Hey, you look like…!

H

At opening time last Saturday, our customer service person unlocked the door and was just about to say to the waiting customer, “Has anyone ever told you  that you look like….[fill in name of Canadian well known figure]?”, when he said, “I’m here to pick up my order, it’s under [fill in name of Canadian well known figure]”.IMG_5136-Edit-Edit-S

As it turns out, we had done cupcakes for this person’s child’s birthday, with cute little fondant toppers in her favourite cartoon character – not the toppers shown to the left with a fictitious company that I made up for the photo shoot. (After months of guiltily using the blue bank’s logo on toppers featured on our website, I figured it was time to start making corporate logos up). Anyway, the point of my story is to mention that we are seeing an amazing take-up by customers of our toppers and custom cakes. Here’s 3 things I have found interesting in our foray into edible ink:

1. The greater the specificity, the better. The above mentioned celebrity doubled his order once we showed him that we could put the exact cartoon character onto the cupcakes, not just a random, say, frog.

2. The point of the toppers and images on cakes isn’t always about aesthetics – some images are in weird colours and the messages obscure:  “Way to go, TK7, on instal 1!”. Huh?! Obviously, it means a lot to someone.

3. Online customers are savvy and can figure things out. Ailish thought it would take time and patience to have people actually use the option to download a JPG right into their shopping cart when buying toppers. But no, this week we received a large online order with a major company’s logo just popped right in – no fuss, no muss, let’s just get it done.

I know I have mentioned this before but, really, trying new ideas in a business is a constant source of surprises: you win some, you lose some!

About the author

Jean Blacklock

Jean opened the popular Prairie Girl Bakery in the financial district of Toronto in 2011. She owned and operated the business until it closed in 2021 as a result of the pandemic’s impact on downtown Toronto. Read more about her background in commerce, law, and entrepreneurship here.

By Jean Blacklock

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