Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
👋 Hey - Heather and Corrie here with the Baking it Down Podcast with Sugar Cookie Marketing (a group on Facebook full of sugar cookiers turned business owners).
🍪 We're here to help you rise with your reach, flood with new followers, bake up new ideas, and make that all-important dough (while makin' that dough - see the pun there?)
🤑. What’s it about? We’re a Facebook Group turned Podcast, Membership, Book Club, and Baking 101 that’s dedicated to assisting bakers in effectively marketing online to generate more sales and better manage their businesses.
🧠 With free Facebook Live classes, hundreds of resources, and thousands of like-minded bakers, there’s a lot to learn in "SCM" (aka Sugar Cookie Marketing). ️🎧 As an extension of our Facebook group, this podcast is here to let you learn by listening. 📈 We'll cover group topics, marketing trends, and more (leaving this wide open in case Corrie wants to start singing).
💸 We take the sweet art of selling online to the cottage bakery world with marketing methods that move products (and pastries).👂 So open up those glorious ear canals because we have a podcast! Just when you’ve thought you’ve “heard” it all with those marketing "miracle" twins (that's our last name - not a proclamation), we’ve got something just for you each week!
🥣 As a baker, you don't always have the luxury of two hands needed to scroll in Sugar Cookie Marketing Group or crack open a book in Sugar Cookie Bookies, but what you can do is listen (unless you're my kid asking “what’s for dinner” for the millionth time).
👐 Hands full of flour? No problem! 👍 18 dozen iced cookies due tomorrow? Let’s do this. The Baking it Down Podcast by Sugar Cookie Marketing is a weekly podcast geared toward helping you grow your bakery business - dropping (almost) every Tuesday.
📅 We choose a topic each week that's either something new and emerging in the world of social media or something that we saw in "The Group" that was a hot topic and we bake it down... I mean, "break" it down for you. 🗯️ What you can expect in the podcast is about an hour of chit-chat with the meat and potatoes right at the beginning of the episode.
🥔 That’s when we dive into the marketing topic of the week! 📞 Oh yeah, folks can call / text / email in with their questions too - a fun way to hear from other bakers out there.
Our promises to you:
1️⃣ We always make it clean = no cursing. We understand that you are busy and could be around little ones while also trying to get your weekly dose of business growth so we make sure that each episode would make our grandma proud and keep it clean so you can listen while also living your life.
2️⃣ We always make it fun. There’s a lot of negativity in the world so we try and make the podcast an upbeat and fun learning experience for you. I mean, we try to make the Instagram updates and changes as happy as we can, but come on Instagram! Give it a rest! No more changes!
3️⃣ Other than that, we take a positive approach to marketing We are also *not* professional podcasters. I feel like we need to say this because, hey, sometimes we get giggles! We do our best to extend our marketing knowledge to you all free of charge each week at the cost of listening to our higher-than-normal pitched voices and the occasional giggle spree.
4️⃣ You can find the podcast on all the major platforms and you can typically expect a new episode each Tuesday afternoon (unless life happens). We invite everyone to listen.
Either start from the beginning or work backward! The episodes don’t build off themselves so you won’t be confused hearing one before the other. You just might miss new Lives we mention but you can always catch the replay in the Sugar Cookie Marketing Group on Facebook!
Baking it Down with Sugar Cookie Marketing 🍪
110. Baking it Down - The Cookie Car Lot
🚗 Pricing the Cookie Car Lot 🚙
Wanna buy a... car? Today's podcast topic (which is a day late due to CookieCon - no, it's not Wednesday, sorry about that) is about the "cookie car lot" - comparing how automotive brands use pricing tiers to sell more cars... and we'll use it to sell more cookies.
🏎 Showing off the Flagship
Every major auto manufacturer has a flagship vehicle - that one car so fast, so cool, and so very, very expensive.
- 😬 Audi has the R8 ($158,000)
- 😯 Acura has the NSX ($171,000)
- 😲 Mercedes has the AMG GT R ($179,00)
- 😱 Lexus had the LFA ($818,000)
Why sell a vehicle way too expensive for most of your target market? 💪 It's a flex for the brand. Essentially, the automotive company is sayin', 👀 "Yo - look at what we can do - and all this skill and talent you can't afford? It's incorporated into the vehicle you can afford."
In your cookie sales - you can flex with your best set. But just like the auto-manufacturers, don't make it your 100% marketing focus. Your "flex set" is a signal to your capabilities incorporated into your work-horse sets - your big sellers. And while your flex-set may be a net loss, 🎠 it'll help prop you up to sell those forever-favorites like unicorns and mermaids. 🧜♀
🚙 Have an Economy Offering
Many automakers know that if they can just get you to try the brand, they'll have a car client for life. This is where manufacturers have their economy lines - these aren't the cars in the commercials, but they are cars they keep on the lot.
- 🚗 Audi has its A Line
- 🚗 Mercedes has its A Class
- 🚗 Toyota has its Corolla
- 🚗 Kia has its Rio
These are the budget-friendly options for folks who want to enter a brand but can't afford the top-of-the-line or even the mid-range. 💸 But these auto companies don't want you walkin' away without a key in hand, so they keep the budget-friendly vehicles ready to package up for the price-conscious.
Same with your cookies. While you have your flex set ($$$), and your workhorse sets ($$), keeping an economically friendly option in your back pocket can get people "into your brand" while also making the sale. 🤑 Just like car companies, drop out the "extras" until you find a price point that is a win-win for both you and your potential client. Fewer colors? Fewer designs? Smaller sizes? All of these are ways to keep people on your "cookie car lot."
Market your Work Horse Mid-Range LineUp
You know each car company's mid-range big sellers - why? You see them marketed the most often, and thus likely most seen on the road.
- 🚖 Kia has its Telluride
- 🚖 Honda has its Accord
- 🚖 Ford has its F150
- 🚖 Acura has its TLX
These are the cars that sell the most and make the most - while also wow-ing the consumer. The cookie-equivalents? Mermaids, unicorns, kids' birthday sets - the cookies you know how to pump out for a low-cost higher-price profit. This is where your marketing is focused. Sure - flex once in a blue moon - but keep the limelight on these sets. They're guaranteed to pad your pocket without packin' a mental punch.
