From Sustained Losses to Six Prime Locations: The SOSO COFFEE Turnaround
Spot the opportunity. Build the position. Create momentum. How The Motion brought market insight, brand strategy and integrated communications together to help SOSO COFFEE break through.
A brand’s next chapter often begins with seeing an opportunity before the market does.
When we began working on SOSO COFFEE, the Bangkok neighbourhood café had been operating at a loss for over a year. Daily revenue averaged around THB 3,000, with roughly 30 cups sold a day. Footfall was limited, brand awareness was low, and there was almost no marketing budget.
Today, SOSO COFFEE has six locations across Thailand, all in prime retail districts.
At the start of that journey was a strategic opportunity: The Motion identified an opening in the market and aligned product, positioning and communications around a single direction for growth.
Insight first. A compelling reason to choose follows.
For a café short on customers, more exposure feels like the obvious answer. At The Motion, we start one step earlier:
What will make people remember this brand—and go out of their way to experience it?
Without a distinctive reason to choose, attention is easily lost. For a business with a limited budget and no location advantage, every piece of communication needs to build a brand association people can remember and pass on.
The opportunity for SOSO COFFEE emerged from looking at markets at different stages of adoption.
Our research found that -86°C Dirty coffee had already demonstrated its potential to generate interest in China, while Thailand offered room to introduce the concept. A product idea with proven appeal in one market could become a distinctive point of entry in another.
That insight shaped the positioning at the heart of the project:
Thailand’s First -86°C Coffee.
A precise temperature created a memorable hook. An unfamiliar coffee experience gave people a reason to try it. A clear market position gave SOSO COFFEE a story worth talking about.
This is where insight creates commercial value: recognising when those conditions come together, then turning that opening into a decisive brand move.
Turn a product difference into a brand position
A product with talk value can drive trial. Clear positioning connects that trial to the brand behind it.
We aligned product design, social content, creator experiences and media communications around Thailand’s First -86°C Coffee. Each touchpoint had a specific role, while reinforcing one association: this coffee experience belongs with SOSO COFFEE.
For a business with limited resources, focus makes communications work harder. Each piece of content builds on the last. Every creator experience adds to the body of content people can discover, discuss and share.
The project moved from insight to launch in just 21 days.
Strategic clarity made that pace possible. With a defined position to pursue, product and communications shared a clear brief, and resources could be directed towards the work with the greatest value.
The market response, in numbers
A strategic judgement earns its value in the market.
The project’s campaign records captured the following results for SOSO COFFEE:
- Approximately 318 million recorded Instagram views
- Over 9.36 million tracked social interactions
- Over 1.2 million Instagram sends and shares
- Coverage from more than 20 Thai media outlets
- A recorded No. 9 position among Google Maps trending places
Together, these results show how a distinctive product story can travel: the product draws viewers in, the experience prompts interaction, sharing carries the content further, and media coverage broadens the brand’s visibility.
Sends and shares are particularly valuable signals. They show people choosing to bring the content into their own social circles, creating further opportunities for the brand to be discovered, discussed and considered.
Measurement note: Views are the sum of visible figures in retained project screenshots, without deduplication by post; they do not represent unique reach. Social interactions combine tracked Instagram and TikTok interactions. Sends and shares are included in that total, rather than added on top.
Connect attention to commercial growth
The value of communications ultimately shows up in the business.
Project records show daily revenue rising from approximately THB 3,000 to over THB 35,000—more than ten times the starting level. Daily sales increased from around 30 cups to over 120.
For a neighbourhood café facing sustained losses and limited footfall, that shift created a renewed place in consumers’ consideration and opened up room for further development.
This is how The Motion approaches brand marketing: start with the business challenge, use market insight to set the direction, build appeal through the product, and amplify its value through content and media. Every part of the strategy should connect communications to a commercial objective.
SOSO COFFEE demonstrates how a well-judged market opportunity can give limited resources greater impact and help a little-known business establish a distinctive competitive position.
A turnaround with room to grow
SOSO COFFEE now operates six locations in Thailand, all in prime retail districts.
The neighbourhood café that once struggled for footfall is extending its presence into commercially vibrant locations. From sustained losses to a step-change in revenue and a growing store network, the brand has moved into a new phase of expansion.
That progress gives the original insight a longer-term significance. When a market opportunity is recognised clearly and developed through product and communications, it can become the starting point for a different business trajectory.
At The Motion, insight identifies the opening. Strategy defines the position. Communications builds the momentum for growth.
We help brands turn visibility into lasting commercial momentum.