The people want cupcakes !

My work on a campaign book for a new baking company in the Inland Empire led me to an interesting article published in the Houston Chronicle on cupcakes. It seems random but there’s a point I promise!

 The article talks about how cupcakes have withstood the recession and have proven to make bakeries and chains like Sprinkles popular.

 According to the article, the popularity of cupcakes over other small sweets is explained by different competing theories: nostalgia, aesthetics, and the sheer sweet allure of frosting.

 The article made me think, are cupcakes really that cool? Do we like them that much?  I quickly thought back to summer 2009 when I interned in downtown Oakland at the Mayor’s office. My coworker would always get distracted by her cupcake craving around noon and venture off to Sprinkles’ website to browse their cupcake flavors.  She would then proclaim a weekend trip for the interns to Sprinkles’ Palo Alto location that never actually happened. Our boss must have noticed all the cupcake talk amongst the interns, because toward the end of the summer he walked into the office with two dozen cupcakes, placed them on the table and walked out. I must say, that day the interns where in a cupcake-induced state of euphoria.

The reason this article was published in the Houston Chronicle back in 2009 was partly because of Sprinkles’ arrival to the city. Not only is the Sprinkles chain visited by average working class citizens (like myself), it is often patronized by celebrities and socialites as well, which yields buzz marketing, an effect that many companies pay public relations professionals good money to create. Click here to read about how Barbra Streisand sent the Sprinkles cupcakes to Oprah Winfrey and Oprah was crazy about them and shared them with her studio audience. When Jimmy Kimmel saw the cupcakes on Oprah's show, he stood in line himself for 45 minutes to buy $80 worth of them. When you click there you’ll also read about how Tyra Banks says she's addicted to them and Katie Holmes says just thinking about them makes her salivate. Teri Hatcher served them during a birthday bash for the cast of her hit show, "Desperate Housewives", and fellow cast member Marcia Cross raved about the red velvet cupcakes.

To compliment the fun-sized desserts that offers customers a piece of luxury at a relatively cheap price, Sprinkles is actively engaged in community service. They have donated $1.9 million to charities around the world, they donate cupcakes daily to food banks in local communities, they sold red velvet cupcakes to assist the Red Cross with Haiti Relief, they created custom cupcakes to generate money for cancer research and they have awarded college scholarships to deserving applicants.  

The company does the right thing, is seen doing the right thing, and does not get the two mixed up. They offer delicious cupcakes at a reasonable price and the cupcake craze has afforded them free marketing and free spokesmen. The press clips on their website are amazing and overall, I’d say Sprinkles has some sweet PR going on!!!