The Scandinavian Kitchen - Chalking it Up

 I just posted this on the Skive blog and thought I'd make it Sticky too.

What’s the best communication tool to promote your small business?

A website?  Rich banners?  A blog?  How about chalk…

It’s not very often that you come across a business bursting with personality.

Every day on my way to work I walk past The Scandinavian Kitchen, a café specialising in awesomeness (awesomeness is Swedish for meatball)…. Not really, but every day they make me smile with their cheeky / witty chalk board messages.

“Herring a good day”

“We don’t sell Swedes, but some of us are”

“Take 3 topless Scandanavians to the park”

“Smorgasbording is not a sport”

Established by partners Jonas (a Swede) and Bronte (a Dane) two and a half years ago (one day before their first child was born!) this is a café to pay attention to.

Matt [@HirsuteGent] and I paid Jonas a visit today to chat about the business, chalk boards, and hugs…

On the chalk board

Lots of small cafés in the area keep a chalk board outside to attract customers – Reynolds and Bagel Mania, to name a few.  But none of them talk about topless sandwiches.

Jonas sees the board as setting the tone for the business: friendly, warm, cheeky and fun.  Indeed, the culture is more like a pub, but friendlier and with coffee, breakfast and lunch instead of beer, vodka, nuts and drunk, loud men…

Essentially the chalk board breaks down any barriers to entry.  The first time I saw it, it me want to go inside and hang out.  It didn’t even matter what they were selling, I just liked the tone of voice.

On food

That said, “We can’t just be friendly and feed you shit,” says Jonas.

True that.

Yes, they have a quirky personality, but the quality needs to be there, too.  In addition to selling the famously delicious  Monmouth coffee, they offer a range of soups, sandwiches, cakes and pastries.  They’ve also got loads of grocery products from Scandinavia (for anyone jonesing for some brunost).  Most of the products are Swedish (because there are more Swedes living in London than Danes or Norwegians) but they’ve also got food from Denmark and Norway.  My go-to is a little chocolate called Plop, for obvious reasons…

On hugs

Scandi Kitchen’s loyalty program is also friendlier than the competition.  After 5 coffee stamps you’re rewarded with a hug.  After 10 you get a free coffee.  I lucked out today and was treated to a Scandi sandwich…

Being in Britain, though, some customers do take a pass, but they’re missing out.  To date, Jonas claims they’ve given out 5.5 million hugs.  That’s a lot of love!

Online

Finally, Scandi Kitchen’s online presence spans a website, blog and Facebook Page (with 995 members).

The site extends the same cheeky “chalk board humour”:

“We let the Finns in on this one, even if most of them technically don’t consider themselves Scandinavians; we figured they might want to pop in at some stage to discuss ice hockey, Eurovision Song Contest and skiing”.

Jonas sees the blog as an extension of the chalk board, where people can visit and get a taste of Scandi’s fun personality and what they’ve got going on.

Remaining on brand, posts often focus on Scandinavian happenings, such as the way new is reported in Denmark:

 

 

As well as non-Scandi related content, like ads that feature people who look like they’re about to …

The Scandinavian Kitchen is located at 61 Great Titchfield Street in London.  If you’re in the area, do  yourself a stop by for a coffee and some love.