“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Rightly quoted by Warren Buffett. We all have either read or heard this quote numerous times in our lives. However, have we understood the gravity of it? Probably not! And those who have are the ones who made their business venture stand out from the crowd. Remarkably, as this statement is, yet we cannot undermine the role of digital and social media in today’s era wherein a business venture can be converted into a brand in a rather short span of time as compared to the steep growth curve that existed until a couple of years ago. It used to take decades or even a generation for a name to evolve as a brand and now we have witnessed instances wherein newly established ventures have proven to be tough competition to traditional brands only because they made good use of technology and its perks. We, as a startup no longer need to buy expensive super bowls or TV spots to grab attention but effective use of social media and online branding.
What is Branding?
Because branding is such a misused and misunderstood term, “What is branding?” has become a common question that we answer at De-sant.
BusinessDictionary.com explains branding as:
The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.
But, in simple term we prefer the quote by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos:
Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
Branding is how people view and perceive your company. It’s also how you as the owner, and your workforce view and perceive the company. It’s your what, your how, and your why.
It’s not the design of your logo, business cards, or website. Again, that’s your brand identity. We know how much you want Utelry – Buterly delicious food of yours to reach right audience. Follwoing are some of the points that forms fundamental of Branding –
- What are some of their core values?
- What do they stand for?
- What makes their product unique?
- What is their unique selling point?
- Who are their target customers?
Why Branding for a Start up is crucial?
Branding of a start-up business is one of the crucial cornerstones on which the entire success or failure relies upon. And this thumb rule applies to all – a Multinational organization with a billion-dollar net worth or a small café in a town upstate. The same rules apply for creating a niche for you as a start-up bakery anywhere in the world. When we talk about branding for a bakery, what are the first few things that come to mind – an attractive logo, a catchy name, visually appealing and lip-smacking delicacies? – The list is endless.
Yet, there is one key phenomenon that we overlook – as a bakery; you are dealing with celebration food. A child’s birthday, milestone anniversaries, wedding ceremonies – what is the one common thing in all such occasions? A tasteful baked and decorated to perfection cake. Friends or family planning to enjoy an evening together – a box of doughnuts would be the perfect indulgence. Visiting your best friend – don’t forget to buy her favourite cupcakes on the way.
Baked goods are hands down, an inseparable component from such and many other small and huge events in everyone’s lives. The realization of the fact that your products affect people’s most memorable moments is the first step towards creating an amazing brand for your bakery.
For successfully creating a space of your own, the first and foremost requirement is to make sure your baked goods taste good. When your product’s quality speaks for itself, there’s no looking back. There have been several success stories where empires have been built that started from one unbeatable dish – people loved it, recommended it to others and kept coming back. Ever heard of the domino effect or chain reaction? It is a phenomenon where a series of events are triggered similar to each other in response to one initiation. Yes, that is exactly what happens in such scenarios. However, the important thing to understand here is what is it that makes people want to choose you from your competitors? Why you and why not the next bakery down the street? And why choose you over and over again? That is where branding comes into the picture.
Come let’s dive a little deeper into branding concepts for a start-up bakery with the following ideas:
1. “Eat with your eyes”
The term is very well self-explanatory – even before enjoying our meals, we explore them with our eyes. A well-presented palette would add those brownie points to your customer service experience. We often undermine the power of the human sensory mechanism – what looks good must taste good – this thought taps into our brain’s consciousness when we look at meals being presented beautifully. However, there is one crucial aspect that is overlooked by almost every bakery. We care about how our products look, but we underestimate the visuals that we are using for our brand.
If we talk about colours, Bright colours give positive vibes over the gloomy colours. Human eyes can easily get attracted by bright colours. It can be one of the logics to attract customers and retain them. You need to seriously examine what colours make your customers hungry. Let’s talk an example of Red. The red colour raises a person’s blood pressure, heart rate, and causes hunger to be more prevalent. That is the reason why many restaurants choose to have red table cloths on tables or red accents on the walls. Red is a fantastic colour to paint the main room of an establishment where food is sold. Same if we talk about Yellow, it makes most people happy. It’s a happy go colour that is noticeable in most surroundings. When people are happy, they are more likely to eat than when they are feeling sad or overly calm.
Now let us talk about the Logo. A diligently designed bakery logo is the foreplay of creative skills. As a face is the index of mind, the logo is the index of the bakery. One glimpse at the logo will tell a lot about the quality, the texture of the bakery and all other features can be predicted. If your logo designer has done the job right, the logo design for your bakery should suggest something about what lays beyond the doors of your bakery business. Leveraging the power of only a few words and images, your logo can seek to communicate the texture and taste of your products. A lot more than baking goes into designing bakery logos. Rather than butter, flour, and sugar, you should be armed with the power of imagery and words.
