It’s a lovely day for gourmet

Mr Ashcroft is a gourmet cafe in the heart of Melbourne CBD's Little Collins Street. Located in the prominent and iconic corner of an exceptionally unique heritage-listed building called Stalbridge Chambers, dating back to its establishment in 1891. Dan Cromie, a Professional Golfer, purchased the cafe as a new chapter career without any background in hospitality, other than the love of people and coffee. Dan approached The Brand Garage to assist in transforming this underperforming cafe into a recognisable brand worthy of franchising.

The Brand Strategy Workshop gathered great insights and information from the cafe team. Then further research quickly revealed that customers did not know that the business was called 'Lt. Colin' or ‘Little Colin’, spelled differently to the street and which made it impossible to find on Google, Google Maps, and Uber because all searching services assume you are looking for Little Collins Street.

It was clear a new name was needed — along with a clear roadmap of deliverables — to achieve the desired goals and target the right audience. We created a new upmarket, high society name, “Mr Ashcroft” and a personality that is the embodiment of the cafe’s culture, customer base, and heritage location.

We crafted period-worthy window signage to clearly identify the cafe, and prominently featured brand messaging throughout. The interior was remodeled based on the stylescapes to lift the brand experience and fix the storage problems.

YES, BUT FIRST. LET'S GET COFFEE! – Mr Ashcroft