Brand Building, Tone of Voice, and Taylor Swift’s Birthday Cake
A conversation with Shannon Salzano, Content and Special Projects Director at Milk Bar.
On a recent trip to New York City, I was very kindly hosted at Milk Bar’s flagship store and lab for coffee with Shannon Salzano. Shannon is a New York Times best-selling author, hospitality industry veteran, and the voice of one of my all-time favourite brands.
We had a great conversation (the kind that makes you think, "hey, I might be unreal at podcasting?") with some key thoughts that I've condensed into the following Sugar Snap Scrapbook entry. Hopefully, you enjoy it even half as much as I did, although you won’t be enveloped by the funfetti and cereal milk aromas like I was.
I'm a massive Milk Bar fan. The socials, art direction, product - all super formative for me when starting out on my professional career in food. And so, with any good professional introduction, I completely embarrassed myself by coming across as some kind of weird super-fan when Shannon greeted me.
"Have you been to any of our bakeries before?"
"Yes! I’ve been to a couple," I replied, trying to get the conversation back on track by choosing not to mention that I’ve visited three-quarters of their locations, from Washington DC to Los Angeles.
The Job
We chatted for a while about what I do for work and then, more interestingly, what Shannon does. Being the Content & Special Projects Director for a brand like Milk Bar is pretty far-reaching.
"My favourite part of the job is how involved it is. As a team, we’re all involved in tastings and product development, which ensures everyone is fully invested in our product. We aren’t all bakers by trade, but we’ve found having a front row seat to the process to be important!" That resonated with me.
To sell a product, you’ve got to know your product. And that applies to all levels of the business.
Looking the Part
I'm a huge fan of the Milk Bar visuals. Go for a little adventure through their website or Instagram, and you’ll find high-contrast flash photography and bold graphics that have become iconic.
"It’s so important that things are cohesive across all channels. Our A-boards outside every bakery have the same imagery that you’ll see across social and menu boards, and they all use minimal props."
"You’re letting the products speak for themselves?"
"Exactly. Keeping it simple. We realised recently that we have very few actual design assets too."
Shannon then shared that this had become apparent in the design phase of an unbelievably cool apparel collaboration coming up soon. Take my money.
Email Marketing in 2024
We chatted about all aspects of the marketing mix, but one part that stood out was when Shannon asked me about the place of email marketing in 2024. I introduced her to the punishing bounds of GDPR restrictions in Europe but concluded that it’s still impactful if executed well.
I then learned what ‘executed well’ looks like in practice when she talked about her 90% open rates. Sheesh.
“We trim our email marketing list all the time. We have billions of sends every year, so we’d prefer people to want to hear from us. If you’re never opening them, then we’re all better off not clogging up your inbox. That contributes to our strong open rate for sure, combined with our copy, and I guess people like looking at pictures of cake too.”
“You mentioned copy there, and coming into this conversation I wanted to ask about the tone of voice actually. That’s a big part of how I became a fan of your brand, and I know that’s a big part of what you do.”
Tone of Voice
“Wow - thank you! But, yeah, it’s so incredibly important. I write and oversee the copy to make sure that everything sounds consistently like us, from our books, to what we call our baked goods, to our Instagram captions.”
We then briefly debated whether the caption or media is more important on Instagram before deciding they are equals. Both can be great, we concluded.
Continued Growth
“So what does continued growth for Milk look like?”
“We were able to diversify through the pandemic. We’re now stocked in grocery stores, which has definitely changed things. We’re continuing to push our e-commerce shipping of cakes and gifts, but there’s still a focus on bricks and mortar expansion.”
Shannon shared how the pandemic had slowed their physical location growth plans, but echoing what I’ve heard from various hospitality industry leaders, forced innovation.
“We’re considering opening bakeries in key locations across the US, which will in turn support our retail as we get exposed to new areas. It all works together! Ecommerce too. Our website traffic went wild when Taylor Swift posted pictures of her birthday cake.”
At this point, I confessed that Sugar Snap’s birthday cake was a blatant copy of the Milk Bar style. Shannon claimed that she was flattered, but I apologised anyway. She conceded that it’s actually their fault for not having opened any bakeries in the UK and Ireland yet for me to have purchased from. A great point.
We ran well over time, and it was drawing perilously close to the 5 pm rush, so we wrapped up our chat. I left with a generous bag of goodies and a real buzz from having seen a glimpse behind the curtain of an incredible brand. If you find yourself near a Milk Bar, be sure to check out the cereal milk ice cream or any of their array of bakes. I’m eating a ‘Compost Cookie’ as I write this. If you know, you know.