Today, people just do not want to eat something because it tastes delicious, they prefer delicacies that look like a brand. After all, it gives that extra hit of dopamine when we boast to our friends and in our social circle that there is a new hit bakery in town and they are oh so amazing. This just doesn’t work as a good move to acquire new clients, but a smart marketing move that establishes your identity as a renowned brand through the word of mouth.
The essential thing to be kept in mind here is that the concept applies to your products as well as the surrounding environment. Even before stepping foot in your bakery, customers should be able to notice your place in crowded markets – choose attractive external décor and mesmerizing colours and ensure that the experience continues as they enter and explore your place. Right from the display cart to the packaging or the interiors to artistically created pastries – your customers should experience beauty in its entirety. Trust me; they would end up spending a lot more than expected.
2. The three A’s “Aura – Ambience – Authenticity”
To make sure that your customers’ experience is unforgettable and they leave with a mental note stating that this would be their next “go-to” place, focusing on the three A’s i.e. Aura, Ambience and Authenticity is crucial.
Aura is that distinct quality, a feeling, a power that surrounds someone and emanates to everyone around. Why else would a greeting with a smile when entering and a thank you while leaving make a great deal of difference? The vibes your customers experience prevail over. By introducing rather simple techniques, for instance, happy and smiling staff members, little gestures to make people feel special go a long way.
The ambience would be the next important aspect which defines the tone and quality of surroundings. Setting up flowers or plants inside, a virtual waterfall, unique lightening – the list is endlessly creative. The ambience ought to define the character of your bakery and that requires you to discover your signature qualities and let them reflect in the surroundings
Authenticity, simply put would mean staying true to your character, values and spirit. Never fall prey to changing trends just because everyone else decided to follow the herd. Yes, it is the need of the hour to constantly evolve according to market needs; yet, there is a balance to be maintained between evolutions and staying true to your roots. It goes a long way. Imagine being the only bakery in town that sells those hand-tossed pies when everyone else just mass produces them in a plant?
3. Bracket your idiosyncrasy
Identifying what makes you stand apart is another inevitably essential component for ensuring a start-up bakery’s success. However, its implementation is equally pivotal. Your passion for what you do always helps you establish a unique signature in the industry. Capitalize on that passion by materializing it. One such great example is the Canadian “Tim Hortons” restaurant chain. The popularity is such that Tim Hortons has become synonymous with Canada.
Undoubtedly, it took decades for the brand to evolve, reinvent itself and go through several organizational changes to reach where it now stands, yet every Canadian can vouch for the best coffee they are served at Tim Hortons – with each serving customized as per customers’ request. It represents an iconic image so popular that it represents the country’s identity leaving little scope for other similar chains.
Therefore, it is imperative to identify that “something special” about your bakery and materialize it. You might be the only bakery which specializes in innovative doughnuts or the one with quirky pastry toppings or out of the box icing flavours. Identify those strengths and let the world know.
4. Embrace social media
According to a Cornell University study, 59 per cent of chain restaurants and 79 per cent of independent restaurants use social media. Although a lot of bakeries are present on social, many of them struggle to figure out ways to successfully increase brand awareness and engagement on social media.
If you’re not active on social media, you’re missing out on a large audience and customers. Social media is one of the easiest ways to acquire customers. If you are worried about missing out on big deals and pushing customers away with your cold social media presence while starting your business, then simply follow some rules.
Create an engaging footprint for your brand on social media. Who doesn’t spend hours on Facebook and Instagram these days? We are surviving amidst a generation that has been born and is being brought up in an era that has witnessed the most extreme technological development ever. Technology is inseparable from our lives. Make sure creating a perfect profile with accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information like your location, opening hours, and contact details. In addition to this, you can also include information like your website, offers or deals, etc. depending on the social network.
Creating eye-catching pages on social media, engaging with your audience, conducting games, quizzes, polls and other activities and offering lucrative deals online to customers is the next generation idea of popularity and business development. Publish your success stories and emphasize the ideas behind them. People fall in love with content that is genuinely and relatable and they feel valued to be associated with someone passionate about their business. Remember to take good photographs. Photographing your dishes well makes a lot of impact. If your food doesn’t look beautiful, then no one will want to eat it?
Social media also increases your purview of the customer base, therefore providing better and a higher number of business opportunities. The idea is to convert social media presence into a profitable business attracting magnet. If you do advertise, do it the right way – make your presence felt.
