserve, and enhance the natural resources of Upper Etowah River Basin for present and future generations.

Our office took a trip to the Upper Etowah River Alliance office to talk with them about all the ways companies can improve the environment in their communities. During that meeting, we learned that the Etowah River is home to the endangered Etowah Darter.

Etowah Darter

The Etowah Darter does not exist in any other environment in the world which means that if the Darter disappears from the Etowah, it will disappear from the planet forever. We were informed that the reason for the Darter’s endangerment is the pollution that has occurred in the Watershed. Pollution to the Watershed can occur from a variety of sources: residential areas, stormwater, forests, roads, recreational uses, agriculture and construction, factories, sewage treatment plants, and storm drains. So how do we stop our Georgia-grown fish from disappearing off the face of the earth? We go green.

Companies all over the planet have been adopting the practice of going green, but what does it really mean?

I’ve compiled a list of actions your company may be able to adopt in order to maintain a lighter carbon footprint:

  • Biodegradable Cleaners – Using cleaners that are biodegradable will reduce your employees’ exposure to harsh chemicals and will limit the runoff of those chemicals into the atmosphere and environment.

  • LED lights – LED lights last longer and use less energy than incandescent bulbs.

  • Alternative fuel/hybrid vehicles – If your company requires the use of vehicles on a daily basis, consider the benefits of purchasing hybrid vehicles.

  • Green Web Hosting – Intentionally choose a web hosting company who openly partakes in green activities such as utilizing renewable energy to run their servers.

  • Put your computers to sleep – According to the EPA website, putting your computers to sleep can save $10-$50 per computer every year.

  • Post Consumer Waste – PCW paper is made from entirely recycled paper and its creation process uses 45% less energy than the standard paper-making process.

  • Take Energy Star’s Pledge – The kind folks at Energy Star have created a handy pledge to encourage companies to go green. Their pledge even lists specific goals to help keep your company focused and on track.

Let us know in the comments how your company is eco-friendly or how your company is becoming eco-friendly. We’d also love to hear if you adopt any of our suggested practices!

Good luck on your future green endeavors!


Located in the desert town of Sedona, Arizona, Local Juicery is an organic kitchen that serves cold pressed juice, mylks, and an array of organic food items. Owners, Summer and Mike Sanders, are committed to providing their community with an organic, locally-grown menu. A certified raw food chef, plant-based health coach, and wellness enthusiast, Summer uses her store to expand her community’s education on healthy foods. From inviting Running River School students to her shop for a class on creating healthy smoothies to compiling an eBook on superfoods that is available for download on Local Juicery’s website, Summer is basically a Superfood Superhero. 

Local Juicery has been a great customer of Your Brand Cafe’s for the past two years, and we really wanted to take this time during our Eco-Friendly blog posts to highlight the ways Local Juicery has been contributing to their community. Upon speaking with Summer Sanders, we learned just how dedicated she is to saving the environment and setting an example for other companies on how to successfully run a green business.

Inside Local Juicery, you will find a group of friendly staff ready to serve up your favorite wholly organic meal. The shop’s bohemian decor and earthy vibe compliments the all-natural, 100% organic, plant-based menu. From superfood oat bowls to gluten-free waffles, Local Juicery has it all. They even offer yummy plant-based desserts! That’s the goal according to Summer who refers to the menu as “chef-driven.” She says her plan was to offer customers healthy food that “actually tastes good.” Tired of hearing healthy meals and juices referred to as “tasting like cardboard,” Summer and her husband, Mike, set out to build a business that would positively highlight healthy, all-natural foods.

When asked what she believes sets her store apart from other juice shops, Summer proudly declares that every item created in the Local Juicery kitchen is 100% organic. “That’s rare,” she says. And she’s right. Most companies are quick to offer organic food choices, but it’s highly uncommon for a business to truthfully claim the “100% organic” title. And for Local Juicery, the all-natural element doesn’t just stop at the food. Their eating utensils are made from potato starch, their straws are biodegradable, their plastic bottles are BPA-free, and they serve their food and drinks in Your Brand Cafe’s Eco-Friendly line of PLA-lined dessert cups and PLA plastic cold cups.

