Marketing secrets of award-winning bakery business Lovingly Artisan

Lovingly Artisan founders Catherine Connor and Aidan Monks have revealed the marketing strategies that helped them become one of the Britain’s most-loved artisan bakeries. 

Speaking at the Farm Shop & Deli Show – part of the UK Food & Drink Shows event taking place from 7 to 9 April at the NEC Birmingham, the couple talked about how they had developed the business that has three times been voted the best artisan bakery in Britain. 

Lovingly Artisan, which operates from three sites and supplies some of the most prestigious restaurants in Cumbria, was last year declared Retailer of the Year in the Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Awards. 

But Monks – the reigning Baking Industry Awards’ Baker of the Year – admitted retail was something he didn’t understand at first. 

“I thought that if I make the best bread ever that’s it – I have a great business,” he told the Farm Shop & Deli Show audience. “Little did I know that the key to any good business is good marketing, and marketing and retail is what Catherine brings to the business, and that absolutely makes the difference.” 

“We can make the nicest bread in the world, but if we can’t tell the story about that bread and have people listening to us and engaging with us, the business doesn’t move forward.” 

Monks said Lovingly Artisan still had customers who had been with it from the beginning. 

“Building that loyalty, with people who not only remain as customers but become friends is the sign of a good business and is also a good strategy.” 

“Too often in retail there isn’t enough communication, and that’s the one thing that, as independents, we have the ability to do. Talking to people, making friends with people, building relationships with people is lost on bigger forms of retailing.” 

Connor said word of mouth is the biggest form of marketing the business can utilise, explaining that every visitor to the bakery is asked to tell a friend about it. 

“Even today, people will say they’ve travelled past a thousand times and have never pulled in and found us, and we think about that a lot.” 

She added that all food and drink retailers operate in a very competitive marketplace – and that relying on social media alone isn’t enough to market a business. 

“We need to use our voices, and we need to use our premises,” she added. “I will step back from the shop and have a look at how it feels across the street. I will have a look at how it feels from the left and from the right, because that store has got to get you in and then soon as they’re in, let the magic unfold.” 

Connor said the couple always think about how the shop makes its customers feel, explaining that the pandemic lockdowns were a hugely important time for independent retailers. 

“I was really aware that for some of our visitors we might be the only people they see that day, the only connection they might have that day,” she added. 

On Father’s Day during lockdown, Connor bought daffodils and made small bouquets that were given the men when they visited the shop. 

“One of the fathers took them and carried them out like he’d got an award,” she said. “He got to his car and I saw him come back in with the daffodils. He said ‘nobody’s ever given me flowers before and for all of the right reasons’, and he just turned around and said ‘I love you guys’. 

“He’s now become a friend and a dear adviser, and I think the bunch of daffodils might have cost me around about 40 pence. And what I’ve learned through the bunch of daffodils, is it’s the tiny things you do.” 

She added that this is where small, independent retailers come into their own.  

“We can make these choices. We can think on our feet. We don’t have to ask permission. There’s no board of directors I have to ask. I just listen to my heart and make a decision about how we want to operate the business.” 

“Our job and our goal is not to disappoint,” she said. “I don’t want somebody to have been following us for years to be disappointed and I never want them to go ’Oh, it’s not like it is on Instagram’ – the message they receive online has to be the same message or experience the receiving store.” 

To ensure the customer experience is as good when the couple are away from the business as when they are in a store, a lot of time and effort has been put into training. Taking inspiration from a movie scene in which a chef made all his kitchen staff and front of house staff be silent when he talked to them about the ingredients he was about to use in the kitchens.  

“I thought it was genius, so we have introduced Silent Set-up into the retail stores,” says Connor. “The team are all totally silent while they are putting the croissants out or putting the loaves on the rack, and what I’m doing is training them about a product or an element of our service.” 

She was unsure how the idea would go down with staff but said feedback has been very positive. 

“One team member said they like having a quiet moment to think about what they are doing and to listen to what I am saying. And a couple of the guys that are our team leaders said they love Silent Set-up because it helps set the tone of the day.” 

Based in a major tourist area, the business changes the way it talks about its products depending on the season. 

“The shelves are filled with the same items but now we’re talking about crostini as little miniature sandwiches – a picnic snack,” Connor explained. “In a different season the story flips and that makes a really big difference.” 

Explaining that a bakery is the cornerstone of a community and has a key role to play in the nourishment of a community, the business talks to its customers about the health benefits of the ancient grains it uses. 

“To converse with people about the health and benefits the bread brings runs counter to a lot of media and discussion that goes on at the moment, some of which is justified,” said Monks.  

“You have to explain why our breads are special, why they are good for people, why they are good for their digestion, and it’s those things that hook them in. Once they’re hooked in with the story, once they’ve bought it once they’ve tried it, and then they come back.”