Last week was one of the most inspiring weeks we have had in the short life of G+C so far. We learned more in 5 days than we could have in months of research and we got through more work with our partners than could ever have been possible over email and Skype. For anyone following our Instagram story, it may have looked like we were seeing the sights of Asia but we got through a huge amount of work. We are very lucky to work with incredibly passionate manufacturers, designers, fabric suppliers and more who were all amazingly generous in their hospitality. At times we had to pinch ourselves to see how invested other people are in the future of G+C. As we said last week, the purpose of this trip was to ensure we have laid the best foundations for G+C and so it can deliver on the strains of major growth (fingers crossed!). And so now we turn our attention to the USA!
Today, we launch into the US market with the start of a two week pre-launch campaign! So much work has already gone into this before even thinking of launching a marketing campaign. Anyone who has bought some G+C gear knows that customer service and the delivery experience are vitally important to us. We wanted the US experience to be no different so we engaged in a comprehensive process to evaluate a top tier partner to help us deliver on that customer promise. We have also reviewed our logistics set up and implemented a new process ensuring delivery from manufacturing to warehouse is as streamlined as possible. We know, this stuff isn’t exactly the fancy side of things, but the more our orders grow the more we are appreciating the importance of this part of the business.
Now for the fun stuff! Our pre-launch campaign starts today and will run for 2 weeks. During this time, people will have the opportunity to spread the word about G+C hitting the US and if they get friends and family to sign up to the website they will be able to earn some G+C products. Referring 10 friends will earn a G+C bag, 20 friends will earn a G+C beanie and 30 friends will earn a bag, beanie and 250g of our G+C Classic Blend coffee. The top 2 referrers will earn a trip to Ireland for two people at the beginning for 2018 for an amazing G+C adventure!
Check out the campaign here at usa.gympluscoffee.com
We are so excited about this launch campaign and can’t wait to see where it take us. We are also under no illusions as to the size of the challenge in the US. To be successful and realise our dreams for G+C, the US needs to be a big market for us. For now though, our plan is to use our community to spread the word organically. We need every and any help to get the word out there and introduce ourselves to the US market. We are building the brand from the ground up and we want our community to be right at the centre of that.
At the start of this year, the night before we launched, we wrote a very open blog post to share how we were feeling about the whole thing. At that time, we were incredibly nervous. We were full of excitement and equally riddled with self-doubt. That feeling has returned in bucket loads today. It’s very nerve-wracking putting ourselves out there and hoping we get a reaction. But we have learned this is the process. In a weird way, we have started to feed off this energy. We love to stretch ourselves so we can grow G+C. America is the next step on our journey.
