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Death Wish Coffee is an American coffee company and distributor. The company was created in the 2000's in Saratoga Springs, New York by Mike Brown. First incorporated as as Saratoga Coffee Drinkers, the company eventually changed its name to Death Wish in 2012 and moved to Round Lake, New York. The product gained publicity when it was chosen as the winner of Intuit's "Small Business, Big Game" contest, allowing it to have a Super Bowl commercial carried nationwide free of charge during Super Bowl 50.

Early Life of the Company

Mike Brown was an accountant for the state of New York in his twenties when he decided that it was not for him. After quitting his job, Brown  opened up a coffee shop in Saratoga Springs, NY in 2008 at the age of 28. He named the coffee shop “Saratoga Coffee Drinkers”. The coffee shop began to go through tough times after constant menu changes and the learning curve of starting a business. This  required Brown to sell his house and move into his mother’s home at the age of 30 in order to maintain payments for the shop. In order to make an extra profit, Brown began selling coffee with high caffeine content after customers continually asked him for his strongest cup of coffee. Not being able to find the strongest blend of coffee, Brown decided to create his own. Brown got samples from several importers and created his own blend. This blend was comprised of both Robusta and Arabica beans -- Robusta beans having double the caffeine of Arabica.  He designed the skull and crossbones himself and named the blend of coffee “Death Wish” after a souvenir that his girlfriend had bought him. It was a picture of a mean dog saying “Death Wish” under it. Brown originally created this in hopes of “making ends meet” by the profit of  $5,000 extra a year selling it online. At this point in time, Brown had only six employees. All the money that was initially made by Brown was reinvested into the business. His company began to operate out of coffee shop’s basement for the first half of the year in 2012, and then later moved it into a warehouse.

Super Bowl Commercial

On Sunday, February 7th, 2016, Death Wish Coffee Coffee Company viewed a commercial during Super Bowl 50. This coveted commercial spot was awarded to Death Wish after the company won the  Small Business Big Game contest powered by Intuit Quickbooks, an accounting software company. This year’s Super Bowl received 114.4 million viewers, thus making it the third most watched television production in America’s history. This 30 second ad spot costed around $5 million dollars and was produced by RPA Advertising Agency. RPA produced 3 other advertisements in Super Bowl 50. Other companies that were in competition for the top prize include Chubbies, a clothing company specializing in very short shorts, and Vidler’s 5 & 10, a mom and pop shop located in New York state.

The 30 second video advertisement starts off with a scene on a Viking war ship. The coxson is shouting words of encouragement and motivation as they row through a very heavy storm. The ship comes to a cliff and as the crew begins to fall off the edge, the viewer sees that the waterfall’s source is a cup of coffee and actually goes directly into a man’s mouth. The ad ends with a bearded man taking a sip from his mug and giving a brief smile with a deep, manly voice narrating “Death Wish Coffee, Fiercely Caffeinated”. In an interview with Forbes Magazine, Brown said that a creative marketing agency called RPA pitched him three ideas and he went with the Viking-themed commercial. "I love the strength of the Vikings, and it wasn’t the typical coffee commercial." The Vikings once again portrayed the coffee as being strong and fierce.

The ad spot has been wildly successful for Death Wish. According to Spot Trender, a commercial analytics firm, sixty four percent of people said that they enjoyed the ad, and eighty seven percent said they would remember it. Over fifty percent said they were likely to buy the product. The results of the ad were almost instantaneous. According to Death Wish’s CEO, Mike Brown, the company received 150,000 hits on their website as soon as it aired. It was two of the top ten under the Movers and Shakers category. In 24 hours, sale’s increased 550% percent. The day after, Death Wish Whole Bean Coffee was the number one best-seller in the Grocery & Gourmet category on Amazon.com. Even five weeks later, the company was seeing tremendous attention as revenues were still an impressive five times higher than before the ad was shown. Brown can only sleep four to five hours a night in order to keep up with the amount of orders his company needs to fill. Even today, Death Wish Coffee is reaping the benefits from the ad. More Amazon data shows that Death Wish Whole Bean Coffee is number 34 on the bestseller list under Grocery and gourmet category, and number 18 in the coffee and tea category. Death Wish has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, with 82 percent of customers ranking it a 5 stars.

Expansion of the company

Mike Brown started off his coffee company as an entrepreneur. He quit his job as an accountant and created his coffee company in his mother's basement in 2008. Slowly but surely Brown gained popularity amongst the community in Saratoga Springs. He renamed his company from Saratoga Drinkers to Death Wish Coffee and moved his company into a small warehouse where he had only six employees and himself to run the company. After the Super Bowl aired, the company's demand for more product distribution grew so Brown hired six more employees to help make ends meet. At the very beginning, Death Wish Coffee was only having a small income of five thousand dollars come in which was eventually put right back into the company to allow it to continue to prosper, but after the commercial aired the company had a gross income of six million dollars in 2015-2016 year.

