Me? A Pastry Chef?

Dear World,

I had some trouble trying to come up with a topic for this week’s blog. The purpose of this week’s blog is to create a sort of “skeleton” for my current topic report that I want to submit at the end of the semester. I thought about it for days and the only thing that I could think of was baking! Since the report is supposed to be something I have a strong interest in and I to bake whenever I get the chance to, I thought about what I wanted to do with my future and baking.

I know I’m here at UT for school, and I ultimately want to use my education to get a good job at a big company and be successful. But behind all of that, I secretly want to be a pastry chef (well, I guess it’s not really a secret anymore since it’s on this blog) and open up my own bakery. I’ve been thinking about it and a few topics/questions have come up in my head. How do you get customers to enjoy their in-store experience and come back for more? And how do certain pastry/dessert items become a “hit” in society (like the recent surge of frozen yogurt stores and small cupcake shops)? The questions I’ve come up with relate to customer insights because they look into what keeps customers happy and loyal to the store brand.

For the first question, how do you get customers to enjoy their in-store experience and come back for more, I think about the things that I enjoy when I visit stores that I love going to and things that customers who visit bakeries love.  I’ve actually never been to a nice bakery before, but I went to my first cupcake shop last weekend in Dallas. I paid $4 for a cupcake - money that I could’ve used to bake 3 dozens of cupcakes myself. But I didn’t. Why?

I came up with a list of things:

·         What makes customers comfortable when they visit the store/bakery?

o   Customers might enjoy going to stores because of the colors and atmosphere of the store. The cupcake shop I went to was called Dimples. The store was simply decorated with the feel of a luxury store. The first thing I saw when I walked in was a giant cupcake covered in plastic jewels so big that I couldn’t even wrap your arms around it. The store was covered in pink and it was lined with lights along the edges of the counter. It gave a feel of an upscale place which made me feel okay to spend $4 on a cupcake.

o   Customers might return to a store because of the positive customer service. My parents own a restaurant back at home and make sure that the customers come first. We know all of our frequent customers by a first name basis and make time during lunch and dinner rushes to go talk to them and get to know them better.

o   Customer experiences might be enhanced with the setting of the store, such as the music or the décor. I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant last week in Dallas as well, and the first thing I noticed when I walked in was the beautiful architecture of the place. The restaurant had high ceilings with wooden pillars and glass panels running up and down the store. I was amazed at how unique the place looked and really enjoyed my food when it came. 
 o  Does taste matter? The first thing I want to say is "of course!" but I know of places that don't bake the moistest and best tasting desserts yet people go back constantly. This brings me to another question - is it the decoration and designs? I always watch baking shows on TV and watch them make these insanely designed cakes with extravagant decoration. I never hear people say "the cake was delicious!" but rather "this cake is beautiful!" or "this cake is insane!" so I sit there and wonder how the cake tastes.

Now as for what makes certain dessert items a fad, such as fro-yo or cupcakes, I’m not really sure. I want to understand how people determine what will be the next big thing that everyone wants to do. Is it through trial and error? Or do you wait until a few types of stores make it really big in large metropolitan areas and then try to introduce it to a new city? This topic is a bit more complicated for me so I’m leaning more towards the previous question.

I find this topic interesting because as I developed a passion for baking in high school. I’ve never really had the money or resource to attend class and to experiment with my baking though, so I just watch baking shows and pick up some things here and there. Eventually, I want to own my own bakery one day and get to be in my store baking and selling my products. In order to be successful though, I need to know what attracts people to buy overpriced cakes and what keeps them coming back for more.

For research, I’ve been able to find an article on Google Scholar: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=853547&show=abstract. This article talks about the relationship between store image and store loyalty from customers. It also talks about how the relationship between store image and store loyalty is mediated by store satisfaction. I think this article will be helpful in helping me answer my first question.

I also live next to a cupcake store in West Campus, Polkadots, so I want to try to contact the owner and see how she got started up. Along with the manager, I have a lot of friends who go to Polkadots and buy their overpriced cupcakes, so I think I can find a decent number of people to interview/survey for their reasoning behind it.

Best,

CJL