Many of Costeaux’s wedding cakes feature fresh cut flowers. Wedding cakes are an avenue the bakery hopes to grow in the future.

Photo by Aaron Brodeur

The bakery remained open every day of the renovation, something that was taken into account when the contractors were hired. “It was important to remain open every day because people are creatures of habit,” Will says. “And, we didn't want them to get into a new habit. If we had to close, it would have been like having to open a brand new business when we reopened.” The renovation resulted in a sales increase of more than 10 percent.

To help make the construction bearable and keep customers coming in the door, a special construction café menu was created. Costeaux's Marketing Manager Abby Whitenack led “hard hat tours” to show customers what was going on behind the scenes and engage them in the process. Sales staff wore neon-colored construction vests and hard hats, and the bakery even sold hard hats with the Costeaux logo on them.

“It was more difficult on our staff than our customers because we had two movable walls and everything was on wheels. They never knew where things were going to be when they went in to work that day,” Will says.

Whitenack also developed a program for the bakery's first ever celebration of Bastille Day, June 14, the French independence day. The event's mission was two-fold: to bring in more customers during construction and to celebrate the bakery's French background. The event featured can-can dancers, pétanque (French street bowling), an Eiffel Tower cookie decorating contest and an actress portraying Marie Antoinette exclaiming “Let them each brioche.” Bastille Day 2008 was an immediate hit, and it was the largest non-holiday sales day in the bakery's history up to that point. Events for future Bastille Days will focus more on bringing the bakery's products into the celebration, Will says.

As part of the retail renovation, Costeaux also introduced a new logo. Will began the process about three years ago. The bakery's logo was 26 years old, and he wanted a logo to better represent how the bakery had evolved. The new logo had to have three components: the red, white and blue of the French flag; the year of establishment, 1923; and more emphasis on Costeaux and less on French Bakery. The latter was important because Will felt it would give the logo more latitude as the bakery grew.

After a two-year process, the Seppi's selected a logo with the custard-yellow background and red, white and blue ribbon running under the Costeaux name with 1923 below. The logo helps tie into the bakery's packaging, which features white boxes tied with tricolored red, white and blue ribbon. Will is incorporating the new logo onto employee nametags, and it is even featured on several café tabletops.

After getting the product offerings in line, Will turned his attention to improving the business side of the bakery. He knew he needed help with marketing and sales, so he looked at what his skills were and what he liked doing. He enjoyed meeting with the customers, so he figured he could handle the wholesale accounts for a while longer and decided to focus on marketing. In 2007, he hired Whitenack as a marketing and communications manager, a position unique in retail bakeries.

“I needed someone to get our packaging and logo squared away and get a consistent message out there to let people know we are here,” Will says.

To get a better understanding of what customers wanted from the bakery, Whitenack conducted five focus groups last year. About 40 people, representing a cross-section of the bakery's customers from frequent to infrequent guests, participated in a 90-minute discussion on what they wanted from Costeaux. The bakery then hosted a reception for all focus group participants. During the reception, Will gave a short presentation on what changes had already been implemented, what suggestions would be acted on in the future and why the bakery had chosen not to address some ideas from the discussions. Participants also received bakery gift certificates for their time.