Mystic Monk Coffee Case

1. What is the vision for Mystic Monk Coffee?  What is the mission?

The vision for Mystic Monk coffee is to recreate Mount Carmel in the US Rocky Mountains and change the living arrangements of the small brotherhood of 13 monks living in a small home used as makeshift rectory into a 500-acre monastery that would extend the living accommodations from 13 to 30 monks, a Gothic church, a convent for Carmelite nuns, a retreat center for lay visitors, and a hermitage.  The case was clear on his vision for the monks living quarters but no specific vision for Mystic Monk Coffee.  

The mission for Mystic Monk Coffee includes the mission to worship God first.  The monastery’s coffee operations will assist in accomplishing the mission therefore making it the same mission for Mystic Monk Coffee.  

In order to accomplish the vision and mission, Father Daniel Mary objectives and performance targets must be met in order to achieve them.  The goal is to raise enough funds to purchase the $8.9 million Lake Irma Ranch.  Those who support Father Daniel Mary and the monks have provided some generous charitable contributions and profits from its Mystic Monk Coffee enterprise.  This is how Father Daniel Mary plans to achieve the $8.9 million goal.  The case does not provide any details as to how Mystic Monk Coffee has strategized to achieve their vision and mission.  We do know that Mystic Monk Coffee has: exclusive use of high quality fair trade Arabica and fair trade organic Arabic beans in a variety of blends, roasts, and flavors to appeal to a broad range of coffee preferences with a focus on U.S. Catholic consumers and those wishing to support the mission of the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. It was encouraged for all Catholics “to use their catholic coffee dollar for Christ and his Catholic church.”  Also, loyal customers sharing their love for the flavorful coffee to others, fellow parishes across the U.S. supporting the cause, majority of sales made through Mystic Monk Coffee’s website and telephone orders accepted has contributed towards the goal. Mystic Monk Coffee has an affiliate program that provided 18% of commissions to secular website operators allowing Mystic Monk Coffee’s banner and text ads to appear on their sites. There is also a ‘Share a Sale’ participation program that allowed affiliates to refer new affiliates and earn 56% of the new affiliate’s commission.  Mystic Monk Coffee has also utilized wholesale sales to churches and local coffee shops in addition to their product line extension that included sales of T-shirts, mugs, gift cards, and CDs featuring the monastery’s Gregorian chants.  Mystic Monk Coffee has a focused differentiation strategy which suggests that it is capable of building competitive advantage. The use of high quality coffee beans, the variety of blends, roasts, and flavors and the Mystic Monk image produce a number of tangible and intangible benefits for Mystic Monk Coffee’s customers. The case also revealed that Mystic Monk Coffee focus on the 69 million members of the Catholic Church in the United States makes the target market sufficiently large to earn attractive profits making its monastic relationship very difficult for a rival seller to imitate.