JRSSEM 2021, Vol. 01, No. 2, 182 – 188
E-ISSN: 2807 - 6311, P-ISSN: 2807 - 6494
DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i2.8 https://jrssem.publikasiindonesia.id/index.php/jrssem/inde
COFFEE SHOP BRANDING WITH ISLAMIC VALUES AS A
MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ON THE
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
Thalitha Sacharissa Rosyiidiani
1*
Aurelia Syafira Widya
2
1,2
Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
e-mail: thalithasacharissa.rosyiidiani.ac.id
1
*Correspondence: thalithasacharissa.rosyiidiani.ac.id
Submitted: 11 September 2020, Revised: 18 September 2021, Received: 27 September 2021
Abstract. Business in the food and beverage industry in Indonesia is growing every year. The
sector also makes a significant contribution so that it can increase economic growth in Indonesia.
Apart from cafes, coffee shops are one of the most desirable parts of the culinary industry today.
Very significant business development is currently happening in the coffee shop industry, which
appears in big cities. Al'Cal Coffee is a business engaged in the F&B industry, especially coffee
shops. Al'Cal is an Islamic coffee shop founded in 2018 and successfully opened a second branch
in Serpong in September 2020. In running its business, each coffee shop must have different
marketing communication strategies and activities. This study aims to identify the marketing
communication activities carried out by Al'Cal Coffee on Instagram, how Al'Cal Coffee implements
the integrated marketing communication strategy, and the Islamic elements contained in Al'Cal
Coffee's marketing communication strategy Instagram. This study uses a qualitative descriptive
method with primary data from interviews, observations, and documentation. The study results
illustrate that there is a match and relationship between the theory of Integrated Marketing
Communication Strategy with those in the field. The strategy is carried out starting from the
planning, implementation, and evaluation stages.
Keywords: branding; coffee shop; Islamic values; strategy; communication; marketing.
Thalitha Sacharissa Rosyiidiani , Aurelia Syafira Widya | 183
DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i2.8 https://jrssem.publikasiindonesia.id/index.php/jrssem/inde
INTRODUCTION
Business is an activity carried out by an
individual or group to get results and
profits by selling a product, goods, or
service. Today, the business world in
Indonesia is growing up. It can be seen that
people are now making some goods and
services as part of their business and are
starting to enliven the business world in
Indonesia (Abubakar & Handayani, 2018).
The Global Agricultural Information
Network released Annual Data on
Indonesian Domestic Coffee Consumption
in 2019/2020, which is predicted to touch
294,000 tons, an increase of 13.9%
compared to consumption in 2018/2019
258,000 tons.
Very significant business development
is currently happening in the coffee shop
industry, which appears in big cities
(Lukitaningsih & Juliani, n.d.). This makes
the development of the coffee industry in
Indonesia is increasing. With various types
of coffee shops located in big cities, there
is a competitive competition. This makes
every coffee shop have an attractive and
distinctive marketing communication
strategy to attract the audience's attention
(Triani, 2018).
In this modern era, every company
experiences very tight competition. With
increasingly fierce competition, business
actors, individuals, and companies must
highlight the uniqueness or characteristics
of their products starting from price
competition, product quality, distribution,
and promotion. All this is done to keep the
company in the competition. In addition,
the marketing communication strategy
applied must be reviewed and developed
according to market developments
(Mirandani & Fitria, 2019). Thus, the
marketing communication strategy must
provide a clear and focused picture of
business owners taking advantage of every
opportunity or opportunity in several
target markets (Entaresmen & Pertiwi,
2017). Marketing communication
strategies allow business people to
implement the right marketing strategies
to maintain or even expand the masses in
their market.
Brand image has long been recognized
as an essential concept in marketing
(Alhaddad, 2014). Brand image is a
consumer's perception of a brand, as
reflected by brand associations stored in
consumer memory (Del Rio et al., 2001). In
other words, a brand association is a node
of information associated with a particular
brand in consumers' memory. Associations
come in many forms and can reflect
product characteristics or aspects that are
independent of the product. (Keller et al.,
2011)
The rapid trend of the coffee business
in Indonesia requires creative business
strategies, including forming a brand
image with a unique side embedded in
consumers' memories. The brand image is
communicated to the public through
various stages of marketing
communication (Madhavaram et al., 2005).
