Dear BEM Readers,

This week I would like you to meet a successful businessman from Krakow – Marcin Dutkiewicz. Marcin has created and runs the Cupcake Corner Bakery in the center of Krakow. I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing him, while munching on an out of this world cupcake (peanut butter) and a nice cup of latte. First of all what is a cupcake? Well it does not take an Einstein to figure out that it’s a cake in a paper cup.

Marcin opened his shop in June 2010, bringing the already hugely popular idea of cupcakes from the US, while working in the financial industry in Philadelphia.

Let’s see what he had to say about entrepreneurship, branding and the use of new social technologies in his business.

Chris:  Marcin, how did you come up with the idea of running a cupcake bakery & coffee shop here in Poland?

Marcin: At first, I had no such plans. The idea emerged, when I was working in a financial corporation in Philadelphia. Having had the experience in the food industry, opening up a bakery that serves only cupcakes and quality coffee in Poland seemed like a good idea, at least that is what my friends told me

C: What were the beginnings like?

M: Tough. We had a team of a few of my friends from the US, South Africa and Poland, all crazy about cupcakes and making the bakery a reality. It was hard work and a lot of intuition that we will succeed that pushed us forward to where we are today.

C: How did the Polish customers (very weary of their taste sense) react to your cupcakes?

M: At first there was a lot of confusion as to what cupcakes are. They were sweeter than any other cakes in Poland, so we had to tweak the recipe to make sure it fits the local taste. Through countless hours of perfectioning both our business and food systems we were able to devise the perfect solution.

C: I have seen that you use Internet (Facebook, Website) to promote your business. Has it helped you in getting customers?

M: Definitely. Especially when we were starting out the local media coverage was important in establishing our brand identity. Now, we are getting requests for new tastes of cupcakes and recommendations from happy customers. At Cupcake Corner Bakery we believe that word of mouth of satisfied customers is the best advertising. We are happy that our products and services are considered high quality. That is what we strive for and will not compromise on.

C: What are your plans for the future?

M: It would be great to have Cupcakes all over Poland (laugh). We are already getting inquiries from vendors in various cities across the country asking as when are we coming to them? It makes me extremely happy that our passion for baking delicious cupcakes, made from the highest quality ingredients and a world class customer service (still limping in Poland) is getting an approval from our customers.

The Cupcaker Corner Bakery’s slogan goes like this: „We bake happy-ness”

Next time you are in Krakow, make sure to step by for your piece of the happy cupcake heaven.

Krzysztof „Chris” Dargiewicz

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Welcome again to the Business English Magazine Blog!

If you run a private business, you must have heard this question from a customer before: „How can I find you online?” Today, answering: „I don’t have one” is virtually impossible. Moreover, alongside the rapid growth of modern channels of communication (blogs, FaceBook, YouTube, Wikipedia etc.) it is also vital to have a social media presence. Now you may think that technology/IT is not your strong side and it is reserved to geeks, students and generally Generation Y, who skype,google,facebook, tweet each other while having a Business Economics 101 class at school/University. How can there possibly be a viable business objective, strategy in it for your company?

Well, you better think again.

The rather „static” Internet of yesterday (referred to as Web 1.0) is quickly becoming the past, with a vast array of Web 2.0 tools coming to the central stage of our computer screens. Blogs are one of these new breed of tech animal species. So, how to  leverage what they have to offer for promoting/marketing your store/charity or school? Here are a few tips to get you started on the path to the modern web success.

#1 Relax – „Zero in on” what is relevant to connecting to your type of audience. If you sell chocolate it is probably not a good idea to promote it with banner ads on Google, but how about creating a blog on how the chocolate is made and running a competition for desiging the most outrageous flavor that you will then produce? Just because there are 1000000 tools out there, does not mean you have to create a profile on every single one of them.

#2 Map out what you have to offer, how do you operate and decide who and how do you want to talk to. When you decide to run that „The big bang of Chocolate X Blog”, make sure it is visible to the type of audience you want to reach. Is it made from organic, fairtrade ingredients? How about connecting to parents wary of their kids nutrition, who don’t want to feed them chocolate, and push that bitter 9-grain cereal down their mouths every morning before school? Let them know, that you have a healthy subsitute for it, that their kids will love, and they will bite off your hand for it!

#3 Don’t reinvent the wheel. Most stuff has been done and requires minimal tweaking. Visit the following „green”, sustainable blogs to get some ideas:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/green_business/

http://www.greenmarketing.tv/2010/06/25/green-business-blog/

http://www.thegreenskeptic.com/

http://www.ecogeek.org/

#4 Read, Learn, Discover. Apart from the above web blogs examples, there are hundreds of books, videos, magazines and other resources on social media. Below are my personal favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

http://sethgodin.typepad.com

http://www.readwriteweb.com

http://mashable.com/

http://www.copyblogger.com/

http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/

#5 „Persistence trumps talent” – just because you don’t have a following of 1000 visitors/day when you first launch, does not mean you should stop. Keep at it and results will come, whether in new customers, referrals or free marketing it will only cost you a few clicks and keyboard typing.

Until next post!

Chris Dargiewicz

USEFUL VOCABULARY:

1. „Virtually impossible” – praktycznie niemożliwe; bardzo mało prawdopodobne

2.” Rapid growth” – szybki, gwałtowny wzrost lub rozwój

3. „Vital” – niezbędny, nieodzowny

4. „Presence” – obecność

5. „Geek” – dziwak, osoba nielubiana/ nie ciesząca się popularnością

6.  „Viable” – rokujący powodzenie; wykonalny

7.  „Static” – statyczny; spoczynkowy

8. „Vast array” – ogromny szereg, zasób

9. „Web 2.0” – tzw. grupa technologii marketingu społecznościowego np. blogi, podkasty, portale społecznościowe

10. „Central stage” – centrum, środek uwagi

11. „Breed” – generacja, rasa (hodowlana)

12. „Species” – gatunek; rodzaj

13. „Leverage” – użyć, wykorzystać na korzyść

14. „Outrageous” – szokujący, kontrowersyjny

15. „To bite off someone’s hand” – „jeść komuś z ręki”

16. „To zero in on something” – skupić się, skoncentrować; zawężyć uwagę do

17. „Wary” – ostrożny

18. „Sustainable” – bezpieczny, przyjazny dla środowiska

19. „To tweak” – ulepszyć, poprawić, udoskonalić

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