Case Study – Empire Baking Company

background

Empire Baking Company is a wonderful, family-owned, wholesale, high-end bakery supplier in Dallas. They also run a lovely little retail store/café on the side, essentially as an outlet for extra baked goods from their wholesale business. They have mouthwateringly delicious pastries, artisan breads, homemade cookies, jams, and well, we could just go on and on!

objective

Empire Baking Company came to Front Porch Marketing with the objective to increase sales in their retail store. At the time, the only promotions Empire Baking Company did were product sampling (yum!) at various events and some advertising in Edible Dallas and Fort Worth magazine.

solution

Front Porch quickly realized that Empire Baking Company had taken a step in the right strategic direction but needed to focus initiatives around those that truly engaged their consumer audience to develop stronger relationships.

Before this could happen, Front Porch developed a key message strategy to define Empire Baking Company’s tone of voice and create signature catch phrases that capitalized on key points of product differentiation. With this critical starting point in place, FPM jumped in both online and offline to:

  • maximize event exposure – carefully selecting the best events, negotiating booth location, creating goody bags for visitors, sharing on social media, etc.
  • refresh Empire Baking Company’s website – redesigning with their new voice and story, putting more emphasis on the retail side of the business, adding blogs to share news and encourage customer dialog
  • update their advertising – again, ensuring the new Empire Baking Company retail story was consistent
  • converse on social media – developing strategies for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
  • cross-sell with wholesale clients – “breadsighting” on Instagram featured pics of enticing Empire Baking Company products in clients’ venues (say Katy Trail Ice House) which the sales team at Empire Baking Company then used competitively to attract more wholesale business

results

Cartwheels! Yes, we had plenty of reasons to jump and shout! Retail sales:

  • increased 9.4% in the first three months
  • grew every single month in the first year with average monthly sales up 10.7%
  • jumped 17.0% in Q4 with a whopping 28.6% increase in December alone

client feedback

“We’re beyond thrilled with the innovative thinking and flawless execution Front Porch Marketing has brought to our company, and the results are nothing short of amazing,” says Empire Baking Company Owner and Founder Meaders Ozarow.