For the message to be understood by the
target consumer as expected by the seller,
the message content must be patterned
and adapted to the audience's frame of
mind. The audience is the target of the
message, which consists of two groups. The
first group, those who actively seek
information. The second group, those who
184 | Coffee Shop Branding with Islamic Values as a Marketing Communication Strategy on
the Social Media Platform
passively receive information. (Harsono,
2017)
Social media also contributes to
business activities in the digital era. Social
media is part of e-marketing that functions
as a medium for business promotion. It is
pretty effective because it can be accessed
by anyone, making it easier for us to
promote our products in the market
(Ghoshal, 2019). The many uses of social
media in Indonesian society are starting to
be used by business owners or companies
to market their products or services
through social media. The use of social
media as a means of marketing strategy
has begun to penetrate the coffee shop
business world, which has recently been
quite busy around us (Shaputri &
Abdurrahman, 2019). Al'Cal Coffee is a
coffee shop that was founded in 2019.
Al'Cal Coffee is a coffee shop that carries
the concept of an Islamic touch in service
and also its tagline. In running its business,
Al'Cal Coffee has a similar competitor, not
far from Al'Cal Coffee's location. Al'Cal
Coffee's closest competitors are Dua Coffee
and Tuku Kopi. In addition, the marketing
media used by Al'Cal is the same as that
used by similar competitors. Namely, they
both use social media as their product
marketing media. But every coffee shop
must have its uniqueness and
characteristics (Rasmikayati et al., 2020).
From the explanation above, this study
aims to find out how the marketing
communication strategy used by Al'Cal
Coffee in Branding #DoaFirst ThenCoffee
on Instagram.
METHODS
This study is the result of research that
uses a qualitative approach. The research
aims to understand what the research
subjects understand, such as behavior,
perception, motivation, action, holistically,
and by way of description in the form of
words and language, In a particular context
that is natural and by utilizing various
scientific methods (Moleong, 2017).
The object of this research is an
integrated marketing communication
strategy with Islamic values contained in
Al'Cal Coffee's marketing communication
strategy. The research data comes from the
researcher's interview with the Founder &
Chief Marketing Officer of Al'Cal Coffee,
namely Brother Bramagi Abi. In addition,
interview sources as primary data were
obtained from the Head of the Al'Cal
Coffee Branch Office, who completed the
statements from the baristas and Al'Cal
Coffee consumers as field notes. In
addition, secondary data was collected
from photos, videotapes, letters or memos,
and supporting documents originating
from Al'Cal Coffee's Instagram social media
content.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In doing a company branding, the first
thing that must be formed is an identity.
The identity that Al'Cal built from the start
is a Coffee Shop with Islamic nuances, and
Mas Bramagi Abi stated this as the founder
and CMO of Al'Cal Coffee. In contrast to
other coffee shops, Al'Cal uses the tagline
#DoaFirstThenCoffee to strengthen the
branding and characteristics of an Islamic
Thalitha Sacharissa Rosyiidiani , Aurelia Syafira Widya | 185
DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i2.12 https://jrssem.publikasiindonesia.id/index.php/jrssem/index
coffee shop that Al'Cal appointed.
“Initially, we saw that there were a lot
of taglines from other coffee shops,
such as 'but first coffee, which seemed
to forget that everything we do must
be prioritized by praying to Allah SWT.
'Pray First Then Coffee' Bismillah first,
then enjoy the coffee.” Abi, Founder of
Al'Cal Coffee.
The tagline is also used by Al'Cal on
Instagram, in decorating Al'Cal outlets, and
in product packaging that Al'Cal sells. Not
only the motto but in the SOP, there is also
a stipulation that every time there is a
customer, the Baristas are required to greet
the customers who come by saying
"Assalamualaikum please sis," of course
accompanied by a smiling facial expression.
This habit is carried out both for Muslim
and non-Muslim customers. The religious
atmosphere that tries to display Al'Cal
Coffee has a significant impact on social
media which is managed by increasing the
number of followers on Al'Cal's Instagram
(@alcal_coffee), which has reached 12.3
thousand followers.
However, the location of the coffee
shop in a metropolitan city forced Al'Cal
Coffee to make some adjustments. Al'Cal's
target market initially was the Muslim
community and the Muslim community.
