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businesses have always succeeded or

failed by word of mouth.

Colby Barr adds: “Nowadays, it is definitely all about failed by word of mouth – we just have a more concrete way
Instagram. What your serving ware looks like, and wheth- to observe and measure that success now.”
er or not you have an Instagrammable moment in your store Nowadays café owners have much more tools to mea-
are a real factor. Whether you focus on it or not, your sure profit and popularity of their places and one of them is
customers are. I’m not saying we have built stores for Ins- social media. Word of mouth has always been important,
tagram (we haven’t), but if you make a cool moment in but today digital era does not give companies that do not
your space, people will gravitate to it and share it - which participate in social interaction and do not try to please
is them sharing you with the world. Our plant wall in customers a chance to survive. That is why some coffee shops
downtown Los Angeles is the best example of that. We and cafés chose to create a unique experience and atmo-
didn’t plan for it, but it became a hugely popular Instagram sphere by thinking about special design that would attract
shot in L.A. I can’t tell you how many photos are taken more and more people and make them share this experience
every day in front of that wall!” online. Cafés are still seen as social hubs, but now these hubs
are under social influence more than ever, trying to stay
Measuring the Success fresh and interesting for its patrons.

Norah Shen from Random Café&Design claims that Special thanks to
social networks oriented design can be successful: “We are
a typical case. As we are located in a cultural and creative Colby Barr from Verve Coffee Roasters
industrial park, not in a mall or scenic spots, people can vervecoffee.com
find us only after they know us through media. They will
go through our photos and say ‘oh I like their design, or Fiona Parsons from Padre Coffee
food’. So we pay more attention to design, food quality and padrecoffee.com.au TO ACHIEVE COFFEE
service. It pays off. Even if we are in a hard-to-find place,
we are still one of the most popular cafes in Hangzhou.” Norah Shen from Random Café & Design
Fiona Parsons adds: “I don’t necessarily think that’s a big @randomdesignstudio G R EAT N ES S,
change. People love beautiful spaces and well-presented

products, and that’s always been the case. I think if anything Karolina Konecna from Bistro Proti Proudu IT MUST BE GROWN
that focus on social media has made the value of a beautiful bistroprotiproudu.cz IN
space a little more tangible, or made café owners and op-
erators a bit more aware of the decisions they make, is a Leo Huang from Cafe On Air C OL O M B I A
good thing. Likewise, businesses have always succeeded or

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