You go to your local café and ask for a creamy cappuccino topped with cinnamon, without ever thinking about all the steps involved in making that delicious espresso shot made better by thick, creamy steamed milk. Heck, even the latté art still puzzles you even though you see your barista do it day in and day out. It takes real skills to pull this stuff off.
You could stand all day behind this behemoth of an espresso machine and not even come close to making coffee that's as delicious as that of Gerard the barista or as exciting as his expletive-laden Frenglish.
The perfect shot of espresso hinges on 4 main ingredients: the beans, the grinder, the machine, and the barista. The beans and the machine are often thought of as the only factors that matter in pulling a great shot of espresso and while they are extremely important if you use the wrong grinder or have a inexperienced barista, the best beans in the world will still taste like crap.
You want freshly roasted beans, kept in a cool, dry place. If they've been roasted more than 3 weeks ago, they'll taste bitter and stale.
A good grinder will allow you to fine-tune your grind to the perfect setting so you can pull your best shot.
The right machine will allow you to brew coffee to perfection
An experienced barista can fine-tune all the settings from the 3 aforementioned factors to make that creamy cappuccino you love.
That's why you think nothing of paying Gerard north of 8 bucks for a coffee that you could make for "50 cents at home". I know, because I spent an unreasonable amount of money on a proper espresso machine and grinder and my latte art still sucks. While I'm getting better everyday, I'm still years away from Gerard's beautiful leafy patterns made of frothed milk.
If you've read this far, you might be asking yourself, what does that have to do with architecture or design?
Well, on the surface, a perfect cappuccino is art, but if I left it at that you'd think that's a pretty tenuous argument. The truth is that good communications and marketing strategy, on a granular level is equally, if not more complex than a really good cappuccino.
Thinking that it can be done in house without spending money on people who know what they're doing is pure folly, as you'll always end up with a bitter, watery cappuccino with latte art equally as bad as mine.
If you're thinking that you can't possibly afford to hire someone to overhaul your messaging and set your marketing on the right path, think of it this way: you don't have to blow $50K at once on trying to do it all at the same time.
Just like you can start by buying freshly roasted beans and a good grinder (you can use a good grinder and beans with any coffeemaker). Then a little later on, you can invest in basic barista training and lastly purchase that sweet, sweet double boiler espresso machine, which ultimately will allow you to nearly rival Gerard, well except for the cursing.
Before you know, you'll have all the ingredient for a perfectly-made cappuccino, uhhh marketing and business development strategy and before long you shall see your sales and inquiries shoot up while you’re sipping on your frothy cappuccino.