Strategic PR Campaign for Larakin Coffee & Wine Bar (Academic Team Project)
Larakin Coffee & Wine Bar is an independent café and wine bar located in Midtown Atlanta, known for bringing together specialty coffee, curated wines, and a welcoming community atmosphere. The brand emphasizes meaningful connections through local events, quality hospitality, and thoughtfully crafted food and beverages, creating a space where people can gather, work, and build community.
Overview
As part of a collaborative university marketing and public relations campaign, our team partnered with Larakin Coffee & Wine Bar to develop a research-driven communications strategy designed to increase brand awareness and customer engagement. Through market research, competitive analysis, audience insights, and strategic planning, we developed an integrated campaign that addressed opportunities for growth while remaining authentic to Larakin's community-focused identity.
My primary contributions centered on competitive research, strategic analysis, campaign development, and marketing recommendations that informed our final campaign strategy.
Challenge
Although Larakin had established a welcoming brand and loyal customer base, our research identified opportunities to increase awareness and engagement across its communication channels. While existing customers valued the café's atmosphere, community, and quality offerings, overall brand awareness among Midtown residents remained low, creating an opportunity to strengthen visibility through more intentional marketing efforts.
Objective
The primary objective of the campaign was to increase engagement and brand visibility across Larakin's existing communication channels by leveraging research-driven marketing strategies, audience insights, and community-focused storytelling. Through an integrated marketing and public relations approach, our team aimed to strengthen customer relationships while introducing the brand to new audiences within Midtown Atlanta.
Strategy
Our campaign strategy was built upon extensive primary and secondary research to better understand Larakin's audience, competitive landscape, and opportunities for growth. Rather than relying on assumptions, we analyzed customer behavior, evaluated competing coffee shops, reviewed social media performance, and gathered feedback from both current customers and Midtown residents to develop recommendations supported by data.
My contributions focused on conducting competitive analysis and helping translate our research into actionable marketing recommendations. Together, our team developed a campaign centered on increasing digital engagement, strengthening community awareness, enhancing customer communication, and creating measurable objectives that aligned with Larakin's long-term business goals.
Key elements of our strategy included:
Conducting competitive analysis to identify opportunities for differentiation within Atlanta's coffee and wine market.
Defining target audiences using demographic, behavioral, and survey research.
Developing SMART marketing objectives with measurable outcomes.
Recommending an integrated communications strategy across social media, email marketing, and customer engagement initiatives.
Aligning campaign recommendations with Larakin's community-focused brand identity while emphasizing authentic storytelling and relationship building.
Strategic Recommendations
Our recommendations were developed through market research, audience analysis, competitor research, and social media evaluation to address Larakin's opportunity to increase brand awareness and engagement within the Midtown Atlanta community. By combining research insights with measurable objectives, our team proposed an integrated marketing and public relations strategy designed to strengthen Larakin's digital presence while preserving its welcoming, community-focused identity.
Key strategic recommendations included:
Increase social media engagement by creating content centered on staff stories, community events, and humorous, personality-driven posts, as our research found these consistently generated the highest audience engagement.
Launch a weekly email marketing strategy to keep customers informed about upcoming events, seasonal offerings, and community initiatives while targeting a consistent email open rate of at least 30%.
Develop a customer rewards program to encourage repeat visits and increase customer retention through a measurable membership goal.
Strengthen brand awareness by focusing marketing efforts on Midtown professionals between the ages of 25–34, emphasizing Larakin's community atmosphere, quality offerings, and local experiences.
Differentiate Larakin from local competitors by highlighting its unique brand personality, no-tip policy, curated events, and welcoming customer experience through consistent storytelling across digital platforms.
Implement measurable campaign objectives, including increasing Instagram engagement by 3%, establishing consistent email communication, and expanding customer participation through loyalty initiatives to evaluate campaign effectiveness over time.
Key Takeaways
This project demonstrated the importance of building marketing strategies on research rather than assumptions. By combining competitive analysis, audience research, and measurable objectives, our team developed recommendations that aligned with Larakin's brand while providing a practical roadmap for increasing awareness, engagement, and long-term customer loyalty.