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I have a friend who makes very good banana bread. She tried to sell it on the street and got sold out of a huge batch within a very short time.

She wants to stay local within her city, but isn't sure how to market it on the Web. I suggested being added to Google Places and Yelp for being found via local search.

But the problem is more that there is just no search demand for ordering banana bread locally. People don't usually know there is a way to order that even if they want to.

Also, what would be a good brand? Right now the best option is "Banana Bread Lady" but making that into a URL might be too long of a name. Is there something fun that can be done with the concept?

Also, what would be a suitable expansion and scale strategy for such a business?

Thanks, Alex

ps - this "my friend..." question is obviously not really about me because I have no idea how to cook hahahahahah

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I've seen a reference or two to a tweeting mobile food truck that seemed to be doing spectacularly well. – Matt Apr 20 '11 at 23:53
@Matt very interesting how they got such a thing off the ground! – Genadinik Apr 21 '11 at 0:02

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Well ... I think there are a few things ... the length of the URL isn't as important anymore.

People can type if they can remember what it was they were typing.

Nomally though peope find it the first time from a link not from typing "www.???.com" but googling "???" and clicking the first few links OR finding an article, yelp page or local cooking page.

If she likes BananaBreadLady.com then I would start with that you can alwasy point other domains to it later when you think of something better.

Who is she targeting?

  • Me, the occasional adhoc eater of banana bread, well I would be looking for chocolate cake but would consider it if it looked good on the same page.
  • A reseller of cakes and other stuff. So they are selling in bulk.
  • A consistant buyer like events organisers. Good if you can meet the volume demands.

More importantly its how does she target the most useful set of people?

  • Facebook targeted advertising would be good but you would spend most of your profit on customer aquisition, if your going for the bulk buyers then I would consider this, but getting me to by a loaf or two ... probably not.
  • There are probably specific websites for people to put up their local produce and for people to browse and buy it.

Really you need to find the local sites that have the eyeballs. A website is a start but your real volume will come from locations where people are already looking. Something like http://www.marketsonline.com.au/ could be worth looking at but for your local area.

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Agreed, that really isn't that long of a url. – Melanie Apr 21 '11 at 5:19
Yeah, especially if your advertising on print or on your stall at a market. Have the true spelling because people won't remember the "cool short versions" or sexy spellings with a X or what ever. The average user will translate those versions into the proper spelling in their head without noticing. (and then wonder what happened to your website) – Robin Vessey Apr 21 '11 at 5:25

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