Branding for success: businesses rework and refine to stay ahead of the curve.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: 2015 Top 49ers

Arose by any other name might smell as sweet, but for Alaska coffee aficionados, there's more to a cup of joe than a smoky aroma and a jolt of caffeine.

Today's coffee clientele rhapsodize about their favorite brew and brewing method with the ardor an oeriophile expends on a divine pinot noir. Brand, image, and atmosphere are everything.

Walk into Kaladi Brothers Coffee for freshly roasted, high-quality coffee in a hip atmosphere. SteamDot Coffee and Espresso Lab features slow-brewed coffee in a minimalist setting. Ubiquitous Starbucks offers frothy coffee drinks and a selection of coffees that helped define the coffee culture in the Northwest. Not to mention the plethora of coffee carts and cafes scattered across Alaska, each with their own jitter-induced specialty roasts and fan followings.

But, like a pot of coffee left on a burner too long, brands can get stale. Business owners are constantly reworking and refining their brands to stay ahead of the curve.

A case in point is venerable specialty coffee roaster Cafe del Mundo, which opened its doors in Anchorage in 1975. It was bought by the businessmen behind Kaladi Brothers and is now known as Black Cup.

"Cafe del Mundo was kind of pioneering the artisan coffee experience in Alaska," says Black Cup General Manager Jared Mockli. "Over the last twenty or thirty years, there's been a lot more jump on board."

Since Black Cup and Kaladi Brothers are owned by the same people, their owners are trying to make sure their brands, and the coffee, remain distinct.

Cafe del Mundo itself, an Anchorage landmark, was redecorated in a more open layout this summer that aims to focus customers' attention on the coffee and its preparation. In homage to its roots, the remodeled Black Cup coffee shop has retained the Cafe del Mundo logo on one wall.

"What we wanted to do was to freshen up the brand and really bring the focus back to the coffee itself," Mockli says. "We're bringing back that pioneering spirit and really pushing the envelope to make the best coffee we can."

It bills itself as "extraordinary coffee, best served black." Hence the name: Black Cup. It's simple, back to basics, with the focus on the coffee.

The name of a brand is of tremendous importance, says Rashmi Prasad, dean of the College of Business and Public Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

"Books really are judged by their covers," Prasad says. "The cover really does matter. The name really does matter. The name conjures up all sorts of mental associations. The wrong name will really sink a product.

"You want to get the product right, but then to get the name wrong is like scoring on your own goal," Prasad says.

Some of Prasad's students worked with Kaladi Brothers on branding strategies. The question was what Kaladi Brothers, which also owns Cafe del Mundo, would do with the beloved pioneer coffee roaster, which had been around for four...