What does it take to be a successful cake decorator?

EQ: What is most important in making profit as a Cake Decorator in today's economy?

Monday, April 28, 2014

Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:
Exit Interview
(1) What is your essential question and answers? What is your best answer and why?
   
     My first answer is cake decorators should be original and creative to make profit in this economy.
     My second answer is cake decorators should determine what drives customer demand.
     My third answer is cake decorators should incorporate gluten free products to address the needs of many customers.
     My best answer is cake decorators should incorporate gluten free products to address all customers’ needs because in today’s economy you not only have to differentiate yourself from the markets competitors, but also fit what the customers want. The reason why  My first answer Cake decorators should be original and creative to make profit as a cake decorator is not my best answer is because it only showed at most 10%  bump in their business according to an article published  by On top visibility Web Design &  Marketing titled “ Myths about creativity”, creativity derives from expertise , meaning that extraneous expertise can hinder the creative flow , although someone may never get 100% original ideas because  it has seemingly  become impossible to do.  The reason why my second answer  stating that cake decorators should determine what drives customer demand is not my best answer is because although finding out what customers want is essential, as a cake decorator you must not only research on what customers  want but also incorporate what your customers want into your products. Customers determine what products you will sell, so that there is neither a surplus nor shortage of your product. Lastly, one should incorporate gluten-free products so that all customers’ needs are met. The main goal for gluten free products used to be for Celiacs that had to follow a special diet. A growing number of people are going gluten-free by choice rather than medical necessity.  This market will continue to expand and is anticipated to grow at 25% and produced $4.2 billion dollars in 2013 according to Market research company Packaged Facts. The reason for this market is to offer products that generally most bakeries do not offer and it allows the business to prosper.  Essentially incorporating gluten-free products is my best answer because it has been proven to show more potential in making profit in this economy.
  2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
    
     The process I took to find my best answer involved finding my first and second answers. I found my first answer while reading a book that was meant for background on my senior topic titled Professional Cake Decorating by Garret Toba, it was a college textbook that included everything there is to know about cake decorating. What really hit me at first, was that it was constantly repeating that you needed to be creative to have a presentable cake and that it also had to be original.  Then I had my second interview with Jorge Renteria and he then confirmed that in fact to make profit in his business his cake decorators needed to make their products creative and original. His main point was that cakes that were creative were targeted towards kids and they made the most profit on those products. After my second interview with Mr. Renteria I found that since La Puente Bakery #1 & #2 had a target market that was efficient, I started to look in on how to find a target market fit for your business and I came across an article by Alina Dizik titled 10 Questions to Ask before Determining Your Target Market. One of the questions that caught my eye was Who would pay for my product or service?, because it allowed me to look into that more and that meant looking for what drives customer to buy a product. At that time in Purther’s class we were learning about the concept of supply and demand and that is how I got to my second answer. My last answer came from thinking of ways to differentiate a business and I jotted down a list that included making custom cakes available to customers, Fondant cakes, Gluten Free, Vegan/ vegetarian.  And later I realized that gluten free products aren’t widely available a lot and I know because I was diagnosed with wheat allergy and I had still not found one gluten free bakery around La Puente.  So I started to look into the whole gluten free market and I found that not only was this product being purchased by people like me but also people who just want to be healthy, according to The NPD Research group one third of consumers were people who wanted to be healthy, maintain their weight, and just by choice rather than as a medical necessity. The University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center estimates that more than 3 million Americans — about one in 133 — have celiac disease meaning that the market isn’t driven by Celiacs. I later came across an article by Elaine Watson titled What’s the size of the Gluten Free Prize and it talked about the many researching companies that estimated what it is worth and they later found that Euro monitor Research group was the most accurate and pricing the market at $ 486.5 million and $285.1 million was from bakeries in 2013.  This is when I came into a conclusion that in fact incorporating gluten free products to address all customers’ needs is my best answer because it is 25% more expensive according to Packaged Facts and to make Gluten Free products is actually cheaper than the non-gluten free products because the products are made of rice. The market for these products is also fairly large and it is estimated to grow more. It also it kind of like a more specific thing a cake decorator should do to raise profits in their business. 
(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
     
     A problem that I faced was during first semester was trying to find research. What I did to resolve this problem was go to the library and search for books about successful cake decorators and I came across a book written by Buddy Valastro titled Cake Boss and from that I remembered another famous cake Decorator Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes and from those two books and looked into what steps they took to make their businesses so successful.
     Another problem that I faced was that for my second presentation I had a lot of research and information to talk about and it could possibly go over the 30 minute time limit. What I did was try and condense my information by focusing on the quality research , so I looked through my PowerPoint and looked at the things I could go without saying and I decided to  exclude  mentioning some of the prior experience I had before doing my senior project.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
     
     One of my most significant sources was Professional Cake decorating by Garret Toba a book that I had mentioned early which helped me get my first answer and it also helped me fix my essential question into focusing it on a business perspective rather than solely on the specific skills and techniques.  It also helped me out with my independent component 1 with my mentor Ismael Cervantes in which I did extra mentorship hours and what I did was compare the products that were original and creative to the regular ones and I calculated the differences in profits amongst the 2 categories. Throughout the independent component I kept on referencing to the sections were it taught you different unique piping techniques that I could use. 

     .Another significant source was my mentor Ismael Cervantes because he has a lot of knowledge in the field because he has worked as a cake decorator for over 32 years because he began to work in the field at age 14. He helped me out with any questions that I had with my senior project and whenever I would find research on my answers I would first confirm if it in fact applied to the industry before I would identify it as support for my answers. 

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