White Paper Part 2: The Plan

As a family-owned business, Brownsteins has a few problems with resources. Bakeries are also highly vulnerable to other market factors, such as the price of wheat and gasoline (as the delivery of the foods is done by automobile). Much of the sales need to be done over phone or in person, there are no other ways to  order in bulk for, say, a wedding or bar mitzvah.

So it would be required that a website be created. On this would be a ordering form, links to reviews and more interactive things. For example, you could order your bagels, but as you pick them you’d be able to see their pictures show up (to make sure you are picking the right type of bagel: sometimes people don’t realize what they are getting they are so used to just saying “that one”) and such. There could also be links to reviews and maps, like below, which shows directions from Fisher to Brownsteins.

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Additionally, some use of the internet’s increasingly growing “viral video” networks, such as Youtube, might be a good idea. A humorous talk about the history of the bagel, for example, or somebody driving around waving a flag with a Bagel on it, could become a viral video that at the very least would raise recognition of the name. Possibilities are further expanded by this inside fact: The Brighton Town Government is notoriously against flashy signs, or signs with too much color in them. This would provide tons of possibilities for “bad publicity is better than no publicity”. For example, what if there was a site or blog against this policy? Surely that site could like a astroturfed front that to those who didn’t read the legal fine print wouldn’t even know were connected to Brownsteins. If enough publicity got stirred up, interest would increase, and with interest would come business (in theory). Of course, this would be frought with other problems, for example, lawyers.

Alternatively, another idea would be to have a webcam on the bagels being made. This would, while not particularly useful, could draw people’s attentions towards other parts of the site. Since the bagels are sent to various schools and such, an idea could be to have signs be put up at places where they are that say “Watch your bagels get made at Brownsteins.org”, or “Want to know where those bagels REALLY come from: Brownsteins.org”. Such a move would at the very least let it be known who supplies the Bagels, and may drive more visits to the website. Of course, this would be a bit too risky more than likely, so instead the creation of, say, facebook pages, might be the way to go. This assumes that anyone would pay any attention to such a Facebook page- however, since Facebook pages are free, it would not hurt at all to at least try to set one up.

A website, as mentioned above, will allow easier communication, ordering and also information. Public Relations Online has several interesting ideas on how to incorporate the internet that could aid Brownsteins in doing this. For one, it is mentioned how Public Service Announcements are in many ways the digital equivalent of broadcast media. This allows, in theory, plenty of ways to get information out there in video form. Take, for example, the below unauthorized youtube tour through the Brownsteins Bakery backroom by a member of the staff:

While this does not exactly cause riveting revelations or any other “public service”, it does proceed to humanize the workers in the back room. In this way, it informs others. On page 125 of Public Relations Online, it is noted that general goals for websites are often to inform, sell and persuade. To sell, I’d suggest that a web designer be hired to create a “menu page”, which could be even a flash application, but could also simply be a regular page. The person looking to buy would see, for example, rows of Bagels that look like this:

Mousing over that would bring up the price, nutritional information, and possibly some additional information, like what type of cream cheese would go well on it.

One issue that was brought up was the fact that Bagels, like every other thing in Brownstein’s, is Kosher, which is a unfamiliar system for those who are not Jewish. For that reason, the website would likely have a section on what, exactly, Kosher foods are. In addition, such a section could be used to calm any worries that the many Jewish people in Brighton (Brighton, as of 2002, had 40.7% of it’s Active Religious Congregation-members taking part in non-Christian congregations, and the fact that Temple B’rith Kodesh is nearby [as well as anecdotal evidence] suggests that a good portion of that 40% is Jewish). This would both inform and persuade people, helping to sell.

Many other possibilities exist, but I believe that this plan is a good start.