Bald Baker’s Sweet Challenge

After pursuing a career in finance, the case protagonist moved back to his hometown of Toronto in 2016 to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur. An incident involving his diabetic father during a family vacation was the primary motivation for his decision to help diabetics by offering treats they could enjoy without worrying about the health consequences. Being inexperienced in the baking industry, he invited a food connoisseur to join him in this adventure. She advised him to revise his product strategy from being solely low sugar to being low sugar, vegan, and gluten free in order to stay on top of market trends and target more customers. The entrepreneur’s new business, Bald Baker, began in January 2017, and in April of that year it officially launched three of Bald Baker’s products at the Niagara Food & Wine Expo. Bald Baker’s treats at this and other consumer food shows were receiving very positive reviews.<br><br>The entrepreneur now had to make some decisions about the future of Bald Baker. To ensure the long-term growth and sustainability of the brand, should Bald Baker’s product positioning be low sugar, or vegan/gluten-free/ketogenic-diet friendly? How should he allocate a $50,000 grant toward Bald Baker’s marketing?

This case is suitable for an undergraduate- or graduate-level introductory course on marketing and can be used for teaching marketing strategy components. This case is a useful tool for students to use to develop a marketing strategy. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will have gained an understanding that<ul><li>the main components of a marketing strategy are the target market and the marketing mix elements;</li><it is necessary to segment the market based on different segmentation bases (i.e., demographic, psychographic, behavioural, and geographic), as well as to know how to evaluate these segments and select the most attractive segment as the target market; and</li><li>a target market must be selected before working on the marketing mix elements, with the target market selection being at the core of any marketing decision.</li></ul>Given the nature of the central dilemma in the case, the main focus for students will be developing promotional strategies. However, enough information is provided in this case to allow them to make decisions on other elements of the marketing mix (i.e., product, place, and price). Furthermore, the numbers provided in the case allow students to carry out a quantitative analysis in addition to their qualitative analysis.

• Positioning, Segmentation, Promotion