We’ve traveled lightyears from the days when generic instant coffee reigned supreme. These days, ordering an elaborately customized specialty drink like a “Quad Venti Caramel Macchiato with almond milk, whipped cream, and a vanilla drizzle” is par for the course.

Specialty coffee has officially taken India by storm!

Although the first coffee beans made their way to the subcontinent way back in the 1600s, it wasn’t until recently that a fresh new wave of java enthusiasm began brewing. In many parts fueled by the pandemic-induced lockdowns, coffee aficionados started exploring beyond the mundane realm of mass-market instant brews.

Fast forward to today and India has blossomed into the 10th fastest growing market for specialty coffee. Among the flourishing cafe scene, one daring upstart, in particular, has managed to capture lightning in a mug: Third Wave Coffee. This artisanal chain has been shaking up the Indian cafe market ever since.

Founded by Sushant Goel, Ayush Bathwal, and Anirudh Sharma, Third Wave evolved from a single cafe in Koramangala into a 90+ location juggernaut spanning 6 cities in just a few years. 

Sure, their visually stunning cafes are Instagram candy. But there’s something more brewing under the surface propelling Third Wave’s success. What’s their ground game for continuously attracting new customers while retaining their cult-like regulars? How do they spark such customer engagement and loyalty?

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From Humble Beginnings: The Founders’ Journey into the Coffee Business

Before they became coffee connoisseurs, the founders of Third Wave Coffee Roasters were just regular professionals going about their careers. Sushant Goel had his own data analytics firm after working at McKinsey & Company. Ayush Bathwal and Anirudh Sharma, the other co-founders, came from entirely different backgrounds as well.

None of them could have imagined they’d end up starting one of India’s premier artisanal coffee brands. But sometimes an intense passion can take your life in an entirely new direction.

For the Third Wave founders, that passion was coffee. What started as a casual love for the rich, aromatic brew gradually turned into something more. They began exploring the world of specialty coffees, discovering the flavors and processes involved in crafting the perfect cup.

As they dove deeper into this obsession, an idea took root – why not share their passion with others? Why not make India’s finest coffees more accessible to urban coffee lovers? Thus, the seeds for Third Wave Coffee Roasters were sown.

Of course, turning the idea into reality was easier said than done. Like any startup, the initial days were a grind. After a year of research and planning, they opened their first cafe in Koramangala, Bengaluru in 2016. But getting customers through the door was an uphill battle those first few months.

Undeterred, the founders focused on giving every single patron a good coffee experience. Slowly but surely, word began to spread about this cafe serving exotic brews like Lavender Rosemary Sea Salt Mochas. A community of coffee lovers started taking shape around Third Wave’s offerings.

The Art of Roasting: Third Wave’s Pursuit of Freshness and Quality

Third Wave Coffee Roasters takes an artisanal, small-batch approach to roasting their coffee beans. Rather than using large industrial roasters, they operate micro-roasteries across major Indian cities.

Their roasting process begins by carefully selecting and sampling green coffee beans from over a dozen top farms and estates, primarily sourced from Karnataka. This allows them to hand-pick exceptional quality bean lots.

At their micro-roasteries, the green beans go through a meticulous small-batch roasting process. Master roasters closely monitor roast times and temperatures to delicately coax out the unique flavor nuances of each bean. Careful temperature adjustments are key, as over-roasting can burn away desirable subtle tasting notes.

The goal is to lock in a peak flavor experience by ensuring the coffee gets roasted to precise specifications and consumed extremely fresh. Third Wave recommends consuming their roasted coffees within just one week of roasting for maximum freshness and flavor impact.

This obsessive focus on quality over quantity through small-batch roasting elevates their coffee offerings to an artisan, craft-level product. Rather than mass-produced commodity coffee, Third Wave positions their roasted beans as a premium, almost artistic quality experience.

This positioning as uncompromising “flavor artisans” devoted to roasting mastery becomes a core part of Third Wave’s brand identity and marketing approach. It cultivates an aura of authenticity and exclusivity that appeals to their target market of discerning specialty coffee enthusiasts.

By making their skilled roasting process and “freshness above all else” philosophy so central to their brand story, Third Wave is able to promote their coffee as not just a product, but an entire craft beverage experience and lifestyle. This helps convert customers into passionate brand evangelists.

Third Wave Coffee’s Marketing and Sales Strategy

Third Wave Coffee knows how to generate buzz and get people talking about their brand. They understand that in today’s social media world, visuals are key – if something looks great in photos and videos, it spreads like wildfire online.

