Sweet Alley is the most well known yogurt/ice cream shop in Isla Vista, CA at the heart of UCSB. Its been open for more than 5 years with two owners who could not operate such a fortunate business and failed. Nick Mason took over the shop 1.5 years ago after the most recent owner went bankrupt. He stripped the store to its basic bones and called me in to design it all from bottom up. Only thing left was the floor tiles from the old store. I designed the interior in line with the branding.
I worked with Nick on strategy; came up with the new store and employee attitudes, evened out the prices or yogurt, toppings and candy for friendlier spending, we added free wifi and encouraged people to hangout in the space, and opened the store for fundraisers/events.
Since its opening sweet alley gained more interest and loyalty each month, hosted more than 100 fundraisers, and events while introducing new products and flavors...
SW is serving the most organic and high quality line up of products but products aren't what caused the successes, its the tone and the message of the new Sweet Alley that made it happen.
We showed that: We are smiling, we are intimate, we are young, and we respond to the people's needs and we give back to the community.