STRATEGIC BRANDING
UX RESEARCH
UI DESIGN
SERVICE DESIGN
LAP Coffee is a Berlin-based, to-go coffee chain built around speed, affordability, and everyday accessibility but its rapid expansion created a growing legitimacy gap between operational success and social acceptance. This strategic branding project reframed LAP from a purely transactional coffee stop into an integrated ecosystem combining physical spaces, digital tools, reusable products, and neighborhood discovery to rebuild trust, visualize sustainability, and strengthen local connections.
A CAPPUCCINO WAR
IN BERLIN
NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITIY
LAP is increasingly perceived as a symbol of “chainification,” where rapid expansion standardizes streetscapes and pressures independent cafés that invest in community, craft, and relationships. This creates resistance toward LAP’s presence, even when customers continue using it out of convenience.
LEGITIMACY GAP
While LAP dominates key commuter routes with fast €2.5 cappuccino, its disposable-heavy, VC-backed growth model raises concerns about sustainability, fairness, and long-term cultural impact, making social permission to scale increasingly fragile.
CRAFT COFFEE VS. FAST COFFEE
Germany’s coffee landscape is deeply rooted in craft and ritual: many consumers value traditional brewing methods, origin transparency, and the relationship with skilled baristas, especially in independent cafés. At the same time, LAP operates at the opposite end of the spectrum, optimizing for speed, automation, and price that turns coffee into a functional, on-the-go product.
USER INTERVIEWS
Loyalty is pragmatic,
not emotional.
Customers don’t feel deeply attached to LAP as a brand; instead, they remain loyal as long as it stays cheap, fast, and conveniently located. Many describe the coffee as “decent for the price,” showing appreciation for the deal rather than the experience which makes retention fragile if any part of that value equation changes
PROBLEM STATEMENT
LAP Coffee delivers a compelling daily utility that is fast, low-cost, “good-enough” coffee for digitally native, price-sensitive urban drinkers. However its rapid, micro-unit expansion has triggered a legitimacy gap: many locals read the brand as a chain that extracts value (chainification, disposables, pressure on independents) rather than one that adds value to the neighborhood.
The challenge is to rebuild trust and social permission to grow so that commuters and students can keep accessing good, fast, consistent, affordable coffee without guilt and with clear benefits felt by the communities where LAP operates.
DEFINE
mission
Our mission is to move with the rhythm of everyday life, to be the coffee stop you can always count on. With LAP accessibility and quality can coexist, keeping coffee within reach for everyone. By being transparent in how we work, we build trust; through trust, we build community. We don’t just sit in the neighborhood, we belong to it. We are Life Among People.
DEFINE
vision
To create an inclusive urban coffee culture where affordability and quality coexist, empowering young people to enjoy everyday coffee. We envision a city where convenience never overshadows respect where our presence strengthens neighborhoods, and makes good coffee an accessible ritual for all.
Drag to see
mission and vision
The space
The experience begins inside LAP cafés, each cup becomes a starting point for Kiez exploration; not only through the digital guide, but also within the physical space itself. LAP locations act as small community hubs, hosting an open information wall where locals can share flyers for neighborhood events, workshops, pop-ups, or personal projects, turning the café into a living exchange between residents.
The strategy
Inspired by the Michelin Guide, LAP creates digital Kiez Guides that encourage people to explore their neighborhoods more intentionally. With this system local businesses gain visibility and foot traffic, residents feel represented and valued, and LAP becomes a gateway to local discovery, where each cup becomes the beginning of a journey.
The guide
Each LAP location acts as a local curator within the app, publishing a small neighborhood guide tailored to its surrounding Kiez such as lunch spots, independent bookstores, vintage shops, hidden courtyards, or quiet park benches. Users grab their coffee, open the app, and discover what’s happening around them. The experience encouraging people to move through the city more consciously and connected to their neighborhood.
YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE (OBVIOUSLY).
FROM LAP'S POINT OF VIEW
LAP is a neighborhood discovery app designed to help people reconnect with their local surroundings and the everyday life happening around them. It highlights small, independent places, cafés, bookstores, workshops, studios and the people behind them, encouraging users to slow down and experience their city at a more human pace.
FROM THE LOCAL BUSINESS POINT OF VIEW
LAP acts as a starting point for local exploration. It helps users discover independent businesses, hidden spots, and community-driven experiences they might otherwise overlook. At the same time, it gives local businesses visibility without relying on heavy advertising or algorithms. This creates a win–win situation: users find meaningful places, and local businesses reach people who genuinely care about their neighborhood.