Still, over time, Al'Cal evaluated to change
its target market considering the
surrounding environment, and most of the
customers who visited were non-Muslim
foreigners. This is done with the aim of
mutual respect and tolerance with different
beliefs.
“...about the use of
'Assalamualaikum,' we reduce it a bit.
Because Serpong's environment is
predominantly non-Muslim, I'm afraid
they will feel uncomfortable or
something like that. But we still
remind you not to forget to pray
before enjoying the coffee. There is still
an element of first then coffee prayer."
Arwa, Branch Head Al'Cal Coffee,
2020
“It still applies because we usually see
first whether he is Muslim or non-
Muslim. For example, a hijab woman
is a Muslim. According to the SOP, we
must say hello, which is to use
'Assalamualaikum.' We are just trying
to respect each other and practice
tolerance. For identity, Al'Cal is still a
coffee shop with Islamic nuance.”
Arwa, Branch Head Al'Cal Coffee,
2020
Al'Cal Coffee's marketing
communication activities are carried out
through social media, namely Instagram
and e-commerce. Al'Cal Coffee uses these
two media as a means to promote its
products. Al'Cal Coffee's marketing
communication strategy starts from
determining target consumers, choosing
communication channels, conducting
personal branding, establishing good
interactions and relationships with
customers, using social media as a
promotional tool, participating in several
events, building brand awareness, and
collaborating with many companies e-
commerce.
On Al'Cal Coffee's social media, the
election used to share status or wall
messages often contains Islam, such as
quotes from the Qur'an, hadith, or
aphorisms from Islamic figures.
186 | Coffee Shop Branding with Islamic Values as a Marketing Communication Strategy on
the Social Media Platform
Based on the observations made by the
author through Al'Cal's Instagram social
media, the number of uploads of Al'Cal
Coffee on Instagram is 844 posts. Al'Cal
Coffee's Instagram uploads contain 20% or
170 posts about preaching, containing
several hadiths and Islamic information.
The aim is to strengthen the Islamic identity
of the coffee shop. Some examples are as
follows:
Figure. 1 Screenshot of Al'Cal Coffee's
Instagram Content
There are 40% or about 338 uploads
about coffee. The upload consists of
information about coffee, the types of
coffee products that Al'Cal sells, and coffee
bean processing techniques. In addition to
preaching and coffee-related content,
Al'Cal's Instagram also contains uploads
regarding Al'Cal's activities or activities at
outlets or outside. Outside activities such as
when Al'Cal conducts events, sell during
CFDs, and so on. Of the 844 photo uploads
on Instagram, uploads regarding Al'Cal's
actions and activities are 15%. Instagram is
Al'Cal Coffee's marketing communication
media, so all marketing communication
activities are carried out on social media,
for example, promotions. Al'Cal Coffee
promotes its products and informs them
through uploads on Instagram. Of the 884
uploads, there were 25% or around 224
uploads regarding promotions. (Varey,
2002)
Marketing communication with a
religious approach as practiced by Al'Cal
Coffee can be linked to other
developments in marketing, where
marketing moves through evolutionary and
revolutionary phases of meaning and
practice. However, the success of the
pattern still requires more analysis and
research by considering consumer
demographic factors.
CONCLUSIONS
As one of the coffee shops in the
metropolitan city, Al'Cal Coffee carries
Islamic values as a marketing attraction
communicated to consumers through the
branding #DoaFirstThenCoffee on its social
media. In addition, Islamic values are very
clearly written in the Standard Operating
Procedure document for employees.
Al'Cal Coffee's marketing
communication strategy starts from
determining target consumers, choosing
communication channels, conducting
personal branding, establishing good
interactions and relationships with
customers, using social media as a
promotional tool, participating in several
events, building brand awareness, and
collaborating with several startups.
It can conclude that branding coffee
shop products with specific values by Al'Cal
Coffee will ultimately follow market
demand dynamics. To survive with a
business with particular characteristics, it is
necessary to consider market sentiment
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DOI : 10.36418/jrssem.v1i2.12 https://jrssem.publikasiindonesia.id/index.php/jrssem/index
and make various adjustments.
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© 2021 by the authors. Submitted
for possible open access publication
under the terms and conditions of the Creative
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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
