Overview:
Specialty coffee is crowded, and commoditized. The Exiled Shaman stands out as mischievous, 90s Saturday-morning-cartoon anti-decaf brand that turns every cup into a creative-igniting experience. By combining brand story, merch, and creative campaigns, I built a brand that fans don’t just buy from - they collect, engage with, and champion.

Tagline: Caffeinate Recklessly

1. Brand Story & Identity

Challenge: Specialty coffee is all the same.

Strategy & Execution:
• Crafted a distinct voice: irreverent and mischievous.
• Built a brand universe: an outcast shaman brings coffee to the world.
• Developed taglines and micro-copy for packaging, merch, and customer touchpoints.
• Customers interact with a persona, not just a product.

2. Merch & Brand Extension Concepting

Challenge: Coffee merch is forgettable.

Strategy & Execution:
• Designed collectible, story-driven merch: mugs, apparel and stickers featuring brand characters.
• Tied merch to the shaman’s narrative adventures, making products feel like part of a universe, not just merchandise.
• Created experience-driven engagement: fans buy merch to complete sets and feel part of the brand world.

Result: Merch extends the brand story into customers’ homes, creating loyalty and repeat purchase potential.

3. Campaign & Customer Experience Ideation

Challenge: Coffee is a commodity; campaigns fail to generate excitement.

Strategy & Execution:
• Developed creative, offline campaign concepts.
• Launch posters and print campaigns.
• Immersive pop-up events such as the “Church of Caffeine”, turning coffee buying into an experience.
• Limited-edition coffee and merch drops tied to the brand narrative, giving customers something to hunt for and talk about.
• Focused on direct customer touchpoints: packaging, events, merch, and email/newsletter communications.

Result: Campaigns create urgency, exclusivity, and brand cult status to drive engagement.