“Coffee and Work” web concept

Like so many things, the topic of “remote” working has received a major boost from the current pandemic situation. Often implemented in the form of “home office”, after around two years the desire for alternative places to work arose. This inspired the team Kira Biernat, Rachel Konstanze Kunz, Florian Mummert and Vanessa Strüber to create a website for “working from anywhere” in the “Online Marketing” module, with a focus on working remotely in a café.

The basis for the concept development were the eight phases that agency owner and lecturer Bastian Sens also presented in his book “Online Marketing Cockpit” (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, 2019): These include target group determination, channel and instrument selection, and content selection and creation.

The students go into more detail about this and the project result, the website “Coffee and Work”, in our interview:

How much work was it to get to grips with the CMS (short for content management system) WordPress?

Vanessa: Our previous experience with WordPress was quite different. The website was quickly set up using the WordPress themes. The challenge was to program the website according to our requirements with a view to our search and filter function. Together as a team and with some basic HTML knowledge, we managed to implement our idea. Now we are constantly working on improving our website.

The blog has become very extensive in a very short space of time. How well did the caffeine-boosted research and writing work?

Rachel: It was indeed very time-consuming. For each individual review, we visited the relevant café, worked through our list of criteria and documented the results in order to then finally record the coworking experience in text form. In addition, in parallel to the reviews on our blog, we regularly publish comprehensive articles on the topics of coworking, new work and remote working. In addition to research and writing, the final SEO optimization for each individual post also takes time. You really do need a coffee or two to stay motivated.

How was the image material created and how is it used?

Rachel: Fortunately, all of us in our team have a good eye for aesthetics and were able to produce the image material ourselves when we visited the café. Usually all we need is a few snapshots with our cell phones. It was particularly important to us to always capture a few impressions of the atmosphere in the café, the outside view, the coffee and cake selection as well as smaller special features and details in the cafés. With our Reels expert Kira, we can also share trendy video snippets and thus achieve a much greater reach on Instagram. Looking through our cell phone cameras is still the most authentic way to capture working in the café.

Was there also time for a communication concept?

Vanessa: The aim of the project and the master seminar was to develop a complete online marketing strategy. This of course also included the communication strategy. To do this, we defined our target groups and selected the appropriate communication channels and measures. We have already implemented short-term communication measures, but our strategy also includes long-term measures.

What have you learned the most from?

Flo: I think the way in which new knowledge is established always depends on how closely theory and practice are intertwined. Whether it’s creating the website, discussing our direction or developing the social media strategy: it’s always about applying it as quickly as possible. We’ve always been able to do that and can still do that. The biggest advantage of our group is that we’re a real team. That’s what I’ve personally learned the most from: in a real community, you can tell each other everything and work together so much better.

Do you plan to continue the project beyond the semester?

Vanessa: At the beginning of the winter semester, we were initially only confronted with a university project, but we quickly realized how much fun we were having. Gradually implementing an initial idea in small steps and launching such a project independently promotes learning processes in a completely different way. Over the course of the semester, the website has become a small mission and therefore a project close to our hearts. We will continue and are excited to see what the future holds.

Were possible business models also discussed?

Flo: Monetization strategies are planned and are already relatively mature in theory. There will still be one or two adjustments to be made. We dealt with the topic quite early on because we know that one day we will be faced with this one question: Are we really doing this now (full-time)? If we deal with appreciation in financial terms in good time, it is more likely that we will answer “yes” to this question.

Would it be possible to expand the editorial team to include Frankfurt and Berlin media university students?

Kira: We actually thought about it right from the start – but to be honest, we never hoped it would be possible. We started with our home city of Cologne, hence the .koeln domain. But at the same time, we also secured the .de variant to potentially expand the concept to other German cities. The idea of involving media university students from Frankfurt and Berlin is great! If students are interested, please contact us!

Favorite café or special caféworking tip per person?

Kira: When you visit as many cafés as we do, it can be super difficult to pick a favorite! At the moment, we particularly like the Woanders Café in Ehrenfeld, which is practically a coworking café, or the moxxa caffè on Aachener Straße, where you can retreat to a real coffee culture. But we have to say that we’re adding to our list every day! That’s why our favorites may be different in a few weeks.

What we can only advise anyone interested in coworking: Just give it a try! It may seem strange at first to sit down somewhere with your laptop. But as with many things, you have to break the ice first. And if you need a little help getting started, we have lots of tips on coffeeandwork.koeln.