McCafé.
Retail concept, spatial layout and design, communications, visual merchandise and immersive tech experience for McCafé pilot store at Terminal 2, Mumbai International Airport.
Scope
Client
Duration
Year
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Challenge
(01)
McCafé lacked a distinct café identity, resulting in low footfall and a weak store-in-store appeal.
Our long-time client, McCafé, approached us with a clear problem: “not enough guests at the café.” The existing setup resembled a delivery counter more than a café, with limited identity, poor menu visibility, and minimal draw for walk-in customers. The challenge was to reimagine the space into an inviting, engaging café experience that could drive foot traffic and establish McCafé as a self-sustaining destination.
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Approach
(02)
Repositioning McCafé as an experience-led destination through a reframed brand narrative.
To transform McCafé from a passive counter into a vibrant café, we analysed existing outlets, studied consumer behaviour, and decoded India’s evolving café culture. The key insight: McCafé needed a distinct identity as a destination, not just a service point.
Research highlighted varied coffee behaviours—from experts to explorers to novices—reinforcing that coffee today is about experience, customisation, and connection, not just consumption.
This led to the big idea: “But First, Coffee.” A simple reframing of coffee as a moment of pause, reset, and recharge before everything else.
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Output
(03)
A transformed and immersive McCafé.
The transformation of McCafé was expressed through a layered visual system designed to create a familiar yet distinctive “coffee-next-door” experience. Handwritten typography was introduced as a subtle display element to add warmth and personality, complemented by a clean sans-serif typeface for functional clarity. The result was a balanced identity that felt both emotional and efficient.
The signature McCafé palette—yellow, brown, tan, and black—was seamlessly extended into the space to reinforce brand recognition. Visual merchandising was reimagined as a compact, high-impact unit at the main counter, using modular elements to ensure clarity across varied store formats while keeping product storytelling prominent.
A key spatial highlight was a large café wall created in collaboration with illustrator Mamta Singh. The mural layered McCafé’s product journey with iconic Mumbai landmarks, anchoring the brand within its local context. Integrated augmented reality further enhanced the experience, allowing customers to interact with and explore the narrative through mobile activation.
Overall, McCafé was repositioned as an approachable, adaptable café experience that stayed true to global guidelines while embracing local relevance. “But First, Coffee” evolved into a lived expression—connecting people through a space designed to energise, engage, and belong.
This project is presented as a concise overview; a detailed case study is available upon request.
