The Orbit of Your Day: Coffee Embedded in the City’s Rhythm

How we searched for meaning within routine routes, spoke with baristas, and built a brand that accompanies everyday life.

Trendwatching, research, semiotic analysis, and brand strategy for launching a coffee shop chain

to you with ambitions to scale immediately and and expand beyound Kazakhstan intuition is no longer enough. It requires structure and a deep external perspective. That’s how Luna came to us.

Specialty or classic, to go or slow, with friends or alone — segmenting this audience is not simple.

to you with ambitions to scale immediately and expand beyound Kazakhstan intuition is no longer enough. It requires structure and a deep external perspective. That’s how Luna came to us.

But when a business comes

Sometimes an entrepreneur intuitively understands their customer — and it shows. That’s how heartfelt brands are born, the ones we all love and recognize.

To build a precise brand, you need to carve out shapes and motivations. We began with interviews with five leading barista-roasters — professionals who don’t just brew coffee, but feel how it lives within the city. From these conversations, we built a hypothesis map, identified the core, and сформed a pool of over 40 personas, 15 of whom became participants in in-depth interviews.

“Everyone loves coffee.”

Specialty or classic, to go or slow, with friends or alone — segmenting this audience is not simple.

to you with ambitions to scale immediately and expand beyond Kazakhstan, intuition is no longer enough. It requires structure and a deep external perspective. That’s how Luna came to us.

comes to you with ambitions to scale immediately and expand beyond Kazakhstan, intuition is no longer enough. It requires structure and a deep external perspective. That’s how Luna came to us.

But when a business comes

But when a business

Sometimes an entrepreneur intuitively understands their customer — and it shows. That’s how heartfelt brands are born, the ones we all love and recognize.

To build a precise brand, you need to carve out shapes and motivations. We began with interviews with five leading barista-roasters — professionals who don’t just brew coffee, but feel how it lives within the city. From these conversations, we built a hypothesis map, identified the core, and сформed a pool of over 40 personas, 15 of whom became participants in in-depth interviews.

“Everyone loves coffee.”

What did the research reveal? Astana is a city of strict rhythm. There are few “irregular” schedules. Residents wake up at roughly the same time. Mornings mean traffic, offices, schools — and the same routes repeat in the evening. Coffee needs to intergrate into this routine as a necessary and intuitive element.

People told us:

• A public sector employee drinks their first coffee as a substitute for breakfast, and the second to get through meetings.
• A mother on maternity leave chooses a café where they simply bring her cup outside.
• A hedonist orders beans for home but still stops by a café after lunch to try something new or maintain dialogue with colleagues.

Astana is cold. Astana is direct. The brand needed to be close. Like parking at the entrance. Like coffee that is not too expensive, yet good. Like a format that accompanies you.

What did the research reveal? Astana is a city of strict rhythm. There are few “irregular” schedules. Residents wake up at roughly the same time. Mornings mean traffic, offices, schools — and the same routes repeat in the evening. Coffee needs to intergrate into this routine as a necessary and intuitive element.

People told us:

• A public sector employee drinks their first coffee as a substitute for breakfast, and the second to get through meetings.
• A mother on maternity leave chooses a café where they simply bring her cup outside.
• A hedonist orders beans for home but still stops by a café after lunch to try something new or maintain dialogue with colleagues.

Astana is cold. Astana is direct. The brand needed to be close. Like parking at the entrance. Like coffee that is not too expensive, yet good. Like a format that accompanies you.

Within the brand team, we arrived at a metaphor: coffee as the fifth element of the day — a small nod to Luc Besson. It’s not the main element, but it makes the day complete.

Like the first snowflakes or the sound of keys dropped in the same place every day. It softens the edges. It binds the day into a whole.

• Semiotic analysis of coffee as a category
• Research into behavioral patterns and consumption scenarios
• Interviews with experts and target audiences
• Development of brand platform and positioning
• Creation of creative framework, metaphor, and tonal direction

What We Did:

Results:

• Positioning: coffee as the orbit of your day (captured in the line “Around Your Day”)
• Brand archetype: the caring companion
• Tone of voice: calm, polite, unobtrusive
• Communication embedded in the city’s rhythm and consumer behavior
• A cohesive brand image

The name had already been chosen by the client, so we did not make the metaphor explicit in external communication. Instead, the research gave new meaning to the existing name. Luna is a satellite — companion that follows you. Supporting the right trajectory of your day.