That’s why they’ve designed their cafe spaces to be Instagram-friendly. The cafes have cozy, well-lit nooks perfect for clicking pictures. They regularly bring in local artists to create new mural art installations that change the vibe. Their baristas are trained to make beautifully designed latte art that people love showing off on social media.

Instead of relying on paid advertising, they generate a lot of free brand exposure just by creating spaces that their customer base wants to photograph and post about. It’s a low-cost marketing approach that resonates well with coffee enthusiasts. Third Wave is hitting expansion into new cities hard, aiming to rapidly scale their cafes across India’s major metro areas. 

To fuel that growth, they’re doubling down on technology and data. Beyond basic mobile ordering and rewards apps, Third Wave is leveraging advanced analytics tools to optimize everything about their retail experiences. They analyze crowdsourced ratings, dine-in times, and traffic patterns to continually refine their cafe layouts, menus, and operations. 

Revenue Sources: How Third Wave Coffee makes money?

Third Wave Coffee Roasters has diversified its revenue model through multiple channels. Their primary revenue source comes from selling their coffee products directly to consumers. This includes sales of roasted coffee beans, brewed coffee drinks, and food/snack items. They make these sales both online via their e-commerce website as well as at their physical cafe locations across various cities.

In addition to direct sales, Third Wave offers coffee subscriptions where customers can sign up to receive recurring shipments of freshly roasted beans on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. These subscriptions provide a consistent revenue stream for the company while also ensuring customers have a reliable supply of fresh beans.

Their most lucrative revenue channel is their franchising model. Third Wave sells franchising rights that allow approved franchisees to open and operate Third Wave branded cafes. Franchisees must pay an upfront franchise fee as well as ongoing royalty fees calculated as a percentage of their sales revenue. This allows Third Wave to rapidly expand their branded cafe footprint without taking on overhead costs.

Third Wave has goals to open over 300 new franchised cafe locations across India in just the current year alone. Each new franchise location represents a new revenue source from initial franchise fees and future royalty payments. This franchising strategy provides immense revenue growth potential.

By encompassing direct coffee sales, subscriptions, and a robust franchising program, Third Wave Coffee Roasters has established multiple revenue channels to drive top-line growth as they solidify their position in India’s rapidly evolving coffee market.

How Third Wave Markets its Products?

Third Wave Coffee Roasters focuses on more than just selling coffee products. A big part of their marketing strategy involves storytelling and education around the entire coffee experience.

They highlight details like where their coffee beans are sourced from, emphasizing that they work directly with farmers using sustainable practices. They also explain their careful roasting process to bring out the unique flavors of each bean. Sharing this backstory helps build their brand identity and narrative that customers can connect with.

In addition to storytelling, Third Wave provides a lot of educational content to increase consumer knowledge about coffee. This includes blogs, social media posts, and videos covering topics like:

• The different regions coffees come from
• The various processing methods used
• Home brewing tips and techniques

By educating consumers, Third Wave aims to deepen their appreciation for quality, craft coffee.

Another marketing approach they take is partnering with local businesses on collaborations. For example, they may team up with a cafe or restaurant to offer a limited-time, exclusive coffee blend only available through that partner. These co-branded collaborations generate buzz, let Third Wave reach new audiences, and create a sense of exclusivity around their products.

Third Wave’s marketing revolves around taking an educational, experience-focused approach rather than simply promoting a product. The goal is to build a community of passionate coffee enthusiasts by sharing in-depth coffee knowledge, creative collaborations, and an authentic brand story behind their craft coffee offerings.

Building a Community: Third Wave’s Commitment to Creating Engaging Spaces

Third Wave Coffee Roasters has succeeded in creating an experience that attracts a community of freelancers, artists, writers, designers, and startup enthusiasts. Their cafes have become hubs where like-minded individuals gather to work, catch up, or simply hang out. This environment fosters organic connections, collaborations, and even the co-founding of new passionate endeavors.

Recognizing the potential of these micro-communities, Third Wave decided to further engage them by organizing events. One such event brought together artists, illustrators, and writers to explore how art and culture can drive people towards a more sustainable future. They also hold workshops to teach different coffee brewing methods, catering to the interests of their clients.

With their target audience in mind, Third Wave crafted a visual language that reflects the approachable, warm, and aspirational spaces that have come to define the brand – a sense of cool that is open to everyone.

They expanded the brand’s color palette beyond the traditional brown, black, and grey hues, incorporating warm and cool tones. The typography was elaborated into three distinct typefaces, allowing for playful versatility. People (and sometimes their pets!) became the focus of Third Wave’s illustrations, depicting various customer scenarios and how they utilize the cafes.

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