Week 3 Part B: Developing a Brand

 The brand I chose is Encinitas Donuts House. It has been around for 30+ years ran by my in-laws, Sonny and Maria. All the donuts are made fresh every day, 7 days a week, all year round with the exception of major holidays. Their clientele is a majority of day labor workers, locals, and folks who are passing thorough. With this business being a mom-and-pop shop, their social media pages aren't as visible as it should be. Here is where I come in to help promote them digitally. They currently have an Instagram account with the front of the shop as their profile picture and 4 followers including myself and 0 posts.

We currently don't have a tagline, but we have thought about using, " family owned and operated since 1985" or " freshly made donuts daily with a smile." My in-laws really don't market themselves besides word of mouth. Like mentioned before, Encinitas Donuts are made daily from scratch. Being in the same location for three decades. The choice of colors they picked for a color scheme is red, yellow and white. Where's the significance? There isn't. Once my husband and I take over, we decided to change the colors to pink, brown, and white. Pink to represent the pink boxes which is a staple in the donut world business. Brown to signify the dough and white to symbolize frosting/ glaze.

The logo now is the name of the business followed by graphics of a coffee cup and some donuts. Going forward I don't think we will change the logo. It goes well with the brand. We will definitely use the logo on our Instagram page. Also, we plan to get customize ink stamps to stamp the pink boxes. There have been a few occasions where I volunteered at my son's elementary school to bring donuts. Parents and teachers have asked where we are located and responding gets too repetitive. The ink stamp will also include our address and phone number.

Consistency is key for our business. Going forward, I've mentioned to my in-laws that our logo needs to be present everywhere in the shop. From napkins, coffee cups, to maybe even uniforms/aprons. I understand it's about costs for them but in the marketer's eyes it's a strong brand identity and recognition. It's what separates us from all the other donut shops in Encinitas and hopefully all over. 

Overall, it's their business and they're very old school. Hopefully once they both retire, I'll have more say into what goes on with branding and marketing. For now, I can only make suggestions and if they want to use them then great! My vision is to franchise and be the next Krispy Kreme or Dunkin donuts. My in-laws immigrated here in 1980 from Cambodia with $200 in their pocket. To stay in business this long and during the pandemic definitely says a lot.