bake - March 2012 - 22

BRANDING TO WOMEN
branding your bakery on a national In the food business, solidifying your brand among women shoppers is especially important when you consider that nearly 80% of food shoppers are women, according to retail industry estimates. Why do you suppose cupcake shops are doing so well? Boutique bakeries cater to the softer side of bakery and promote fun and adventure. Cupcake shops effectively target female shoppers through the use of vibrant colors, well-lit display cases and inviting atmospheres. A growing number of cake and cupcake shops are evolving into hybrid gourmet stores that are part Williams-Sonoma and part Dean & Deluca. Panera Bread is the darling of the foodservice industry for several key reasons, but mainly because this 1,500-unit bakery cafe chain knows how to market to women. Despite the “We had a very old, tired brand. If you looked around our store 10 years ago, you’d see many different logos,” he says. “When my generation took over, one of the ﬁrst things we did was hire a professional branding company called LPK, which is one of the ﬁnest branding houses in the industry. We worked with them to revitalize our brand. We had focus groups to learn what the right look is, what the feeling needs to be. We view the brand as incredibly important and make sure it stays consistent. It continues to evolve onto many different products.” Packaging plays another vital role. John Roeser of Chicago’s Roeser’s Bakery developed a packaging campaign that over the years ensures brand recognition. “When you leave our bakery with a cake, it’s on a printed doily, it’s in a printed box, it has a printed cake server attached to it, and it also has printed napkins attached to it. There is no way you Consider that mothers dictate 60% of brands their children will use regularly for the rest of their lives, according to branding expert and best-selling author Martin Lindstrom. How does Panera Bread do it? Panera prides itself on touting high quality food in a warm and inviting environment. Nearly all of Panera’s bakery cafes feature a menu with antiobiotic-free chicken, whole grain breads, and select organic and natural ingredients. The menu offers a wide variety of year-round favorites complemented by a tasteful selection of seasonal specialties, geared for families and children. Consumers continue to show strong support for local products, according to the latest research from the Food Marketing Institute. Eight of 10 people surveyed in FMI’s 2011 shopper trends report say they purchase local products occasionally. While there is no agreed-upon deﬁnition of what exactly is “local,” 44% of consumers say state lines determine what they consider local. Another 41% consider local Local awareness Branding is not only important, but it is also the starting point for every day. Competing brands are all around, trying to sway customers to their place instead of yours. But one trend favoring your neighborhood bakery nowadays is the fact that consumers are gaining interest in local brands over national brands. can eat my cake and not know where it came from — nor anyone at your office or anybody at your party.” scale, it never hurts to seek out help from an expert. Chip Graeter of Graeter’s in Cincinnati, OH, explains how they turned around the brand of his family’s historic bakery with the help of a branding company.

fact that more men are shopping for food and groceries in today’s world, women continue to represent the majority of food shoppers and are most often their household’s key decision maker when it comes to food purchases.

22 < MAR 2012 | bakemag.com

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bake - March 2012

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