Perception: The Cupcake Approach

Source: www.lesglaceurs.ca

Everyone who knows me well would know that I have this odd obsessions with cupcakes, but not just any kind of cupcakes, it has to be red velvet cupcakes from the store Les Glaceurs in Montreal. This obsession started fresh out of high school when a friend and I were roaming around downtown the Old Port in Montreal and stumbled upon this small bake shop right in the midst of the magical historical part of my beautiful home town. At first we were just hungry and decided to stop and try a cupcake. Once was all it took, and now I am hooked for life, no visit to Montreal is complete without a trip down to Les Glaceurs. So this Christmas break I decided to introduce my boyfriend to my favourite place, and lets just say now he understands why I love it so much.

Source: www.lesglaceurs.ca

First off when you see the store it is very quaint and welcoming, it's also very colourful and looks like a fun place to go spend some time with friends. They also play up to date music so the whole atmosphere of the store is appealing. The smell as you enter the building is what really grabs your attention, the smell of freshly baked cupcakes is a smell that I could never get tired of. They have lots of choice of different cupcake flavours to meet everyones tastes. I highly recommend this place to all my friends and I've gotten many other people hooked on it.

Many people ask me why I don't just get cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge in Ottawa since I now live there, instead of having to get them in Montreal. My answer is always that it's just not the same, I don't have the same connection to the Cupcake Lounge brand and stores. So maybe the cupcakes are of equal quality and taste, but to me there is a huge difference. 

Source: alumni.uottawa.ca

Source: www.christinachamoun.com

My perception (Ch. 2 of Consumer behaviour) of the Les Glaceurs brand and products has a huge part to play in my loyalty and positivity towards this brand over others. I love the colours of the cupcake lounge (lime green and pink) whereas the cupcake lounge is only brown and white....which is quite boring and not very visually appealing.

As you can see in the picture, the exterior of the cupcake lounge isn't super eye catching or interesting, so many people will walk by and not even notice it. I have many friends that live in Ottawa and spend quite a bit of time in the Byward market, yet they have never heard of the cupcake lounge and it's in the heart of the market. Therefore they are not doing a very good job with their marketing, if they changed it up a little bit they could bring in a lot more business. 

All in all a consumers perspective of a given brand or product is very important in terms of loyalty and satisfaction. In learning about this in class, it has made me understand why I prefer certain products over others, and why I have favourite places and things in general. My understanding of why consumers will prefer one product over another is defined, and I believe this is very important aspect to know about, if I were to ever open my own business in the future.  

My guilty pleasure will forever be confined to this little pink box of cupcakes. Mmmm go ahead, next time you are in Montreal there are multiple locations of Les Glaceurs, go check it out and see if you like them as much as I do!

I even challenge you to try both The Cupcake lounge cupcakes and Les Glaceurs cupcakes and compare them both. Let me know what you think!

http://www.lesglaceurs.ca/index.php?langue=2
http://thecupcakelounge.com/