Lola's Cupcakes - Reinvigorating the Cupcake Marketplace

LOLA’S CUPCAKESReinvigorating the cupcake

marketplace.

The upmarket cupcake category is becoming dull.

Although you’re still ahead of the pack, other cupcake brands are now copying you.

Consequently, upmarket cupcake brands are beginning to look the same.

Category conventions have emerged.Almost all brands are going for a 50’s kitsch / ice-

cream parlour look using pastel shades.

This is even more problematic because most cupcake brands’ products look the same.

Therefore, cupcake businesses need to differentiate their brand more than ever to stand out.

Lola’s Cupcakes needs to continue to remain exciting, different and relevant.

Lola’s Cupcakes needs to continue to remain exciting, different and relevant.

To do this, it needs to push its branding to new frontiers to breathe new life again

into cupcakes.

Lola’s Cupcakes has one highly marketable x-factor that its competitors don’t have:

Stalls in Topshop and Selfridges on Oxford Street - the epicentre of UK and international high-street fashion.

Lola’s long-standing presence within these stores has associated it with fashion.

Lola’s presence within these stores has associated it with fashion.

Lola’s can therefore credibly draw upon this world to differentiate itself - and to take cupcakes into a whole new place.

Lola’s Cupcakes has one highly marketable x-factor that none of its competitors have; stalls in Topshop and Selfridges on Oxford Street -

the epicentres of both UK and international high-street fashion.

It really makes sense to draw more upon this fashion link.

Topshop is one of the most popular brands

with women this era…

…and Selfridges is the coolest clothing retailer. Whatever Selfridges is selling is cool, purely

because its in Selfridges.

Lola’s Cupcakes has one highly marketable x-factor that none of its competitors have; stalls in Topshop and Selfridges on Oxford Street -

the epicentres of both UK and international high-street fashion.

It really makes sense to draw more upon this fashion link.

And this move towards fashion resonates with your major audience: women.

And this move towards fashion resonates with your major audience: women.

When eating a cupcake, women treat it as a visual experience as much as a culinary one.

This also links with a new broader digital phenomena that has arisen through social media: food as a

fashion accessory.

This approach is not unfounded either.

Fiat’s recent campaign targeting female drivers didn’t talk about its function but its style.

Comparatively, this was a different approach for a car brand in the highly conventional car category.

The result is a highly standout campaign that breathes new life into the category.

So how can Lola’s Cupcakes use fashion in a relevant way in its communications?

My answer is simply the following:

To create a campaign that “style-matches” Lola’s Cupcakes with the latest fashions.

This idea is also great because it’s flexible.

It can work to any scale and budget you wish.

The campaign can fit according to your budget. It could work by posting the idea through your social media pages or be delivered on billboard posters.

The campaign also has room to grow. You could simply run it as a one-off

campaign, but it could go much further.

It could run seasonally – constantly creating new collections.

You could get a fashion blogger with a big fan base to choose the outfits.

You could collaborate with Topshop and/or Selfridges to do a photo shoot matching their

clothes to your cupcakes.

Or you could take a street style approach by matching up the well dressed on the street with

your cupcakes – photographing them on the way.

You could collaborate with young designers for London Fashion Week to create clothing inspired

by your cakes. (These students always get a lot of press).

Fashion is constantly changing. It is constantly moving forward and creating new styles and looks.

By moving with this Lola’s will continue to stay fresh.

Drawing upon fashion will also mean that it will also inevitably inspire and innovate within Lola’s. Who

knows what fashion will do to the cupcake?

I hope you find this idea exciting.

It has never been done before in your market.

It breathes new life into the cupcakes.

It has the potential to move and grow in multiple and rich directions.

Ultimately, it will ensure that Lola’s continues to move forward and adapt in a highly fast-paced and food market both in London at the moment.