A rep from the local country radio station stopped by the other day. We worked out a trade deal. I'm going to donate a birthday cookie for their birthday drawing they have every morning (tues thru fri, I'm closed on Monday) and a small cake for an anniversary drawing that's done each week. In exchange I get the by line for the drawing and then two additional ads in the afternoon. I thought it was worth a try. I've done zero advertising so far other than a business card and sending cakes to the hospital with the hubby (he's a floater, works different wings/floors as assigned). I've been doing okay with word of mouth, but I'd like to do better.
We do the " Birthday cake of the day" for a local radio station, and I am actively trying to get out of the deal. We have found there to be a lot of abuses ( more than 2/3 of the "winners" happen to be relatesd to radio station staff members), everybody wants their birthday cake on your busiest days, and you spend a ungodly amount of time dealing with non-customers ordering their free cake..
" Can you put a guitar on that? "
" No Ma'am not for free, but we can do it for a $10 design charge"
"Okay, I'll ask my son and call you back"
" What about carrot cake. We don't like chocolate"
etc. etc.
It's a nightmare, and before you agree to it, you should have the ad rep show you some numbers on the demographics of their station. For example, you wouldn't want to be doing a lot of advertising on a station with a strong male demograpic, since women do most the cake ordering.
I'm glad I found this thread as I am thinking of going this route. My thinking is trying to be very specific ... "THIS" is the free cake. Period.
I relate it to when my daughter got married and the tux shop was giving us free wedding invitations with the tux rentals. THe store clerk opened an invitation book, pointed to two very plain invites and said, "you get this one or this one". Period. (No problem! Free is free!)
txkat, you've obviously had some experience in this ..... do I have my rose-colored glasses on? Is it possible to set parameters like this?
I'm glad I found this thread as I am thinking of going this route. My thinking is trying to be very specific ... "THIS" is the free cake. Period.
I relate it to when my daughter got married and the tux shop was giving us free wedding invitations with the tux rentals. THe store clerk opened an invitation book, pointed to two very plain invites and said, "you get this one or this one". Period. (No problem! Free is free!)
txkat, you've obviously had some experience in this ..... do I have my rose-colored glasses on? Is it possible to set parameters like this?
It's not really the perameters that are the problem, it is the time you spend trying to explain and enforce the peramters. Do you personally want to spend 20 minutes a day talking to non-customer customers, plus the time to make their cake, because fully 2/3 of the people who you say " The Birthday cake of the day is an 8 inch chocolate or vanilla cake with buttercream icing" to will respond with...
"So buttercream, is that the really sweet stuff the use at Costco, cause I don't like that"
" No ma'am we make our frosting in house from scratch."
" I already have my birthday cake. Can I use it next week for a baby shower ?"
and on and on and on....
and then, because we are such a busy bakery, I have to be very careful that a Friday FREE birthday cake of the day doesn't push one of my pastry chefs into overtime.
I would only do it if it is advertising you would do anyway. If it something that you are doing because it sounds like a great deal, don't.
I relate it to when my daughter got married and the tux shop was giving us free wedding invitations with the tux rentals. THe store clerk opened an invitation book, pointed to two very plain invites and said, "you get this one or this one". Period. (No problem! Free is free!)
Big difference here is that there's a strong connection between shopping for a tux rental and shopping for wedding invitations.
Not a lot of connection between listening to the radio (or wanting to get something for free) and ordering a cake.
Maisie, you're probably right, and I bet this poor tux shop clerk got plenty of what txkat is talking about.....
"Well, what if I want this really expensive one instead? Can't I just sub it? But those invites are all white...can I get one with blue on it?"
Then again, it could be a good thing. You're doing a cake a week, not a cake a day. And four cookies a week. Theoretically, you could bake all four cookies, fix them up, put them in a pretty bag with a business card or a flyer, and present them to the station. And the cake could be a very simple, even six-inch cake, with something simple, like buttercream. But nice enough to show your work, again, packaged nicely with a business care and flyer.
I know a cookie company who does this locally, and they get big business out of it.
I did something similar with our local radio station, but instead of cake we decided to do a dessert/chocolate gift basket that they gave away during their morning show. I could use extras I had in the shop anyway. It was nice, because there were no questions -- just take your basket!
I could tell a huge boost -- radio advertising actually seems to work quite well for me. as I have done it this way and also paid for their regular advertising. We will probably start the deal back again about three months before Christmas.
The bakery I used to work for does daily birthday cake giveaways with one of the local stations. It was their basic 1/4 sheet cake, and the only things the recipient got to choose were the flavor (white or chocolate) and the inscription.
I don't think it took that long to deal with these "non-customers" (I don't particularly care for that term - because I believe that once someone walks into your store, they are a customer. It's up to you whether or not they want to return) The radio station was the one who took their information and called us with it (name, flavor and inscription) and they had to pick up the cake that day. I think this was great marketing.
They got their name mentioned on the radio several times each morning. All for about $3 worth or cake and perhaps $10 in labor. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
The bakery I used to work for does daily birthday cake giveaways with one of the local stations. It was their basic 1/4 sheet cake, and the only things the recipient got to choose were the flavor (white or chocolate) and the inscription.
I don't think it took that long to deal with these "non-customers" (I don't particularly care for that term - because I believe that once someone walks into your store, they are a customer. It's up to you whether or not they want to return) The radio station was the one who took their information and called us with it (name, flavor and inscription) and they had to pick up the cake that day. I think this was great marketing.
They got their name mentioned on the radio several times each morning. All for about $3 worth or cake and perhaps $10 in labor. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
My arrangement was similar in that I never had contact with the customer until they came to pick up their basket. And you are right, it is great marketing and when I figured out how much cost I had in it versus how much the advertising package equivolent to what I was receiving would cost, I was coming out great!
The bakery I used to work for does daily birthday cake giveaways with one of the local stations. It was their basic 1/4 sheet cake, and the only things the recipient got to choose were the flavor (white or chocolate) and the inscription.
I don't think it took that long to deal with these "non-customers" (I don't particularly care for that term - because I believe that once someone walks into your store, they are a customer. It's up to you whether or not they want to return) The radio station was the one who took their information and called us with it (name, flavor and inscription) and they had to pick up the cake that day. I think this was great marketing.
They got their name mentioned on the radio several times each morning. All for about $3 worth or cake and perhaps $10 in labor. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
You see that is a part of the problem with the way this station is adminstering the "drawing". They aren't really drawing names, so the benefit of having a lot of new people exposed to the shop is mitigated. We've had one family get 4 cakes, and it happens to be the family of a bigtime advertiser of the radio station.
And, of course, the food cost on our cakes is way over $3.00. It's your decision. I wouldn't do it again. When we first opened, it did make people aware of us, but I think we've saturated the market of this particular radio station's demographic. Now, I think we're to the point that we aren't gaining any incremental business, and so we're going to move our advertising to other sources.
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