Julie’s Cakery Creating a Brand Identity for Small Business
INTRODUCTION
Julie Smith bakes and sells desserts and cakes from her kitchen in Oxford, NC. She is known for creating the types of cakes that look and taste like they came from a grandmother’s kitchen, adding both style and carefully handcrafted quality.
Julie is also part of Able&Co. President & Chief Growth Officer, Jenny Taylor’s family, and has provided her catering and baking services to the agency and its clients on numerous occasions.
OBJECTIVES
When Julie finally decided to follow her friends’ and customers’ advice to open her own cakery, she met with the Able&Co. team to create a memorable and visually pleasing brand identity, including a business name. The main goal was to capture the essence of Julie’s unique approach to baking and desserts.
COOKING UP CREATIVITY
Julie’s expertise came from years of baking and working as part of various catering teams. She decided to start her own company, focusing primarily on baking cakes and desserts for weddings and events. Julie’s offerings stood out thanks to her style of producing baked goods with an elevated homemade look, feel and taste. Her product was not overly pristine, or over-processed. Instead, the homey distinctiveness of her sweets added a welcoming and authentic touch to her customers’ events.
Julie’s Cakery also helped fulfill a need for a rural town like Oxford and its surrounding towns. A large part of Julie’s network includes churches and catering companies who use her as their primary source for baked goods.
Strategy and Concept
It was our goal to create a brand identity for Julie’s Cakery. To capture Julie’s unique and authentic approach to baking and the sweet creations she offers, we chose a warm palette of browns, cinnamon and cream colors along with a retro-inspired aesthetic, an homage to 1950s and 1960s styles.
For Julie’s Cakery’s brand messaging, we created the structure of “REAL. GREAT. CAKES.” This communication segmented her business structure into three core elements: Real conveyed authenticity, Great communicated high quality, and Cakes showcased her key product. Together they worked together as a punchy tagline, its division making an almost audibly bold statement.
Finally, we directed custom photography of her beautiful cakes and desserts, making these images the main visual focal point.
IMPLEMENTATION & TACTICS
The initial deliverable was the business name, logo and brand identity standards. After these fundamental elements were approved by the client, we worked in collaboration to expand upon her ideas and created the Julie’s Cakery website. The site had a straightforward approach, providing the general public with an easy user experience while navigating product selection and options without losing the new brand’s styling. We conceptualized and developed packaging and labels, which she used on her cake and dessert boxes. The final touch was a social media campaign to let everyone know that Julie’s Cakery was open for business.
Results
The Julie’s Cakery brand and website have successfully given Julie’s small business exposure and elevated her brand to match her delicious desserts. Julie explained to the Able&Co. team that our work allowed her business look like an established brand and company to prospects, which provided opportunities that she typically would not have gotten.
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