Embracing the Trend

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MARCOM

Embracing the Trend An effort to boost media exposure led Chicago-based Meatloaf Bakery to expand distribution of its “meatloaf cupcakes” nationwide

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org

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uzzworthy, new products sometimes can subsist on word of mouth alone when they first enter the marketplace, but even unique products eventually need some marcom power when consumers’ organically generated interest gets lean.

Cynthia Kallile, a former corporate communications professional and an

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avid cook, understood right off the bat that she had something unique to bring to market when she concocted her new product for her Chicago-based business, Meatloaf Bakery—individualsized meatloaf in the shape of cupcakes, some complete with mashed potato “frosting”—but once the novelty wore off, she’d need a dedicated promotional

effort to get her offerings into consumers’ consideration sets. What she hadn’t planned for, though, was that those promotional efforts would lead her business to expand nationwide.

Meatloaf Bakery began as a way for Kallile to indulge her passion for cooking, and to do so, she decided to focus on the ultimate comfort food, but in much trendier form. “You can create a lot of recipes with meatloaf, but usually, it’s not very attractive. I wanted to make it pretty,” Kallile says. “Cupcakes were really fashionable, so I thought, Why not?

The concept had never really been done before. It was so interesting to people that customers and local media in Chicago initially came to me.”

Kallile had done some grassroots marketing research before she founded

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“You can create a lot of recipes with meatloaf, but usually, it’s not very attractive. I wanted to make it pretty,” says Cynthia Kallile, owner of the Meatloaf Bakery in Chicago.

her business, handing out questionnaires about meatloaf at local farmers markets, and that research helped generate some of Meatloaf Bakery’s meatloaf cupcake flavors, including buffalo-wing-flavored “A Wing and a Prayer,” bacon-cheeseburger-flavored “No Buns About It,” and “The Mother Loaf,” made from her mother’s traditional meatloaf recipe.

Then, to build brand awareness early on, Kallile and her team of seven employees stood outside of Meatloaf Bakery’s storefront with samples. “A lot of people will walk by, look at it and say, ‘What is this?’ ” Kallile says. “It really needs to be tasted for people to get it.”

Starting in 2011, Kallile also launched more formal promotional efforts. Knowing that the promotional halo effect from her DIY research and her sampling efforts weren’t enough to sustain the buzz, she employed Total Dish Marketing and the company’s current agency, Isabelli Public Relations, both based in Chicago, to help Meatloaf Bakery with media outreach.

Ultimately, the brand secured mentions on the Today show, the Food Network and NPR, and in Food and Wine, Midwest Living, Country Living, the Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed.

In late 2013, a producer from QVC saw one of Kallile’s magazine interviews and called to ask if she would be interested in selling the meatloaf cupcakes on the network. To do so, she had to create a product that could be frozen, packed in dry ice and shipped across state lines.

Kallile hired Mundelein, Ill.-based food manufacturer Ruprecht Co. to replicate and ship four of her recipes.

“We did side-by-side comparisons with their chefs,” she says. “I made my version, and they made theirs watching me, and we tasted versions and modified them.

I was very specific about the ingredients.

It had to be fresh parsley. We worked long and hard to get the product to taste just like mine, and to be able to produce it in mass quantities.”

Kallile sold the meatloaf cupcakes on QVC from December 2013 through April 2014. Then she worked with Ruprecht to create her own mail-order delivery system, Meatloaf by Mail, which launched in June 2014 and lets customers order meatloaf cupcakes directly through Meatloaf Bakery’s website. “My impetus for wanting to do this was, when people came in [to the store], and they were visitors to Chicago, they might say, ‘You

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should be in Austin, Texas or New York City.’ Now, because they can get the product through mail order, we have customers all over the country.”

Kallile and her team now invest carefully in a more concerted marcom and promotional effort, relying on media outreach (pitching to magazines’ holiday gift guides, for example), an e-newsletter, the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and in-store fliers. Employees also are trained to talk about the program in the store. “My marketing budget is tiny, so I can’t waste it. I choose not to do print ads because the return on investment isn’t really there. We try to do more grassroots efforts,” Kallile says.

Meatloaf Bakery currently ships 50 orders per month, on average. “My target is higher, but so much of it is about getting the word out, and with more of those efforts, it’ll grow,” Kallile says.

She also plans to grow the business by continuing to promote The Meatloaf Bakery Cookbook, which was published in November 2012, through book signings in Chicago and in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

And the company’s food truck, Meatloaf-A-Go-Go, which Kallile and her team park in downtown Chicago and take to local festivals and farmers markets, also helps spread the word.

“The truck has been a fabulous marketing tool for us,” Kallile says.

“Our events manager does a lot of cold-calling to ask if we can come to events. In a way, we have to call because we have to explain our product. We don’t make hot dogs or burgers. Everybody gets that. A meatloaf cupcake—that’s a challenge.”

A well-strategized marketing plan has helped Meatloaf Bakery expand its reach, but ultimately, Kallile says that the uniqueness of her products is her company’s greatest asset. “Our tagline is ‘A tasty twist on your favorite comfort food.’ It’s handmade, there’s a touch of whimsy to it and it’s fun. It’s important that we promote the creativity and the novelty so that it constantly reflects the brand. Own it, be proud of it and leverage it as much as you can.” m

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