Think Inside the Cupcake Box

When a business or a marketing team is limited by resources or time, that is when they must use your superpowers. They must think inside the cupcake box.

Constraints can help you find solutions because it more tightly and narrowly defines a problem and causes you to work extra hard at solutions.

You can’t “throw money or people” at the problem when you have a limited budget to spend and a small staff.

Inside the Box

Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis Berman, co-founders of Georgetown Cupcake, were inspired by their grandmother’s love of baking. They quit their jobs and started a company. Sophie and Katherine weren’t looking to conquer the world. All they wanted was to create something local that had a loyal following. Customers would line up outside their local shop to place orders. They were a hit in DC. Then they decided to expand.

Then they had this wacky idea called THE CUPCAKE CAM.

This idea allowed them to bring customers inside the store in a real- time view of what is happening in the bakery. Imagine giving everyone in the world, a tour of your bakery at virtually no cost. The cupcake cam allowed them to provide proof of the high quality ingredients and hand-crafted decorating that they promoted online.

Then, two events pushed them along toward controlled expansion.

First, New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni, by chance, came into the bakery and wrote a glowing review. This publicity set off a wild demand for them to ship their cupcakes all over the U.S. They resisted expanding, raising money and getting out “ahead of their skis.”

Second, was their decision to open up a second store in NYC. They had “food cred” based on Bruni’s review and the second shop allowed them some controlled growth. They used data to see that most of the shipment requests came from New York City. So it was the obvious place for the next store.

Cupcake Cam is Cool

Over time, the cupcake cam became a critical part of building a community of cupcake lovers who also wanted to know what was happening behind the scenes. With very little money, they took a simple technology and found a way to differentiate themselves in a meaningful way to customers.

With the CUPCAKE CAM, you can see how they mix, bake and decorate each cupcake. No old cupcakes from the day before sold as fresh. Decorating is by hand. Watch as they used the best ingredients.

Marketing Inside the Cupcake Box

Define the outcome you want is a great place to start when you have a challenge. Think about your “current state versus your new state.” Where do you want to get?
Putting constraints around a solution means you have to work extra hard to be creative. We can’t spend more than $1,000 on a solution – or, we need to get an idea in place in 10 days.
Georgetown Cupcake didn’t want to spend a lot of money but needed a creative way to build a community and to bring customer’s closer to them.
The Cupcake Cam was original, distinctive and easy to execute.
The idea is viral and shareable too – who doesn’t want to go behind the scenes?

How are you thinking inside the box these days and baking a difference? A great book about the benefit of constraints is called A Beautiful Constraint.

The cupcake cam is like icing on the cake! A simple and sweet idea.

Could you use some marketing help with ideas that are as creative as the cupcake cam? For the icing on the cake, call me at 919 720 0995 to talk.