Small business marketing

There is a local dessert catering business, which I have become acquainted with.  I am a foodie so believe me when I say Cake in the City has the best desserts, end of story. Cake in the City is a family business run by a mom and four daughters. They are a new business looking to expand. Now while funds are limited they have come up with many different ways to market their business. Their main goal is to obtain clients by spending the lowest amount possible on marketing and promoting. They rely heavily on word of mouth to attract customers. Also, the majority of the events they attend they make sure that they are the only dessert vendor otherwise they won't attend. The purpose of that is to capture the audience by eliminating the competition and leave a lasting impression upon attendees. Networking is also a primary marketing tool that they use. Many of the people they have come into contact with have provided them with business ventures that have both generated income and improved upon their client base.  In speaking with Deshawn Sims the Project/Operations Manager, she informed me the most effective marketing tool for the business is Facebook.  Through Facebook they have been able to make desserts more personable by being able to tag the clients onto the dessert pictures they have made for them and clients being able to tag them with compliments and event pictures where their desserts were featured. They are able to easily list upcoming events and contests they are running and are participating in. While they have found success in a lot of promotion that has been virtually free they have had to pay for a few events as well.  They were participants at Best Fest in Winter Garden, which required a fee, but they won that event so it was beneficial. They are also members of the Chamber of Commerce, which also required membership fees, but they have generated contacts in corporate America from that membership. These are professional clients that appreciate gourmet products. These clients often need catering for large events.  Through the membership with commerce they met a contact that got them on the Daily Buzz earlier this month. They are now are the beginning stages of opening a storefront. It will be interesting to see which marketing tools they use to get people involved and interested in the grand opening. 

For me publicity and public relations are totally hand in hand.  So while the saying is "there is no such thing as bad publicity," I feel the same can be said about public relations.  As long as people are discussing you in some capacity that is a win.  The challenging part is shifting negative PR into positive PR that you can benefit from.  A lot of different things factor into this.  While I almost hate to bring him up because he's been discussed to often, I feel Chris Brown is a perfect example of a reputation on the mend.  As a celebrity, image is everything, he ruined his reputation after his incident with ex girlfriend Rihanna three years ago.  He has be able to salvage his career because he is truly talented.  People will always bring up what happened because that is human nature but you can't deny his talent.  Initially, he went on a media tour doing interviews apologizing it wasn't until his tribute to Michael Jackson when people actually began to think he showed genuine remorse.  That moment began to shift bad PR to good PR.  He was able to begin that through talent.  Sometimes it isn't that easy.  Sometimes you have to be seen in public doing things for others.  Otherwise known as PR stunts.  Like i said it all depends.  Others have not been as fortune as Chris Brown.  Mel Gibson could be a great example for this.  He had one racist rant too many and i believe people are tired of that.  He would need to do something more than apologize like he's been doing.  He needs a better PR team to accomplish this.  A good PR team is essential in imaging.  We will all make mistakes but in order to remain successful you will need public relations to mold you.