If that’s not enough commitment for you, Summer shared with us that Local Juicery also provides on-site recycling and composting for their customers. A local composter stops by Local Juicery to pick up the items from the compost bin, takes them to his worm composting farm, and feeds the compost to the worms. In turn, those worms eat the organic materials and create soil. The composter then uses that soil to grow wheatgrass, which Summer purchases and sells in the store. Talk about full-circle!

The team here at Your Brand Cafe applauds Local Juicery for their environmentally friendly practices and their dedication to their community. We hope Summer and Mike inspire you to adopt some of their practices in your own businesses. And if you’re ever in the city of Sedona, Arizona, make sure to stop by Local Juicery for a healthy meal and to browse their selection of locally-crafted goods!


As a Millennial who just recently graduated from college with a degree in Art Marketing, you might say I’m quite well-versed on the importance of brand image in today’s social media-obsessed world. It’s 2017. Kids in elementary school have smartphones. People of all ages have Instagram accounts. It seems every day there’s a new sensational story about a company that’s zips across every timeline on every platform, which explains why social media has been deemed the “new hybrid element of the promotion mix.”

Okay, Ashley, that’s great, but you’re talking about brand image. What does social media and newer technology have to do with brand image?

Everything.

In a recent study, the University of Kentucky discussed what they called “consumer-generated media.” They found that while social media plays such a large part in customer influence, managers are quick to underestimate its power due to the lack of literature on how to incorporate social media into their integrated marketing communications strategies. They say managers tend to shy away from the social media aspect because, for the most part, it’s out of their control. The study is quite extensive, but I recommend skimming through it if you have time.

So here’s my takeaway from their study: make your brand as visible as possible at all times. When a customer is in your shop, they shouldn’t be able to forget where they are at any point. Put your logo, your motto, and your color scheme onto and into everything you can. For most coffee shops and juice shops, the average customer will want to snap a picture of their purchase and share it on social media. No matter the platform, from Snapchat to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, if your logo is readily available, it’s more likely to make it into that social media post.

Personally, I love trying new places and sharing my finds with my social media followers – especially if the food/drink is delicious. Consider this post on my Instagram from December when I was visiting Nashville.  Not only did I tag my location as Loveless Cafe, but I also tagged Loveless Cafe’s Instagram account in the picture, I included the “Welcome to Loveless Cafe” text on my menu, and I threw in some hashtags to expand my post’s reach to anyone  searching those tags. Thanks to Loveless expanding their brand image to their menu, I was able to capture the yummy biscuits (and I mean yummy!!) as well as their name all in one shot. Now does this whole brand image/social media connection make sense? Good! (I’m assuming you said yes.)

Of course, social media is the epitome of a double-edged sword. While it’s great that your customers can easily locate you and share your brand image on social media, they can also use that to complain. It just takes that one customer whose pastry wasn’t warm enough or whose coffee wasn’t sweet enough to pollute your business with negative feedback. And you know what… it happens. That’s why you have to do everything in your power to keep your social media presence under control. Reply to those customers, ask them how you can make their next experience better. Show the public that you’re interested and are actively working to fix whatever problem they might have. But at the end of the day, don’t let the possibility of negative feedback keep you from slapping your logo on everything in sight.

For your convenience, I’ve created a list of items that are customizable and are guaranteed to expand your brand’s outreach. For the items that Your Brand Cafe does not offer, I urge you to do some searching around the Interweb to find a vendor who does offer them. Other than that, we hope you take interest in some of the products we currently offer or will offer in the future. Your business and brand deserve to be recognized on as large a scale as you can provide.

  1. Cups – Your Brand Cafe offers customized hot cups, cold cups, and food cups with order minimums as low as one case.

  2. Sleeves – Your Brand Cafe also offers customized coffee sleeves in white, kraft, and pink.

  3. T-Shirts – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  4. Hats – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  5. Aprons – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  6. Paper Bags with Sticker Labels – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  7. Pastry Bags with Sticker Labels – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  8. Window Clings – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  9. Menu – Coming Soon to Your Brand Cafe

  10. Pens/Pencils – Nothing makes a customer crave your food/drinks more than when they’re digging through their purse or desk drawer and come across a pen they stole  accidentally took home with them during their last trip to your shop. When your employees are all using pens or pencils with your company’s logo imprinted on them, it also just gives your shop a more cohesive look.

