Kestrel Coffee Roasters is a fictional small business in Newcastle, New South Wales, founded six years ago by two former baristas. It employs nine staff: three roasters, a two-person packing and dispatch team, a sales representative, an office manager and the two owners. The business roasts about 2,000 kilograms of coffee a month.

Around 70% of revenue comes from wholesale supply to 38 cafes across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and the Central Coast at a price of $42 per kilogram. These accounts were won through personal visits by the owners and the sales representative, free barista training and a quarterly visit to each cafe. Wholesale volumes have grown 15% in the past year. The remaining 30% of revenue comes from retail sales of 250 gram and 1 kilogram bags through the website and at two weekend markets, at a price equivalent to $56 per kilogram. Retail volume has been flat at about 600 kilograms a month for twelve months.

Kestrel describes its target retail customer as aged 25 to 45, living in the Newcastle, Hunter or Central Coast region, with above-average household income and a strong interest in product quality and sustainability. The owners believe this customer is willing to pay more for coffee with a traceable origin story.

Promotion to date has relied on word of mouth, the relationships with cafes, and publicity from a second placing in a regional barista competition. Social media posts are irregular, the business has no email list, and it has never offered a discount or sales promotion to online customers. A larger competitor from Sydney has recently begun offering Hunter cafes a wholesale price of $36 per kilogram, and one owner has proposed matching this price.

The other owner has proposed instead spending $9,000 on a six-month social media campaign targeting local consumers, with the goal of lifting online retail sales by 40%. The campaign would highlight that Kestrel's beans are 'sustainably sourced' and 'carbon neutral'. At present about 60% of Kestrel's green beans come from farms with an independent sustainability certification, and the business has not measured its carbon emissions.