Magicbread.ca fictional bakery

Company name

First off, we need a company name. A good company name can leave an appropriate impression. With such a company name, it would be easier to create the necessary designs.

To come up with a suitable company name, knowing the company’s intended scale is essential. Alysha explained the bakery is an in- dependent small business designed to create a down-to-earth en- vironment for the customers.

• It will not expand.
• It will not open other stores.
• It will not be changed hands.

The .ca top level domain name indicates a service is operated in Canada or is serving Canada customers. “.com”, on the other hand, has a more “international” vibe, which this company never intends to expand to. Therefore, we settled on the .ca top level domain for the website, which also serves as the name of the company.

It was also necessary to understand the company’s values:

• Will the company focus on luxurious experiences for pure enjoy- ment or formal situations?
• Will the company focus on romantic atmosphere for customers go- ing on dates?
• Will the company focus on mass production of cheap pastries for filling hungry stomachs?

None of these. The focus is:

1. on the general public
2. setting reasonable prices
3. cook creative, original pastries
4. be the “little but reassuring flash of warmth” from the book ランゲルハンス島の午後 by Haruki Murakami for customers

Therefore, we chose MagicBread.ca as the name.

“Magic” symbolizes creativity that transforms “Bread” into some- thing that could provide happiness or warmth. “Bread”, as a common, cheap ingredient, symbolizes the down-to- earth and affordable nature of the pastries.

Competitors

Now that the name is settled down, we need to:

1. refine the details of the idea

2. start the design process

Which details of the idea do we need to refine further before starting the design process?

Obviously, one of the most important things to figure out is how we differ from the competitors. To do this, we need to research existing bakeries. To find existing bakeries, we need to both search locally and Goo- gle.

While searching locally, we found there is a small bakery nearby (further details redacted for anonymization). Maybe due to bud- get constraints, the place doesn’t have a window from which the Sun could shine through. The pastries are packaged in plain boxes. There was only one staff. There were no chairs. Those shortcom- ings made it difficult for customers to feel happy.

Moreover, their advertising fell short. There were no attractive im- agery of the pastries on Google Maps. Despite their logo giving off an impression of creativity, only the most plain pastries could be found. This difference creates a barrier between customers and the bakery.

On Google, we found many bakeries. Here are some examples:

1. Baklawa King https://g.co/kgs/b78JSyY, which has stores open in multiple places. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when businesses grow bigger, especially when they become something like a chain and open in multiple places, even when the original management wants to keep it down-to-earth, their attempts often fell short.

2. Art-Is-In Bakery https://g.co/kgs/FusgK49, which is the most highly rated bakery in the list at 4.3 stars. However, many reviews complained about the unreasonably high price of most items found on the menu. When money becomes a bigger priority than setting resonable prices for the company, people are going to be complain- ing about unreasonable prices.

3. La Brioche Pastry & Bakery https://g.co/kgs/d5Cyg5V, which suf- fers from the same issues as the small bakery nearby despite not being constrained by budget. Their items look hastily arranged on the standard shelves. Their photography on Google Maps look un- professional and didn’t show off how great their pastries are.

With the competitors in mind, the company values seem to have placed MagicBread.ca at a unique and attractive position.

1. Make sure the interior design make the customers feel warm or happy, by using large panes of glass and wooden dining chairs.

2. Cook creative, original pastries and arrange them in a unique fashion to show the customers we are “Magical”.

3. Use professional skills to conjure attractive photography of both the store and the pastries. Post on Google Maps to reduce barriers with potential customers.

4. Stick to the “down-to-earth” value. Focus on the only location. Do not open other stores. This would ensure we’re able to care for individual customers and make everyone feel welcomed.

5. Never place money before customers. Ensure the prices would be seen as reasonable based on current market, even for the most complex items.

Market/Customers

After settling on our unique strengths over the competitors, we need to consider the market - the potential customers.

An example of a customer would be J. J is a junior de- signer with a good eye for creativity. Despite J’s introverted nature, she was asked by her employer to do a presentation that day. She used various techniques and did a successful presenta- tion at the cost of exhaustion. After work, J wanted to grab a cup of coffee to relax. Starbucks seemed too expensive for Jamie so she looked for somewhere smaller. When she saw MagicBread. ca, she was immediately intrigued by the vibrant photography and the open storefront showing uniquely arranged pastries inside. To check out the price, J walked into the store. To her surprise, the items were both creative and reasonably priced. After experi- encing a warm welcome from our staff, J sat down on a wooden dining chair. While eating the delicious pastry, J watched the beautiful sunset through the large panes of glass and thought “I’ll come here regularly”.

In this example, we successfully converted a potential customer into a regular. By keeping our values, our advantages, and our cus- tomers in mind, we can create appropriate designs for the company MagicBread.ca