In this, using the appropriate hastags can help you a lot.
When you’re working on your social posts, it’s essential to understand the best hashtags for your business.
By using popular hashtags, you can get your social posts (and thus, your brand) in front of your target audience.
But there’s a catch: your use of hashtags needs to be strategic in order to work well.
Basically, there are three different types of hashtags that you’ll want to focus on:
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Branded hashtags:
These are the hashtags that include your company’s name or motto, like KitKat’s #HaveaBreak. These hashtags identify posts as being either by or about your brand.
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Local hashtags:
Your local area probably has its own hashtags. These types of hashtags help your local business be found by those in your area. To find these, check out what local-based hashtags other businesses in your area are using online.
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Trending hashtags:
The biggest trends are easy to find with tools like Hashtagify or All Hashtag. Always try to ride the wave of popular hashtags, jumping into the conversation while it’s still going on.
5. Add the distinctive touch
Another essential component that helps a start-up bakery tremendously & creates its niche is giving a personal touch to your creations. It would also be great to keep in mind the customer’s perspective – for instance: a free goodie with a birthday cake for the kid, delivering your products at locations inaccessible for other bakers or during odd hours such as midnight, an encouraging note/card with a farewell cake, celebrating festivals wholeheartedly by introducing special festive goods or complimentary bakery logo magnets for the customer whom you had fun serving. If the products are out of stock, notify your customers when a product they searched for is available in stock. In case of a website, if the customer is returned to your website more than once, give them a welcome message and offer product suggestions based on what they browsed for or previous purchase.
6. Aroma is Free!
Do you recall the smell when you open a cupcake box and it takes you back to the memory lane. Yes, scent coming from your delicious baked goods from your favourite place. Any smart baker knows that keeping their doors wide open, when weather allows, gives them free advertising to consumers who are in the vicinity. The best part is, as long as you’re already baking, it’s completely free to prop open your doors and entice hungry patrons with your mouth-watering aroma!
Again, the list is endless with innovative ideas. The purpose, however, is to ensure that these little gestures make your customers returning to your place and also spreading word of the mouth with positive feedback.
Simultaneously, it is imperative to keep on reinventing your business. Nothing makes your customers stay forever if they do not get to experience something new now and then. Winning loyal customers do not necessarily take big budgets. When it comes to customer loyalty, its small gestures that get appreciated the most and remembered by all. Adding a simple personal touch to frequent interactions you have with your customers has a huge impact on how they perceive your brand.
Why you should think of hiring a Brand Agency for your startup Bakery?
The biggest mistakes we see startups make is hiring an intern to handle the marketing strategy and campaign. While an intern is a great asset in helping to create content, a more experienced team member is needed to create the strategy.
Establishing a credible online personal brand is especially important now. With Covid-19 making it impossible to attend industry events, entrepreneurs are moving to the online space to make noise. Personal branding helps first and foremost with leads.
Hiring full-time team members is difficult and costly, which is why many startups and SMEs alike opt to hire an agency. An agency offers a team of minds ready to handle all marketing and PR needs with experts in each field often at a lower price.
Whichever option, it’s important to find an appropriate team. 23% of startups said a team issue (lack of experienced team members, lack of problem-solving skills, etc.) was the reason for their failure. And we don’t want the same with anyone of you. Think smartly and work smartly.
As such, you will always know what your competitors are doing, which can help you get an edge. Having this other set of eyes will prove useful over the long haul.
There are different type of Brandinf agencies, you can look for as per your convienence –
- Full Service Agency
- Digital Agency
- Design Agency
- Interactive Design Agency
- Advertising Agency
- Design Innovation Agency
Conclusion
Great products will sell themselves, but only once people know about them, and in the Digital, advertising-filled world we live in, standing out from the rest can be tricky. That’s why having a recognisable Bakery Brand is really important to make sure you become people’s go-to baker.
So here I am, having divulged some of the branding tips and tricks that would help your venture grow and succeed in a way you would have imagined it to be. After all, isn’t it one of the greatest joys to watch your passion turning into a profitable profession? Every business has its learning curve with several episodes of success and failure. Nothing builds in a fortnight; therefore, let’s not undermine the importance of staying focused and let the efforts turn into beautiful results over time. We would be ecstatic to help and guide you through this journey and overcome any hurdles that come across in the road ton achievement. Feel free to get in touch @9667539053.
Remember, life is not a piece of cake but life is also too short to say No to Cake. If baking is your superpower, embrace it. Bookmark this article as your comprehensive resource to plan an all-new bakery brand of your dreams. Something magical is probably waiting around the corner.
