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Inversely, why should you have to pay extra to get your great craft brewed coffee in a fancy paper cup? Branding like this is much less important for local bus

Inversely, why should you have to pay extra to get your great craft brewed coffee in a fancy paper cup? Branding like this is much less important for local businesses than national franchises/chains.

bunkat 11y ago
Totally agree. This is aimed at small runs, but for a small run of a standard box it was $2.24 per 6 cupcake box (much more for one with an actual design). What small shop can afford $2.24 a box? Quick look online found plenty of nice ones for $0.20 a piece that you could put a sticker on with your logo. This is what a lot of smaller places do in Seattle and it seems to work just fine.
- GeorgettePkg 11y ago
  Yes, a lot of small businesses use generic boxes and a sticker. When I owned my bakery, I did the same. That's not to say that this solution is ideal; most of the generic boxes are flimsy, tedious to assemble, and give your customers the idea that your product is ... humdrum, not something you'd pay much for. If you're working super hard to bake something amazing, your packaging should complement and introduce your product in a splendid way too -- you need to do something a little different from everybody else. Larger brands don't invest in beautiful, branded packaging for kicks -- it has a major influence on the perception people have of their wares, and contributes a lot to the customer's experience of their product. In terms of unit price being high at low volumes -- we're constantly working to get that down! :D Our minimum quantities for custom packaging are some of the lowest on the market, and our pricing very modest by comparison, because we invest in tooling on behalf of our clients. I think it's hard to see how great our pricing actually is, because it's near impossible to find other packaging companies that do what we do, or put all their pricing online.. :)
  - rezistik 11y ago
    My experience growing up was that the flashier the box was the cheaper the cake tasted. The best cakes came from the bakeries that invested 100% into their products. I loved getting really great products in terrible packages, it had a certain feeling to it. That being said, I love branding and really hip bakeries and coffee shops with awesome branding will always woo me too.
    - anexprogrammer 11y ago
      My experience too. To add to that, the bakery I'd like to buy my bread and cakes from is the one that probably closes due to no branding. In fact it probably looks like a holdover from the fifties inside and specialised in just being a shop, not a brand. It's a little sad to me that brands have become so much more powerful than the product, though I'm not immune either. I do try though - I'll risk the bad experience and try the family cafe or unknown coffeeshop in preference to a starbucks or costa. Does mean I get something rubbish occasionally. Ironic that Starbucks such are a huge success but make terribly bland coffee. I've several friends who collect their mugs, but will never drink their coffee!
- GeorgettePkg 11y ago
  Apologies for the big block of text, I clearly haven't figure out how to make paragraphs on here. :p [Returns to box-making].
  - nitrogen 11y ago
    You can press enter twice (so there's a blank line) to make paragraphs.
GeorgettePkg 11y ago
I think it depends on the goals you have for your business - there's a huge gap between little local spots that don't invest in being memorable, and major chains that everybody knows. Thoughtful branding is a major part of the bridge between the two. We work with a lot of ambitious, but small businesses that are keen to grow, be valued and loved by their communities, and be known for specific areas of expertise. Sharing that story is what branding has always been about. The price of a cup of coffee generally has a lot more to do with the experience and story (think Starbucks) than the cost of the beans, the hot water, the cup...
- usrusr 11y ago
  It's good that you are seeing your market not in one of a kind shops but in small chains (e.g. n=1 but growing). The excessive branding of large chains is only a disadvantage for smaller chains (but not for one-of-a-kind shops) because location is such a strong part of memorability. Branding is just a hack to transfer a small fraction of that memorability across locations, most obviously exemplified in how Duane Reade got their brand name.
bduerst 11y ago
I would argue that even a lack of fancy paper cup, in a market saturated by them, is a form of branding unto itself.

Inversely, why should you have to pay extra to get your great craft brewed coffee in a fancy paper cup? Branding like this is much less important for local businesses than national franchises/chains.

bunkat 11y ago

Totally agree. This is aimed at small runs, but for a small run of a standard box it was $2.24 per 6 cupcake box (much more for one with an actual design). What small shop can afford $2.24 a box? Quick look online found plenty of nice ones for $0.20 a piece that you could put a sticker on with your logo. This is what a lot of smaller places do in Seattle and it seems to work just fine.

GeorgettePkg 11y ago
Yes, a lot of small businesses use generic boxes and a sticker. When I owned my bakery, I did the same. That's not to say that this solution is ideal; most of the generic boxes are flimsy, tedious to assemble, and give your customers the idea that your product is ... humdrum, not something you'd pay much for. If you're working super hard to bake something amazing, your packaging should complement and introduce your product in a splendid way too -- you need to do something a little different from everybody else. Larger brands don't invest in beautiful, branded packaging for kicks -- it has a major influence on the perception people have of their wares, and contributes a lot to the customer's experience of their product. In terms of unit price being high at low volumes -- we're constantly working to get that down! :D Our minimum quantities for custom packaging are some of the lowest on the market, and our pricing very modest by comparison, because we invest in tooling on behalf of our clients. I think it's hard to see how great our pricing actually is, because it's near impossible to find other packaging companies that do what we do, or put all their pricing online.. :)
- rezistik 11y ago
  My experience growing up was that the flashier the box was the cheaper the cake tasted. The best cakes came from the bakeries that invested 100% into their products. I loved getting really great products in terrible packages, it had a certain feeling to it. That being said, I love branding and really hip bakeries and coffee shops with awesome branding will always woo me too.
  - anexprogrammer 11y ago
    My experience too. To add to that, the bakery I'd like to buy my bread and cakes from is the one that probably closes due to no branding. In fact it probably looks like a holdover from the fifties inside and specialised in just being a shop, not a brand. It's a little sad to me that brands have become so much more powerful than the product, though I'm not immune either. I do try though - I'll risk the bad experience and try the family cafe or unknown coffeeshop in preference to a starbucks or costa. Does mean I get something rubbish occasionally. Ironic that Starbucks such are a huge success but make terribly bland coffee. I've several friends who collect their mugs, but will never drink their coffee!
GeorgettePkg 11y ago
Apologies for the big block of text, I clearly haven't figure out how to make paragraphs on here. :p [Returns to box-making].
- nitrogen 11y ago
  You can press enter twice (so there's a blank line) to make paragraphs.

GeorgettePkg 11y ago

I think it depends on the goals you have for your business - there's a huge gap between little local spots that don't invest in being memorable, and major chains that everybody knows. Thoughtful branding is a major part of the bridge between the two. We work with a lot of ambitious, but small businesses that are keen to grow, be valued and loved by their communities, and be known for specific areas of expertise. Sharing that story is what branding has always been about. The price of a cup of coffee generally has a lot more to do with the experience and story (think Starbucks) than the cost of the beans, the hot water, the cup...

usrusr 11y ago
It's good that you are seeing your market not in one of a kind shops but in small chains (e.g. n=1 but growing). The excessive branding of large chains is only a disadvantage for smaller chains (but not for one-of-a-kind shops) because location is such a strong part of memorability. Branding is just a hack to transfer a small fraction of that memorability across locations, most obviously exemplified in how Duane Reade got their brand name.

bduerst 11y ago

I would argue that even a lack of fancy paper cup, in a market saturated by them, is a form of branding unto itself.