  11. Pins/Magnets – If your customers are nerdy like me, they’ll love collecting any kind of wearable accessories that advertise your business.

  12. Floor Mats – Think about it. What’s the first thing your customer sees when they walk in the door?

  13. Napkins – Let them wipe their face on your logo… okay, so this description isn’t as great as the others. But napkins!!!

  14. Forks/Spoons/Knives – Yeah, that’s right – cutlery. Think about places like Menchie’s with their froyo cartoon character on the top of their plastic spoons or Sprinkles with their logo burned into their wooden forks. 

  15. Receipts – Most small businesses tend to overlook this detail when it comes to receipts, but if you’re printing receipts on the daily, look into ordering customized receipt tape. It’s just an extra step in the branding game.

Happy Customizing!


All month long we’ve provided you with informational blogs on maintaining an eco-friendly business environment. Now we’d like to share with you the benefits of going green. After all, if you’re going to spend time adopting these practices, you might as well have a full understanding of your payoff.

The most obvious benefit of going green is the actual good it does for the environment. Adopting more eco-friendly practices can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and prevent unnecessary waste. On a deeper level, when a company goes green, its customers take notice. And when you strike a positive chord with your customers, you’ll see it reflected in your sales. For instance, when Walmart and Target began stocking their shelves with green products, both companies saw a 20% increase in sales in those product categories. And according to a worldwide study by Tandberg, a video-conferencing company, over 50% of consumers prefer to buy from environmentally-friendly companies as opposed to companies that take no stance.

Why do you think that is? Why would customers prefer to buy from environmentally-friendly companies? The answer is simple. Let’s try a little experiment, shall we? Do you trust me? Good. Now, close your eyes. (Okay, yeah, I know you’re reading – humor me.) Imagine you’re standing in the cleaning product aisle at your local Target. You’re surrounded by a myriad of cleaners. But then something catches your eye: a green label. You pick up the bottle and see that this brand promises that their product is eco-friendly, all-natural, contains no harsh chemicals, etc., etc., etc. Now you look back up at the other products and think: If this brand needs to advertise that they are all-natural, eco-friendly, and won’t spew harsh chemicals all over my house, that must mean all of these other products are the opposite. So what do you do? You buy the green product. That’s how those 50%+ of consumers think. They believe when they buy this green product, they’re doing their part to save the environment and to protect their families from harsh chemicals. This makes people happy, and it makes them want to buy your product.

That being said, don’t lie about it. Companies who claim to be green, all-natural, yada yada, but actually aren’t are in for a world of hurt. In today’s society, businesses are pretty transparent thanks to the glories of the Internet. Do I need to remind you of the chaos that ensued when Volkswagen was busted for using some fancy technology in their cars in order to evade emissions requirements? Yeah, that didn’t go well for them. They faced up to $18 billion in fines for cheating the system and ultimately allowing vehicles to emit 40 times the legal diesel pollution. Learn from Volkswagen – don’t cheat the system. If you’re curious to know how this case is playing out, click here for an update on Volkswagen’s Ex-Chief (yeah, ex) and his part in the scandal.

So now you know about what happens to companies who make mistakes, let’s talk about a company who made good choices: Best Buy.

In 2015, Best Buy Co., Inc. was acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Energy for their five-year plan to reduce their carbon footprint by 20% from 2015 to 2020. According to the Best Buy corporate website, this plan was a part of Best Buy’s recognition of climate change. Best Buy gave credit to “a combination of an industry-leading energy management system, store lighting retrofit and improved fleet and distribution practices” for their ability to reduce emissions by 26% from 2010 to 2015. Seeing the positive outcome of their practices is what pushed them to create the second initiative.

Best Buy’s corporate website gives the public a short list of practices they adopted in order to reduce their carbon footprint:

  • Installing energy management systems at “big box” stores to centrally control temperature and lighting by synchronizing all systems.

