Case Study – Blind Tiger Coffee Roasters

Blind Tiger Coffee Roasters was a coffee and café concept with seven locations around Tampa Bay. The brand was seeing steady growth driven by smart business decisions, high-quality products, and passionate people. It was on track to more than double in size through new physical and digital channels. As the company planned for the future, it needed a bullet-proof brand story and branding strategy to create differentiation and consistency across touch points.

Blind Tiger’s employees are the face of the brand, so our first step was listening to and building alignment with the internal team. Through a series of strategy workshops and store visits, a category audit, and an analysis of visitor data, we developed an ownable brand story. It reflected the unique personality of Blind Tiger’s products, places, people and customers while honoring its roots as an immigrant-led, speakeasy-style, craft coffee shop.

Blind Tiger Brand Narrative

We articulated a purpose to ensure our growth would be grounded in something bigger than coffee. Passion, purpose and individuality were identified as the shared values and spirit that drew both customers and baristas to our brand community, so they became our true north.

Blind Tiger Brand Purpose

Next, we translated this purpose across defined Brand Pillars, Team Culture, Brand Behaviors and Brand Experience markers, influencing everything from hiring criteria to programming and menu items. And we developed a Brand Architecture to guide the evolution of the brand story from café to in-home and workplace offerings. Together, this formed the foundation of an actionable positioning strategy and blueprint for purposeful growth.

Blind Tiger Brand Strategy Foundation

Finally, we refreshed the brandmark, typography, colors, imagery, and visual tone. We brought it to life across designs and guidelines for store murals, packaging, and merchandise, along with headlines and brand lines for communications.

Blind Tiger Brand Identity

Since the refresh, the company has opened three new store locations and significantly grown its online offering, earning equity through a bold, arresting look, feel and voice that is undeniably Blind Tiger.