Would you find this advert endearing and effective or a bit cringeworthy and too personal?

[bakingbaker]

What would you think if you saw a baker advertise his products on FB or Instagram by talking about their struggles, how they stay out in the cold until they've sold everything, dropped out their high paying career, how they pull constant all nighters or how they still managed to deliver your box out of A and E after a car crash.

Would you think it is a good strategy or would you think it's a bit too much?

More specifically what would you think of a post like this? Would you post it or leave it?

"I deliver my cakes by hand. 10 on my arms, 10 on my shoulders, 10 on my back. My philosophy is that if we avoid getting tired, we cannot appreciate a night's rest. If we keep taking it easy, we cannot truly appreciate a glass of water or a hot meal. These are the little joys which make life worth living for me. I do not want it easy!"

or, a bit more personal:

"This business was meant to be co-run by two people - my ex-partner and I. I spent 2 years building up our bakery to the point that I was ready to share the journey with someone. So I rebranded for a fresh start for us this year. But they and I had different visions. I wanted to continue improving my baking, keep prices the same and pay myself the minimum salary while reinvesting most of the revenue back into my business. My partner prioritised delegating the workload to staff, increasing profits and cashing out. This isn't wrong in and of itself but my heart disagreed. It didn't make sense to harvest the first fruits when I could wait and harvest the whole rainforest. There is so much growth still left.

I've faced some tough choices on my journey. With the time commitments, I had to choose between my friends or my small business. Next it was my job or my small business. After that my academics or my small business. But this one really stopped me in my tracks: my partner or my small business. Do I love my business enough that I'd give up a future with someone? The double workload combined with the breakup left me empty. I needed to channel the negative energy into something positive.

This journey has taught me that nothing will happen unless you make it happen."

Thank you for your opinion

Are you trying to sell buns or auditioning for X Factor? It's unbelievably cringy.

Anything that has the word ‘journey’ in it, if it isn’t about an actual journey, i just stop reading/listening to. Personally, I just want to go into the bakers a buy a cake without listening to a long, rambling sob story.

OP I think you need to find a way to convey your enthusiasm for your product, and consequently the amazing quality of your product, without people ending up feeling sorry for you. If I read that I’d be slightly concerned you were going buckle under the strain of the sacrifices you’d made, and I wouldn’t get my cakes. I’d rather order them from someone who was breezing through it with comfort and joy.

Definitely neither. I follow a photographer on insta. I've used her twice previously because her photos are good and she's reasonably priced.

However her social media strategy recently focuses more on her divorce, her health issues and her neurodiversity. If I'm being honest I just feel why do you have to go down this route when you're good at your job. You don't need to guilt people in to buying your product if it's good.

But literally none of your spiel told us that you sell small brownies

I appreciate you are putting this on social media so it will probably be accompanied by a video or a photo but honestly I would be more inclined to buy a product from you if I knew what you were selling, how much it was and how to get it, and if there are any unique selling points like fair trade chocolate or locally sourced ingredients etc

Telling me your partner left because they wanted to turn a profit and you wanted harvest a rainforest tells me that the business savvy person left and there's no point getting too attached to your products because you are more likely to go out of business

This, its pretty awful!

This with bells on.

As cockney Nan would say “what a load of fucking shit”. ….We just want cake.

Actual marketer here.

Most social traffic and engagement needs video. Video content helps get your posts appearing in people's feeds - the first thing you need to overcome as Meta favours paid-for, promoted content. Users haven't got time to read a wall of text. They're scrolling through their feed and looking for what interests them. You've got less than a second to catch their attention. Maybe 3-6 seconds to get them interested.

Text serves a purpose - for SEO and keywords but they need to be relevant keywords - business location & postcode, products, ingredients, flavours, unique selling points, price, trending topics - not generic sob stories.

People LOVE baking videos & images - no idea why you wouldn't focus on that first.

They're not adverts they're emotional vomit.

If I hadn't been told I'd have no idea you were actually trying to sell me cake!

I hate this sort of stuff. The whole oversharing/bring your whole self to work nonsense.

Just keep it professional & no drama etc. People but cake because it tastes good - it isn't anymore complicated than that.

I think M & S ads are the best adds fir selling food. The way they do it you can imagine the taste & smell etc.

Even a bad picture of cake it better than what you are suggesting.

I couldn't even be bothered to read all of the OP it was so waffly boring. So I very much doubt I would read this on Facebook as a marketing ploy!!

Genuinely I would think the person had MH issues that were coming across in their advertising.

And I'm not entirely sure how that would make me feel?

Uncomfortable would best describe it I guess.

Oh god! That’s absolutely awful advertising.

Why would anyone think ‘moan about ex partners strategy and talk about how they thought I should be (in my opinion) under paid’ is going to make people buy cake.

I remember loads of small businesses doing the sob story a few years ago. It got boring really quickly. I buy from small businesses all the time, but sob stories and ‘I work so much harder than others’ stories puts me right off.

OP as others have said this sounds unprofessional and yes would ring alarm bells that I am being fed a sob story so as to accept an inferior product at inflated prices. I’m sure your brownies are lovely, but with this story that’s what people are going to assume.

I WOULD react positively to an advert that said something like “I take pride in the quality of my baking and in the ethics of my business, I believe in raising up my employees on my route to success and all are paid at least national minimum wage” or something! But yes also a picture/video of delicious cake/brownies is going to be most important here 🤣

If you want to run a food business, particularly a bakery where it is often an impulse purchase, you need to focus on good quality products bringing people back and spreading the word. Sob stories aren’t going to do it. Do you think Facebook succeeded because the underlying message was “ hey sad people with no friends, join our site and see how many other sad buggers are out there”

Nailed it.

I've faced some tough choices on my journey. With the time commitments, I had to choose between my friends or my small business. Next it was my job or my small business. After that my academics or my small business. But this one really stopped me in my tracks: my partner or my small business. Do I love my business enough that I'd give up a future with someone? The double workload combined with the breakup left me empty. I needed to channel the negative energy into something positive.

Theres absolutely no reason anyone has to give up their friends, their well paid job, studying or their Partner to run a bakery.

If they gave up their job, they should have made sure they had the savings to fund this properly. If not it should have been done on the side. Many people run bakeries while having friends, studying and having a partner (or combination of these 3).

If you chose to sacrifice everything to make brownies, that’s up to you. Doesn’t mean anyone is obliged to buy them.

Both awful.

The first poster nailed it.

@bakingbaker come on Op you can’t possibly ku have thought that was a good route to go down.

If you did, can you explain how you thought people would react?

Or are you the ex partner and this is how your ex is advertising?

I wouldn't read all.that. I would just want to know what you are selling, how it is baked, what ingredients reviews from others, with photos of the produce.

Just no. I’m not interested in that. Too much pressure now to guilt people into buying from small local businesses. I will buy if the products are good and I perceive them as good value. Not everyone can make a business work; not everyone can fulfil their exact dream. Most people have to have a regular job and be employed by someone else. It isn’t the end of the world.

OP this is not the X Factor for cakes and hopefully you're not the guy with a face like a dropped pie who can't sing or dance but gets through on the sympathy ticket. Listen - NOBODY likes that guy.

In all honesty, I gave up reading. My eyes were rolled so hard, I was looking at the back of my head from the inside.

Putting it very bluntly, I just don't care about "you".

Unless you're giving a 50% discount on successfully answering 10 questions on "who I am and how I got here", I can't see anyone reading to the end.

I'd not buy from any business that marketed itself like this.