  • Retrofitting more than 840 stores with lower-wattage fluorescent ceiling fixtures, reducing lighting energy usage by nearly half and brightening the interiors.

  • Upgrading thousands of Geek Squad cars and trucks to more efficient models and strategically routing to reduce gas consumption.

  • Requiring EPA SmartWay® certification for all transportation partners, and optimizing store shipments and the transfer of recycled products to partner facilities, led to further reductions.

These practices led to Best Buy receiving the Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management award from the United States EPA. Upon receiving the award, Best Buy’s vice president of Public Affairs, Laura Bishop, stated: “We know that our customers and employees care about the environment, and they care about companies that do too. Our commitment to carbon reduction is part of a larger effort that focuses on everything we can do as a company, along with all we can do to help our customers live more sustainably by managing their own energy use.”

The concern with going green is normally the cost. But just know that by spending this extra money upfront, you’ll save money in the long-run. Refill ink cartridges, buy the LED lights instead of the incandescents, optimize your delivery routes to save gas. All of these steps will save you money and will decrease the pollution and waste on our planet. Look into the tax credits and incentives that are offered and make sure you benefit from them. And don’t forget – customers notice when companies are honestly and earnestly working towards a greener planet and they’ll reward you by becoming loyal customers.


I just recently returned from a week-long vacation to Panama City Beach in Florida with my family. My stepbrother’s only request the entire vacation was that we visit Pineapple Willy’s so he could buy a t-shirt. I walked into the gift shop at the restaurant and was stunned by the two walls stacked floor to ceiling with t-shirts of all different colors and designs. Red, green, purple, yellow, pink, teal, you name it. There was a Pineapple Willy’s shirt in any color with any design you could imagine. This got the gears in my head turning, making me super curious about the fascination we have with restaurant t-shirts.

Think about it. Pineapple Willy’s is just one of so many restaurants that makes a killing on merchandise. Margaritaville, Salty Dog Café, Hard Rock Café – they all sell merchandise that flies off the shelves. Now you’re thinking: But, Ashley, only chain restaurants can get away with that. Not true. Every single time I visit Nashville, I make it a priority to stop at Loveless Café. It’s the only Loveless Café in the world, but they have an entire strip of stores on their property and each one sells different Loveless Café merchandise. That merchandise sells like hotcakes. Even though Loveless is a solid 20 miles outside of downtown, people will travel all the way out to eat there for two reasons: they have the best biscuits in the country and they have the cutest merchandise in the city. That’s how you win over the people: good food and cute clothes.

So let’s talk about some of the benefits that come from having company t-shirts. First off, if your entire staff is wearing matching company shirts, they’re going to look cohesive. Patrons should be able to walk into your shop and immediately know who works there and who’s just visiting. The shirts don’t even have to all be the same color. If the design is the same on all employees’ shirts, you’re golden.

Now for the patrons… I’m not a psychiatrist or sociologist so I might not quite understand the science behind the people’s love of restaurant-related shirts, but I am an artist and a self-proclaimed foodie/shop-a-holic so I can give you my two cents on why it is I love them. For one, I’m a sucker for a cute design. If your t-shirt catches my eye and is reasonably priced, consider it sold. Also, keep in mind that if you’re in a relatively touristic area, people lovebuying a t-shirt to remind them of their trip. I think of my collection of shirts as a map of my travels. Every time I pull out my Sprinkles t-shirt that I purchased in LA the year I graduated high school, I think of what an awesome trip that was (and how fantastic those cupcakes were).

Last but not least, your coffee shop/tea shop/bakery/you-name-it’s merchandise is free advertisement. Think of it this way: someone just walked into your store and paid you for your advertising. They’re going to wear that shirt out in public where it will likely catch the eye of other could-be-patrons who could just as well then turn around and head to your shop. And you know we all love telling our friends about the new place we tried where the coffee/tea/pastry/whatever-you-serve was soooo yummy… now we can also share with them how cute the shop’s merchandise is!

So do yourself a favor and start designing your t-shirts today! If you need help, don’t be shy. Your Brand Cafe’s design team is willing to lend a helping hand. Check out our website for more info!