And the King declared "Off With Their Heads!" - or the story of "how to keep your head in three easy steps."

As we all know, "brand building" is the process of connecting with customers in a durable and differentiated way. Aligning the passions of your company with the passions of your target consumer is a supercharged (and fun) way to build brands. When it works it can result in transparent, authentic products or services which blend quality, creativity, and positive energy into amazing offerings. In the end, it is about delivering value that resonates deeply with your perfect customer.

The BIG THREE guiding principles that I learned from my father Boyd over the years (often the hard way) perfectly embody this sentiment:

"Product Is King", he would tell me time and time again. A mantra burned into my brain. And in that sentiment, he meant to convey exactly this:

1- Do people want your product? - It seems obvious, but one needs to be honest and critical of their own ideas to see if those early concepts really meet the test. Is your idea just "your idea" - or does it have the right traction? Does it both solve a real demand and do you understand the audience so that you can deliver great value? We tend to over-value our own ideas.

2- Is that product differentiated? - “Because the world only needs one Elvis" Dad would say. Can your "unique voice" allow you to stand away from the herd in a way that is, again, meaningful to your perfect customer. Further, do you have the courage to “ignore” (for the right reasons) all those targets that are not your perfect customer? There are some bystanders who would challenge your extreme focus early-on and call it "limiting" simply because they do not understand where a real brand's center-of-gravity resides. Can you resist the calls to "dilute your brand in order to expand your brand." Just say no. Only by NOT diluting your brand will you attract a larger audience. We could write many articles on this right?

3- Is your differentiation durable? - Given some measure of success with the first two points, how will you defend your special bond with your customers? How will you grow it? How will you double-down, defend it, and then provide more and more value over time? Tricky one, this... if you only do well with #1 and #2 but not #3 then they call you a "first mover" which might mean getting steamrolled and potentially also becoming "the first loser" in the category. Those with experience will know that there IS a business model if you only do #1 and #2, but you better be fast on your feet and always have the next great idea waiting. That is quite a treadmill to try to endure over the years.

Get those three right and I might be fortunate enough to hear the ultimate compliment from Boyd over the years as he offers - "That dog will hunt" - which in South Dakota speak simply means - "I think we got something here." Note that "Cookin' with gas" comes much later after "That dog will hunt". And alas, there are some dogs that hunt that doesn't end up cookin'. I know, it can be complicated. :)

But I digress, those three points of "Product is King" may be some of the easiest to understand at a base level and also the “most difficult to get right” set of targets in the business of product development. I saw Dad get that right in-spades with NASCAR collectibles and many other offerings in the early years of my career and I saw myself get “that” wrong more times than I care to mention. But this is the process, right? This is how we learn. Today I understand these are simply "rules-of-nature in the jungle-of-commerce" which are unbreakable.

Ignore them at your own peril or the king will be "off-with-your-head" in no time.

From the very beginning, I told the El Parche Coffee team here and in Colombia that I do not want to be in the business of "having the best coffee but we need great coffee to be in the business". That statement might seem counterintuitive at first blush. Yet "The Best Coffee" is far too subjective and undefendable to build a brand on - as one person's best is not another's. BUT certainly, we need "great coffee to be in the business". For many reasons, such as our direct Origin Production footprint, we DO have outstanding coffee. Yet for the three reasons Dad held to above, great coffee is just the starting line, not the finish line. Amazing coffee is table-stakes, not the winning hand.

We have great coffee - check! - so now let's grow something exciting.

If Harley Davidson was only in the business of reliable transportation they would have been gone long ago. You don't ride a Harley as much as you wear one. In doing so you tell the world something about how you want to be seen. If you are that rider, a Honda simply will not due - roadside repairs in the rain be damned. All products and brands we choose are some combinations of practical consideration, mixed with personal feelings and in some cases the ability of that brand to display our personalities to the world. Simply put, in many cases, we want to wrap ourselves in the passions that we hold dear. That includes cars, clothes and just about anything you can imagine.

For the Geek Grind Coffee brand team, we have found a perfect partners in Paizo Inc. and the amazing folks who work there to bring Pathfinder and Starfinder gaming property to their millions of fans worldwide. They helped us craft and bring to life the 8th company coffee blend and first Pathfinder offering. This resulted in the delicious "Goblin Gulp" medium roast special-edition coffee that we recently began to ship to consumers and our B2B accounts. It fits perfectly with our mainstay offerings of Dragon's Roast, Dwarven Dawn, Elven Enlightenment, and the venerable Siege Fuel. - I know pretty geeky right? :)

Team Paizo jumped into the project with a creative excitement that was both energizing and powerful. Of course, this also means connecting with their fans and having a lot of fun doing it. It really helps that the Geek Grind team are players and fans too! To say that I am deeply grateful for our partnership is an understatement.

Gaming et al, including table-top RPG, board games, digital gaming, e-sports (and the rich exciting content, art, storylines, and consumer loyalty that results) are growing at an exponential rate - especially given the tailwinds of our current environment. With game-cafes popping up in all major (and minor) cities and e-com sales exploding, demand is growing for the "right" coffee brands - that #1 people want, #2 is differentiated and #3 will be durable over time. For millions of gamers and fans of fantasy, fiction, dreams, and hope, we hope we have that coffee brand and the delicious roasts that follow. Turns out we are seeing that these fans are EVERYWHERE, as our Geek Grind coffee offerings have found a wide reception in colleges, “traditional” cafes, corporate environment, restaurants, and of course homes across the land. Everyone has a little "geek in them" it seems and every day I am amazed by the breath of reception. In each case, they are our perfect customers, simply that they are dispersed but powerful.

What started as a small idea with my mixed US and Colombian family in the mountains of Colombia, has become a tiny but mighty brand in certain circles. Those circles, however, are our nucleus and they mean the world to us both inside and outside of the business. Inside those circles reside our perfect customers. And that is where the foundation of the brand power and the "why" for us exists. Geek Grind is just one of El Parche Coffee's brands – we feel passionate about Pure Canopy as well for different reasons (which I will write about at some point). But that said, Geek Grind means the world to us and is making connections that last.

The right partnerships, collaborating on the right products, for the right reasons, and for the right audience - can be magic. And for that, I say “Thanks Dad” for the insights.

Here's to that magic continuing with PaizoCon Online 2020 where we are working with Paizo to keep those gaming eyelids wide-open at the end of this month. Like so many expos that have been rescheduled or moved online, PaizoCon typically held in Seattle at the end of May is no different. But the team there is up to the task and they are developing an amazing event.

"The event includes seminars and live-plays on Twitch, games scheduled via Warhorn and run on a variety of VTT platforms such as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral, and D20Pro, an official PaizoCon Online Discord server as a general hangout for con-goers, plus blogs on paizo.com, and more!" - Paizo

We are excited and grateful to be there, virtually or otherwise - as fans first and business partners second. And to that, I say Game On!!

Patrick - Co-Founder / El Parche Coffee Company

Learn about us in this short video and see how we "do" what we call "Certified Origin Production" in Colombia.

GeekGrindCoffee.com - ElParcheCoffee.com - PureCanopy.com

More on Paizo - Pathfinder and Starfinder - Paizo.com

More on Warhorn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/bmoseley/