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Caribou Coffee Case Study
Elevating the In-Store Experience with Drive-Thru, Drive-Thru Maintenance, Music, Content Management and Audio Hardware.
About Caribou Coffee
Caribou Coffee, part of Panera Brands, serves high-quality handcrafted beverages and crave-worthy food in more than 800 coffeehouses worldwide. Since opening their first location in 1992, they’ve been committed to building personal connections in every experience. This desire drives their dedication to supporting their communities and crafting menu items with premium ingredients like specialty-grade coffee and real chocolate chips in their handcrafted beverages. Focused on smart growth, the brand operates and franchises coffeehouses across 11 countries, with the purpose of creating day-making experiences that spark a chain reaction of good.
Objective
Caribou Coffee set out to create a consistently warm, inviting, and engaging atmosphere across all U.S. locations. From in-store music to drive-thru technology, the goal was to elevate every interaction with seamless audio, efficient service, and a deeply embedded brand identity.
Solutions
Caribou Coffee operates two key store formats: full-service coffeehouses, offering a relaxed, sit-down environment, and drive-thru only locations, focused on drive-thru and walk-up service. Together with Mood Media, Caribou implemented a fully integrated experience across both formats—combining custom music, optimized sound systems, proactive drive-thru support, and centralized content management.
Curated Music Program
Caribou Coffee partnered with Mood Media to craft a music strategy that transforms every visit into a joyful, culturally relevant experience. The curated playlists reflect Caribou’s brand identity—blending trending hits, nostalgic throwbacks, and uplifting anthems to create a sound that feels vibrant, inclusive, and familiar.
Designed to engage guests across generations, the music selection evolves throughout the day and aligns with key cultural moments, from celebrating LGBTQIA+ artists during Pride Month to honoring Caribou’s heritage with special playlists and showcasing emerging talents. Caribou Coffee demonstrates its commitment to the community by incorporating local artists’ work into each music program and carefully selecting each track to foster a sense of connection, inspire positivity, and enhance the overall customer experience.
Caribou Coffee’s Branded Music Sample
Drive-Thru and Maintenance
Speed, clarity, and reliability are essential to Caribou Coffee’s drive-thru experience. Mood delivers on all fronts through advanced QSR technology from PAR and HME, enabling fast, seamless communication. A proactive national maintenance network ensures system uptime, minimizes repair costs, and keeps operations running smoothly. Mood’s expert technicians provide managed services and ongoing support to ensure continued functionality to optimize the drive-thru experience.
Content Management
To maintain a consistent, on-brand music experience across all locations, updates are led by Caribou Coffee’s brand team in collaboration with Mood’s Music supervision team. Internal store-level feedback is directly gather and applied by the Music supervision team through a centralized content management platform, Mood Harmony™. This ensures curated playlists remain culturally relevant and resonant, reflecting store team members’ tastes and building a close connection to the brand. What began as a bi-weekly collaboration during the initial programming phase has evolved into a focused quarterly review rhythm, allowing the music strategy to stay dynamic, relevant, and rooted in Caribou’s purpose of creating day-making experiences.
Audio Hardware
To ensure the best audio experience, Mood Media supplies Caribou Coffee with high-performance, commercial-grade sound systems tailored to each location. From speakers and amplifiers to professional wiring and volume controls, Mood’s expertly designed and installed systems deliver crystal-clear sound that enhances the atmosphere and complements the carefully curated playlists.
Results
Caribou Coffee elevated its guest experience and deepened brand connection by blending culture, technology, and sound into one seamless strategy. The custom music program delivers a consistent, joyful, warm, and vibrant atmosphere that resonates across generations, reinforcing Caribou’s brand identity. Enhanced drive-thru performance—powered by advanced equipment and proactive system maintenance—ensures speed, clarity, and reliability. Professionally designed audio systems provide crystal-clear audio, amplifying the impact of every playlist. With seamless content management across all locations, Caribou Coffee continues to deliver dynamic, memorable guest experiences at scale.
"Mood Media has been an invaluable partner for our facilities team, supporting our drive-thru communication equipment, timers, and coffeehouse music. Their all-in-one service model has helped improve our operational efficiency across multiple locations.
I’ve also consistently been impressed by their fast, professional service. When issues arise, their team resolves them quickly and logs everything directly into our service management platform. This integration allows us to easily track requests, monitor progress, and ensure nothing gets missed.”
– Jon Olsen, Senior Director, Facilities, Caribou Coffee
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