Thinking in Public
Coffee shops in stores. Genius. Aritzia built A-OK Cafe right into some of its stores. Ralph Lauren has run Ralph's Coffee for years, its own little green-and-cream shop inside the flagship. Tiffany runs the Blue Box Cafe inside its New York store. Lululemon has tested food and beverage concepts too. Different categories, same move.
It gives you a reason to sit at the store and look at the merchandise for longer, and you're also walking around the mall or the street with that brand's cup in your hand — free advertising, and you paid for the privilege of carrying it.
The mechanics — some of it's already working, some of it's still on the table
And you don't need Aritzia's budget to run this play. The feeling is the product — a cup with your name on it and a reason to stay — and you can build that for a few hundred dollars.
The scrappy version — the feeling, without the flagship budget
A store is a place people leave. A cafe is a place people stay. Put the second thing inside the first and you've turned a five-minute visit into a twenty-minute one, sitting a few feet from everything you sell.
The cup does the rest of the work on its own. It leaves the building, rides the elevator, sits on someone's desk. No media budget required.