SOHO Coffee is a European coffee chain with stores across the UK, and in many airports including Lisbon, Madrid, Geneva, Faro and Budapest. The brand was not established, lacked impact and had a lot of inconsistency across stores. It had a great offering across food and coffee but wasn’t shouting loud enough in a very saturated market. Internal comms also needed a refresh to better align the SOHO teams around a strong proposition to buy into and ensure stronger retention and recruitment.
CHALLENGE
SOHO needed a clearer point of view on who it was for, and what made it distinctive in a crowded coffee and food market.
Internally, teams needed a unifying idea they could actually use day to day. Externally, customers needed a simpler, more confident expression of the brand, one that brought coffee, food and the in-store experience together in a way that felt unmistakably SOHO.
KEY DECISIONS
The introduction of the tagline “SOHO Good” gave the brand a warmer, more distinctive voice. Confident, but not trying too hard.
Alongside that, “Consistently Good” became a guiding principle for internal communications. It helped teams understand not just what SOHO was aiming to deliver, but how it wanted to show up every day. That mattered, because it needed to feel achievable, not like a poster on the wall.
We brought the core offerings into sharper focus, ensuring coffee and food were presented with equal confidence. We clarified the creative direction to guide future brand development, including a renewed approach to food photography that better reflected quality and appetite appeal.
A joined-up marketing strategy followed, aligning POS, social and paid activity around the refreshed tone and visual style, so customers experienced SOHO consistently wherever they encountered it.
”When working with any consultant, one of the critical things for me is that the consultant very quickly is able ‘read the room’, can understand the personalities and is also non judgemental about ideas, process, or levels of knowledge and capability within the teams or the organisation.
Laurra does exactly that. Through a robust and structured approach, she took myself and key stakeholders (even the ones that were very fixed in their thinking and anti-change in their approach). She unlocked the potential and fast.
Sam ShuttFormer group CEO BTC Hospitality, SOHO Coffee and Euphorium Bakery
STRATEGY
This was an 18-month consultancy engagement working closely with SOHO’s leadership and internal marketing team through regular strategic sessions. The aim was to create space to reflect, challenge assumptions, and agree a direction everyone could commit to.
Rather than reinventing the brand, we focused on bringing clarity to what already worked. We distilled SOHO’s offer, personality and values into a more coherent and confident expression, then translated that into practical tools: marketing strategy, updated language, clearer creative direction, and signposting toward freelance support to develop the brand identity, including refreshed taglines and logo work.
IMPACT
The outcome was a more cohesive, confident brand. Internally, teams had clearer direction and language they could use, strengthening alignment and pride. Externally, SOHO showed up in-store with a bolder, more consistent visual style across POS and menu signage.
We also developed the tender document for the Bristol Temple Meads location, which SOHO won, and created the launch plan for a new store at Westfield, working with a freelance photographer to capture new hero photography for use across the website, social, and franchise documents.
”Laurra worked alongside my leadership and marketing teams as a true partner. Her consultancy approach helped us bring clarity, focus and consistency, across the SOHO Coffee brand and gave us the rules and confidence to simplify and be more strategic, joined up and intentional in our decision making.
She supported us by sharpening our language and what we stand for - helping us to focus on the things that genuinely matter to our customers, internal teams and share holders. In the 18 months of working together, she worked with us to redefine our brand, and also created the frame work, principles and guidelines, along with brand, marketing tender and franchise documents that now live and breath in the business.
Laurra also became our marketing gate keeper working alongside our internal team, to sense check, advise, coach and mentor. Laurra also had some creative input and signposted us towards a stronger format of brand photography and messaging, as well as the external support to help us achieve this.
Laurra made a big impact on the brand and a lasting impression on the business. The brand now feels more consistent and loved, both internally and by customers.
Sam ShuttFormer group CEO BTC Hospitality, SOHO Coffee and Euphorium Bakery
I would highly recommend the creative, knowledgeable and professional brilliance of Laurra.
