About The Coffee Group
We help you identify, attract & engage your audience
Ownership
John & Linda Coonen
• Experts in Marketing Strategy, Voice Of The Customer Research & Graphic Design
• Founders, CMS Expo Business Conference
• Founders, Lakeside Arts Park
Sectors We Serve
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Nutrition
• Fitness
• Sports Manufacturing
How We Work
• US-based
• National clientele
• Distributed workforce
Wherever you are, however you work, we adjust to your needs to make working together a great experience. Use our secure portal for approvals, asset storage and archives.
Contact us to on the channel of your choice, or good old face-to-face! We LOVE our clients!
Our History
Founded in 1987 as a Graphic Design Firm
After earning a BA in Studio Art at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, owner John Coonen immediately opened a graphic design studio, focusing on designing logos and identity programs, tradeshow exhibits, point of sale & print design.
The small studio quickly grew, adding personnel to offer writing and direct marketing & advertising for its many clients in healthcare, fitness and manufacturing.
Following its biggest client at the time, the firm moved to Chicago, and in 1993, converted to an all-digital interactive design firm & internet service provider, called ATN Interactive. It was the first of its kind in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, producing and hosting hundreds of websites and mobile apps for banks, hospitals, manufacturers and tech companies, along with offering dial-up and dedicated internet service in the region.
In 2001, the brand-name “The Coffee Group” was born, as the company sold off its connectivity & web hosting services, to focus strictly on digital marketing & sales – from email marketing to content development and at its core, web design & development. Content Management to e-commerce.
In 2002, with the explosion of Open Source software worldwide, we founded a modest Open Source user group called JoomlaChicago.
With the help of a tight-knit group of dedicated volunteers, that small group of people helping people would soon grow to become the largest Open Source CMS Community in the world. Building upon that success, to bridge the growing gap between technologists & business leaders, we created and hosted the CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference. We brought together thought leadership in the Open Source CMS, Enterprise Content Management and Content Marketing sectors to share ideas, establish standards, and introduce them to thousands of new customers!
The Coffee Group grew steadily, offering strategic marketing consulting, Go To Market strategy, and digital campaign development.
Three decades and thousands of marketing projects later, we moved the studio to beautiful Broomfield, Colorado, twenty minutes north of Denver. We continue to offer strategic marketing consulting, design, marketing research and event production.