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Business Owners: Make a Lasting Impression at Your Next In-Store Event? (Think Cupcakes, Not Key Chains)

This story is tailored specifically for business owners and entrepreneurs, for companies large and small… a tale of how to exude swagger while earning new customers and clients at your next big event—after all, you need the former to gather the latter.  

A friend of a friend of mine recently opened a high-end boutique in the Adam’s Morgan neighborhood of Washington DC. And like any savvy 21st century entrepreneur, she held an in-store event, an opening to show off her merchandise. The walls were lined with super-chic women’s apparel, the halls filled with the DC elite, and at the entrance, a table with Champagne, charcuterie and delicious artisan cheeses. Nice touch.  This event got me to thinking about unique enhancements that business owners might share with would be customers—I don’t personally have a brick-and-morter store-front, but I am in the business of company promotion.  So, I called my friends at We Take the Cake to see about furnishing an event for another high-end national retailer in downtown DC. I wanted the event to showcase oodles of cupcakes, mini ones (as I have said before EVERYBODY loves a cupcake.  Alternatively, memorable experiences don’t come from key chains!)  Lori Karmel, owner of We Take the Cake, blew me away with a slew of ideas that seemed to pour out of her as effortlessly as a mountain waterfall gushes under the sun of a hot summer’s day. 

But first, to arrive at the product that would woo my client, she shared some recent success stories, both on a large and small scale.  Such as a very notable company who likes to serve up everything with a side of bling: Swarovski. The legendary purveyor of fine crystals celebrated 2011’s “Fashion Night Out” by serving Lori’s mini cupcakes to fashion enthusiasts with very good taste at 100 of their national retail stores. …or a Winter Wonderland themed party that was dusted with tables of mini coconut cupcakes and coconut cake truffles topped with shredded coconut and a chocolate pearl. The guests raved. Raved! They gobbled the treats up with the holiday cheer of a million dancing snow globes! 

From there, we began brainstorming ideas for my client.  And while our concept was wildly different than that of the Wonderland party or Fashion’s coolest event of the year, we came up with a themed cupcake that left my client very happy as her promotional event was also “a huge success.”   

See, whether your organization is large or small, it’s a pretty cool idea, the lot of it. People are saturated all day, every day, with new products, companies, services. It’s a lot to swallow. But when you serve up a taste of awesomeness with your product, company, or service, it says a lot about your brand—your capability of sourcing creative ideas, and a taste of what they can expect from you in the future. 

 

To serve cupcakes at your upcoming event, write: http://www.wetakethecake.com/contacts.

 


Stefanie Payne

I am a product development lead in NASA's human exploration deep space program at headquarters in Washington, DC. When I am not telling the story of human exploration in space, my focus is on writing about travel on Earth—with articles appearing in The Huffington Post, The Travel Channel, blogs for The National Geographic Society, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessInsider, IBTimes and more. ...(Read More)

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