Advertising the Product

Death Wish Coffee’s advertising strategy has changed dramatically since the Super Bowl spot. Since the Super Bowl ad spot, Death Wish has not needed to advertise as business has grown substantially. Before the contest, Mike Brown relied on free marketing as much as possible. In an interview with Forbes Magazine , Brown said that “We’ve sent the product to news reporters, celebrities, bloggers. Ninety-nine percent of the time I don’t hear anything back. But when people wrote reviews about it, we’d see a bump in sales. We also do Facebook ads and Google advertising. Facebook ads work better than Google ads. We get charged about a dollar every time someone clicks on our ad.”

In 2013, the NBC show “Good Morning America” opened up their show by drinking Death Wish Coffee and even went as far as to go up to Brown’s initial shop in Saratoga Springs, New York. After that brief exposure, Death Wish’s customer base doubled.

Logo

Death Wish Coffee markets their coffee as the “World’s Strongest Coffee”, which they put on every box and bag of coffee they produce. In a single serving, the average serving being 12 ounces, the cup of coffee has 650.4 milligrams of caffeine. They add a very large warning on the back of the coffee bag explaining that this bag of coffee is not like your normal coffee as it contains 6 times the average caffeine per cup of coffee. There is also a warning on the bag and the company's website that the coffee is very addictive due to the amount of caffeine that is in 12 ounce cup.

Technology

Currently on Death Wish’s website, there are links to all their social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. There is a spot to enter a customer's email address to sign them up for a newsletter that contains exclusive deals, new product releases, and contests. Also on their website, many different types of merchandise are available. From t-shirts, to coffee cups, to coffee supplies, to patches, and many different types of apparel are for sale by the company.

Marketing

The marketing strategy that Death Wish Coffee is currently implementing is called “Disruptive Marketing”. Disruptive marketing can be defined as “reshaping an existing product or service to meet the demand of customers unsatisfied by the current offering”. The current coffee industry is very saturated and not very welcoming to new start ups, such as Death Wish, but not a single big coffee retailer marketed their coffee solely for its strength. Death Wish took this opening and sold their entire blend behind their slogan the “World’s Strongest Coffee”.

Coffee Brands

Death Wish

Introduced in 2012, the coffee brand was created using both Robusta and Arabica beans. The brand bills itself as the "strongest coffee" in the world. In a 12 ounce cup of coffee, there is an average of 650.4 milligrams of caffeine per serving.

Barrel Brand

Introduced in 2014, Deathwish’s Barrel Brand coffee, which is infused with whiskey, rye, rum, and wine, is a product that the company offers to appeal to those “with a sophisticated palate whom are coffee/ spirit connoisseurs” . To create this product, the company uses oak barrels from a local distillery to create their specialty craft coffee, which the company feels will revolutionize the coffee industry just as craft beer did decades ago. While initially offered in very limited quantities, a high demand for this product has allowed the company to recently begin increasing the amount in which they produce.

Valhalla Java

The coffee beans that are used for the Valhalla Java brand was found in the volcanic soils of Indonesia and soils from Central and South America. The coffee is blend of medium and dark roast and has a combination of nutty, chocolate, and sweet flavor. Zak Wylde, former guitarist for Ozzy Osborne and founder of Black Label Society, endorses this brand of coffee within the Death Wish Coffee company.

References to be converted

1. http://dailycoffeenews.com/2016/01/28/death-wish-dream-comes-true-with-super-bowl-ad/
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2016/02/09/meet-the-entrepreneur-behind-the-super-bowl-coffee-ad/#bbbef961725c
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-campbell/death-wish-coffee-strongest-cup-in-the-world_b_2916150.html
4. http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/02/02/death-wish-coffee-wins-super-bowl-commercial/
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/nyregion/after-the-super-bowl-death-wish-coffee-might-need-its-own-brew-to-keep-up.html?_r=0
6. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-50-commercials-intuit-quickbooks-death-wish-coffee-ad/
7. http://www.inquisitr.com/2777224/death-wish-coffee-small-upstate-new-york-brewer-with-wickedly-strong-blend-hits-big-time-with-super-bowl-commercial/
8. http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/16/smallbusiness/super-bowl-intuit-ad-contest/
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqFDb48dFM4&feature=youtu.be
10. http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/01/28/death-wish-coffee-scores-free-super-bowl-ad-from-intuit.html
11. http://www.inquisitr.com/580219/death-wish-coffee-has-200-percent-more-caffeine-for-your-monday-morning/#TsocxXLX0QXw4uGQ.99
12. http://www.cnweekly.com/articles/2016/02/28/news/doc56ce011463664597656174.txt
13. http://www.deathwishcoffee.com/collections/barrel-brand
14. http://sweatpantsandcoffee.com/whiskey-infused-barrel-brand-coffee-death-coffee-reviews/
15. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/11/prweb12303064.htm