Baking Up Business

I work part-time at a popular bakery in Vancouver that offers an extraordinary variety of cakes, pastries, cookies, artisan breads, and much more. From the New York  Cherry Cheesecake to the French Chocolate Concorde, there really is something available to win over every “I don’t have a sweet tooth” or “I’m on a sugar-free, wheat-free, dairy-free diet” believer who reluctantly approaches our counter (usually to accompany their sweet-toothed spouse…or the friend who finally realized that eating sugar-free, wheat-free, dairy-free cardboard does, in fact, taste like cardboard.)

Ever since my first marketing course at Sauder began, I could not help but notice all the many applications of marketing strategy that are present at the bakery. Inspired by my ability to actually connect textbook content to real life for once (believe it or not, I have yet to take any second derivatives while counting change), I have decided to dedicate this blog to examining the various marketing aspects of operating the bakery. Henceforth, the bakery will be referred to as, well, the Bakery.

Is the Bakery a value-oriented firm? That, of course, is the million dollar question. I would say that the Bakery has a relational orientation, meaning that it focuses on building long-term relationships with customers. Even if a customer drops under $10 per visit, the lifetime profitability of that customer may add up to something much more substantial. This is in contrast to a transactional orientation, in which the customer-seller relationship is regarded as a series of one-time individual transactions.

Not only does the Bakery build relationships with customers, but it also partners with other businesses as well. At their second location inside a busy shopping mall, the Bakery offers Asian baked goods (i.e. steamed buns, BBQ pork buns, pineapple coconut buns) to cater to the clientele in that area. The Asian buns are ordered and brought in fresh from a bakery in Chinatown everyday, and they are arguably just as popular (if not, more popular) as the Bakery’s offerings. At the Bakery in the mall, we also do a good job of promoting our Chinatown partner, and this has created a strong relationship with our Asian bun supplier.  

Finally, the Bakery does try to evolve over time with our consumers. The trend towards using local, seasonal, market-fresh ingredients in our products has definitely gone over well (the fresh raspberry tarts this summer were gorgeous), as has our new line of gluten-free baked goods. The use of organic flour in our breads and hand-kneading when making the breads indicate that the Bakery is listening to what our consumers want, namely homestyle, healthier baking at its very best.

Bakery Bit: Don’t know what a Concorde is? Take a look at the picture below. The inside is made up of alternating layers of chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge cake, and the outside is covered in small tubes of chocolate meringue. It’s a very delicate dessert. I have destroyed several.