Blog Author: Reece Soltani, New Sector Alliance Fellow
Seeing as how ClaireSquares (http://www.clairesquares.com/) is listed under the “50 Treats to Eat in SF Before You Die,” (http://www.7×7.com/eat-drink/50-treats-eat-sf-you-die) I was ecstatic to hear the Small Business Advising team was hosting a Roundtable Strategy session for the mysterious Claire of Clairesquares. Not only because that surely meant I would finally be able to put a face to the images I’d conjured up in my head, but that I would get to devour more of her delectable, Irish treats.
I’d seen Clairesquares occasionally at Peet’s Coffee & Tea next to the Madeline’s and natural bar options, but always wondered who that little lady Claire was behind these pastries. Was she and elderly Irish woman slaving away in her kitchen? Did she simply throw a dash of this and that together to create the holy grail of bliss that her 3-pack Dark Chocolate Squares are? Was it a team of bakers? I was so desperate to know.
The two-hour session comprised of diving into strategic growth and the company’s best opportunities in the future. But the real heart of the conversation was around Claire, how to make her more visible in products, sharing her story and shifting her marketing approach to spotlight that.
We advised her to do what anyone would actually want to focus on: do what you love and make it fun. When I visited the ClaireSquares webpage, I left wanting more as a customer. I wanted to know how she got there, where recipes came from, anything providing a more personal attachment to her. Today, people are very interested in you, your back story, why you started your company, and thereby why they should buy your product. We want to see broadcast her story as the front runner, as if the product is secondary and her story that created ClaireSquares’ mission is why you should really buy the product.
The advisors probed her and quickly she revealed fun facts about her past in Ireland baking as a child. Most recently she found a shortbread recipe in her old 6th grade English composition book and explained jokingly that she struggles to make them as well as she did when she was twelve. Everyone at the table leapt at the story, “These are the things you need to put on your website!” “These are the stories people want to hear!” “These are the fun facts that should be the forefront of your marketing and branding strategy.”
Claire stays true to recipes and ingredients, is a great salesperson and is eager to be the face ClaireSquares. So the hope is when the Small Business Advising team checks back with her in 3-months, we’ll come to find she allowed that good ‘ol fashioned Irish humor come through in her products. The ultimate goal is her customers will leave the new website fully satisfied… of delicious ClaireSquares treats!