Food Business News

Eight O’Clock Coffee is a-Twitter.

The 150-year-old Montvale, NJ brand is moving from Facebook to Twitter in the hopes of reaching more new customers, thanks to S3, a Boonton, NJ marketing company. The iconic coffee best known as the house brand for the A&P grocery chain (The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co.) has signed on to “follow” 1,874 people whose profiles and lifestyles seem “cool.” As a result, over 1,400 people are following the coffee company.

S3 started by searching for targets like the top 100 Twitter users, gourmet chefs or wine lovers who showed up on Google and elsewhere. But it turns out as the brand has added followers and followed, the process has grown organically, “the ultimate in superficial networking,” according to a company source. No one is quite sure what’s being communicated, though recipes are traded, stores with good prices are highlighted, etc. Surprisingly, no conventional marketing ploys that might gum up the “cool factor” are dispensed, other than alerts for upcoming price specials (saving money is always cool).

A&P sold Eight O’Clock for $127.5MM six years ago at the start of a process of upgrading its stores to private investors, who then turned around and sold it to Tata Coffee Ltd. of India for $220MM. Since then, the brand has received the top-ranked rating for Columbian coffee in tests by Consumer Reports magazine.

In addition to being cool, Eight O’Clock is about half the price of its competitors.

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