BEAR serves sustainably-sourced speciality coffee, seasonal fresh food, cocktails and craft beer in beautifully thought-out spaces. It has been one of our favourite coffee spots since it opened its doors in Derby. We’ve always admired the brand (as well as the coffee), so we asked BEAR to share some of the story behind its values and distinctive voice. We caught up with Hattie, who looks after all things Marketing.
Tell us a bit about how it all began!
BEAR was founded in 2014 by long-time besties, Craig Bunting and Michael Thorley. Craig had spent a lot of time travelling around Australia and had subsequently fallen in love with the coffee and all-day dining scene over there. When he returned to the UK, Craig’s goal was to recreate that chilled coffeehouse culture in his hometown of Uttoxeter. Craig pitched his idea to Michael, and the two of them got their heads together and worked on getting things off the ground.
Fast forward to summer 2017 and BEAR Uttoxeter had been successfully trading for just over a year, plus the pair had also grown to a trio, with Craig & Michael taking on their first Investor-cum-Financial Director, Chris Price. Chris was instrumental in helping Craig and Michael develop and complete their concept in Uttoxeter, as well as working on their expansion and next steps to open their 2nd store, located in the centre of Derby’s beautiful Cathedral Quarter. Chris has also helped with BEAR’s continued growth strategy, to opening Store 3 (Stone), Store 4 (London, which has since been forced to close due to the impact that Covid has had on the city), Store 5 (intu Derby) and Store 6 (Northwich). Yay!
Please tell us a bit about your branding and the BEAR personality.
Since Craig and Michael founded BEAR back in 2014, their focus has been heavily weighted towards community and people. The people who make and serve coffee, the people who smash the avocados, the people who come through the door to visit us – every single person within BEAR has an influence over the way that the brand looks, sounds and feels. Our aim for BEAR’s brand ‘personality’ is that it always feels familiar, welcoming and comfortable; a home from home, like visiting an old friend.
Which other brands do you look to for content and tone of voice inspiration?
Innocent Smoothies! Have you seen their Twitter?! Genius!
Do you have a clearly defined set of brand values as a business? If so, what are they and why? Do you stick to them?
We do! We held a big old team get-together after we opened our Iron Gate Derby store and had fun throwing ideas around to come up with a group of relevant brand values, plus a list of behaviours associated with each one to help us all really live by them. Our overarching brand values are:
■ We love what we do
■ We do the right thing
■ We innovate and react quickly
■ We’re a positive influence
■ We create space to connect
How are these values reflected in how your brand communicates?
We work hard to ensure we’re transparent in everything we do. From the ingredients we source, to the ways in which we’ve reacted to the lockdowns and ever-changing safety restrictions over the past year, we’re open with our teams and our customers about the decisions we make and the reasons behind them. As I mentioned before, BEAR is built around people – we try our best to make sure that our entire brand is relatable, personable, approachable and real!
Did you work on developing a tone of voice for your brand at the outset or did it develop gradually?
(I may sound a bit like a broken record at this point, but) BEAR takes huge influence from the people behind it; although we’ve always been clear on the ‘vibes’ that we want BEAR to exude (friendliness, familiarity, approachability), our tone of voice has been continuously developing as we’ve taken on new opportunities, met new people, and moved along our little growth journey! I believe that your brand feel and voice isn’t something that you should just decide upon and religiously stick to from day one – it’s something that should react and alter as you learn more about your business and the way customers interact with you.
If your brand voice was a celebrity, who would they be?
This is a tough one! For the celebrity, Jennifer Lawrence comes to mind; she’s pristine and professional when it counts, but also super likeable, fun and not afraid to be real .
How many people look after the comms at BEAR?
At the moment, it’s just me really! There are times when it’s a team effort (like communicating difficult stuff such as info about lockdowns / business position /all that jazz that this year’s thrown at us!) but for the most part, everything customer facing goes out via me. BUT we’re hoping that we’ll be able to expand our team in the not-too-distant future, so I’ve been working on developing brand tone-of-voice guidelines in the background to keep us consistent when that does happen. Not an easy task when trying to hold on to the freedom, individuality and real-ness that currently makes up the way we communicate, but – as I said before – it’s ever-developing as we grow which is super exciting!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve got for other businesses communicating with customers?
People buy in to people. If you can add an element of relatability to whatever you’re doing and make things feel a bit more human, your communications will always resonate with your customers far better.
