“May you live in interesting times,” as the Irish adage goes, is ostensibly a blessing. In fact, it’s anything but. The food industry is certainly laboring through interesting times. Consumers’ attitudes toward spending are always in flux, but the last three years have been even more erratic than usual, with economic pressures adding another variable to the complex equation that is consumer behavior. But changing consumer behavior can present opportunity. It can illuminate new ways to reach customers and provide different lenses through which to view their demands. Modern Baking compiled a list of 10 directions emerging in food that may have implications for your bakery.

The mini loaf gets big

Mini bread loaves are catching one with price- and calorie-conscious shoppers.

Every year, the world seems to get a little smaller. Phones are shrinking into thin, palm-sized devices, compact cars are being hailed as the savior of the environment, and the cupcake is the snack of the moment. It was only a matter of time before the trend showed up in bread. Consumers have had an on-and-off relationship with the miniature loaf for several years now, but it looks like the current economic conditions and lingering green movement may finally cause the trend to stick.

Franklin Street Bakery in Minneapolis is an old hand at producing mini loaves. It sells the pint-sized product for $3.99, and customers don’t hesitate to snap them up. The bakery keeps customers interested by periodically varying its offerings.

“We offer a variety that changes seasonally,” explains pastry chef Lynne Hackman. “Currently, they include pumpkin spice, chocolate zucchini and banana blueberry to name a few.”

The bakery began producing the mini loaves as a way to use the leftover batter from its regular loaves, and since all the loaves are produced together, the process requires no additional work, making the bread a nobrainer addition.

Mini loaves appeal to a range of customers–cashstrapped shoppers like the lower price point, eco-conscious patrons find there’s less to waste, and those counting calories appreciate the smaller portions. And with the trend showing up at Dairy-Deli-Bake earlier this year, it seems the mini loaf is set to gain a very big following.

Behind the curtain: website videos

Thanks in part to the advent of the TV celebrity baker, consumers now are interested in what goes on behind the scenes in a retail bakery. Marketing-savvy retail bakers are taking a page out of celebrity bakers’ playbooks by introducing video to their websites.

Original video clips are easy to upload and host on a website.

“Our customers were always asking us how we make certain products, and they want to know if we have classes,” says Sandy Polletta, co-owner of Edgewood bakery, Jacksonville, Fla. “There aren’t enough hours in the day to run a business and do those kinds of things as well, so we turned to video.”

The idea began with an Orlando wedding planner, who was looking to create a primer for brides-to-be about what they should expect from a wedding cake and cake decorator. A production company showed up to shoot the video, which Edgewood now hosts on its website.

“This inspired us to do more. We do spots on local TV, where we had people asking about different techniques,” Polletta says. “Even if they don’t do it themselves, they find the nuts and bolts of baking so interesting.”

Being in the wedding industry, bakers are likely already acquainted with photographers or videographers. “We’ll hire or trade with them and have them come in to do the video for us. When you start to do something like this, you realize how little you know,” she says.

But that shouldn’t deter bakers from using a DIY approach to creating and posting short videos, if the content is of interest to customers. Most current digital cameras have a video option and enough memory to shoot a few minutes of footage–enough for a baker to demonstrate a new decorating trick or sculpting technique. And these videos are easy to host on a bakery’s website, where they can remain indefinitely.

Above all, a video is another means to connect to customers, position yourself as an expert and invite your clientele behind the curtain for an exclusive look at how you do what you do.

Giving products a second chance

Waste has always been a bad word in bakeries. But the recent sustainable and environmentally responsible movements, combined with the economic slump, have made waste a no-no with consumers, too. Bakers are finding ways to reduce their waste, all the while showing customers they care about waste reduction and sustainability.

Hello Pies from Hello Cupcake are simply two unsold cupcake tops sandwiching a generous layer of icing.

Hello Pies, Washington, D.C., does not sell day-old product and wanted to reduce its product shrink. “We were tired of throwing out what we didn’t sell from that day. Truthfully, the cakes are fine for three to four days, but we market ourselves as baked fresh everyday,” says Todd Miller, executive pastry chef. “So, we invented the Hello Pies.”

The Hello Pie uses the crowned tops of undecorated cupcakes that otherwise would have been tossed. The bakery slices off the tops, then sandwiches two tops together with a generous layer of icing to create a wastesaving cousin of the whoopee pie.

Hello Pies are merchandised next to the register with a sign explaining their function and purpose. They seem to resonate with customers.

At $2 apiece, the Hello Pies usually sell out. “We could have 80 on a Friday and sell them all. It depends on how much we have left over, but on an average day, we do four to five dozen,” Miller says.

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