DALLAS — Parks Coffee has launched a program designed to provide more variety to clients using classic drip brewers. Called Crowd Pleaser, it offers clients a wider range of fraction-pack coffees, packed in smaller boxes styled for display on a wire rack. The program includes markers for carafes and insulated servers to identify each selection when several varieties are brewed at once.
Branding manager Clay Parks noted that “Crowd Pleaser is a way that we can have fun with the coffees that we love to roast, but our hope is that we get to broaden the coffee experience in each of our accounts.”
According to Parks Coffee marketing manager Beth Seeber, the traditional OCS kit contains about a month’s supply of coffee and is hidden under the client’s counter, providing the same coffee every day. “So we had the idea to make the boxes smaller, keep the product fresher, give the box a bit of personality and bring it up to the countertop,” she reported.
The attractive small boxes, which contain nine or 10 fraction packs each and are packed four per case, enable Parks Coffee customers to stock many kinds of coffee at once, thus offering their employees freedom of choice with every brew. There are many selections from which to choose, all made with 100% arabica coffees.
The company, which has been roasting its own coffees since 2004, has grouped its products into categories or tiers. Each is identified by similar, unifying graphics on the display boxes.
photo | CROWD PLEASER: Randy Parks, playing the Parks Coffee route driver, and the Crowd Pleaser superhero (exiting, stage right, with burlap coffee-bag cloak) solve the same-old-coffee problem for delighted customers in a promotional video for the new OCS concept.
The Crafted Coffee line comes in 10-ct. boxes. Choices are Sunny Side Up Breakfast Blend and Parks House Blend. All the others are supplied in 9-ct. boxes.
The artisan line is blended by hand; it includes Papa’s Prime Roast, French Café and One Fritter Quitter. The Exotic and Single Origin line is comprised of Sweet Maria’s Colombian Supremo, All Nighter (Guatemala Antigua), Tall, Dark & Colombian, Molten Lava Java (Sumatran), and Lei It On Me (10% Kona Blend).
The decaf line is formulated to deliver the same taste and full-bodied quality as its conventional stablemates, but with less caffeine. It is made up of Sunny Side Up Breakfast Blend Decaf, Sweet Maria’s Colombian Supremo Decaf, and Tall, Dark & Colombian Decaf.
The flavored collection is a group of coffees that are indulgent and rich in flavor, with no added calories. These include Southern Belle Pecan, Nutty Aunt Hazel, Eiffel Power and Caramanilla Cream.
Finally, the Seasonal Coffees line is a mix of limited-edition items crafted to honor the spirit of each season, from French Toast (winter) through Gimme S’More (spring) and Jamaica Me Crazy (summer) to Pumpkin Pie (fall) and Cookie-Doodle (holiday).
The launch of the Crowd Pleaser program is well under-way; it’s available to all new and current Parks Coffee customers.
Parks Coffee (Parks & Co./ProStar Services), which was founded in 1986, is a leading coffee service operation. It was honored by the National Automatic Merchandising Association as Coffee Service of the Year in 2001. Founder Randy Parks also was recognized by the National Coffee Service Association, and by Mars Drinks North America as 2002 Outstanding Flavia Distributor. The company also is active in vending, and has added micromarkets to its array of service options.
The Crowd Pleaser program is described in several videos at vimeo.com.
