Ever since discovering Buttercup in London I knew the cupcake would play a larger role this year and so I was determined to frame a story around the cupcake phenomenon.

Believe it or not, the humble cupcake is now a viable marketing tool. Early adopters started paying attention to cupcakes in 2006, but this craze is now infiltrating the mainstream and is just going to spread farther and wider. What was seen as an old-fashioned indulgence of the yesteryears is now growing a new rep as a trendy “brandable” delicacy to have at some events.

The Comeback of Cupcakes

This isn’t just my intuition talking. Time magazine published an article Cupcake Nation in August 2006 discussing the rather unhealthy mania which has pushed the cupcake to unprecedented popularity. The New York Times published a story about the cupcake’s comeback, Resident Publications posted a list of cupcake bakeries in Manhattan, and ModernBaking.com published a story about customers going cuckoo for cupcakes.

From the groundswell cupcake aficionados Allison Bojarski, Nichelle Stephens and Rachel Kramer Bussel created the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake to cover everything related to the world of cupcakes. Their success has brought them on the Martha Stewart Show and also MSNBC. Other bloggers like Mej at Yo Mama confirms the comeback of cupcakes, EatLikeAGirl shares where cupcakes can be found in London, many others have given accounts of people going absolutely bonkers for cupcakes and the mania is showing no signs of abating.

Capitalizing on the Cupcake Mania

I have begun to notice that some companies have already jumped onto the cupcake bandwagon and are using these edible joythings ever so creatively.

Merchandising with the Cupcake Concept
Some companies are taking advantage of this trend and are creating cupcake-themed merchandise. Action Toys, Inc. announced in February 2008 that Crazy for Cupcakes toys are now available for children 3 years old and up, Johnny Cupcakes continues to cash in with themed merchandise and even luxury brands like Tiffany & Co. created an 18k-gold cupcake charm to serve cupcake enthusiasts.

Labeling of Cupcakes

Meanwhile on the more conservative side of the collective phenomenon, corporations are labeling their cupcakes for functions and events to foster loyalty among employees, express brand pride and extend brand awareness.

Absolutely anything from logos and images can now be printed using edible inks on icing sheets. It might surprise some to know that some Canon bubblejet printers are used to create them. These bespoke cupcakes can be ordered at specialist bakeries in most major cosmopolitan cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago and London.

The Cupcake as a Product

While labeled cupcakes are bound to amuse some, Tiffany & Co. has taken the cupcake to a whole new level with the creation of the “Tiffany Cupcake.”

Last weekend I came across these Tiffany cupcakes inside a glamorous candy box-house setup with a touch of Hansel and Gretel charm. The signature Tiffany-blue cupcakes can be purchased for a little under £3 each by anyone visiting Somerset House. Tiffany is sponsoring the ice-skating event there and on Saturday mornings adult ticket holders can get them for free in conjunction with Breakfast with Tiffany.

Cupcake-as-a-product works very well for a luxury brand with a cult following like Tiffany. Many can’t afford to buy Tiffany items on a frequent basis and few of their products cost less than £100. What the Tiffany cupcake does is offer brand loyalists the exclusive Tiffany experience for £3. Some may argue that it brings down the exclusivity of the brand but cupcakes are perishable and the brand-addiction fix is only temporary. If anything the sugary cupcakes only serves to strengthen and proliferate an addiction to the Tiffany brand.

Should luxury brand owners decide to give the cupcake-as-a-product route a miss, they should still keep their eyes and ears open for groundswell activity. Brand loyalists are willing to spend more than just money but time to evangelize their favorite brands. As with the case of Tiffany, if brand enthusiasts can’t get the real thing in a blue box they’ll create their own experience by baking cupcakes or purchasing knockoff versions from artistic bakeries.

Say Hello to Social Branding

The Groundswell is Baking and Sharing Brands with Each Other
Whether successful brands like it or not, the groundswell is happily baking at the moment and if brand owners pay attention they could benefit from these activities. Brand loyalists, cupcake artists and bakeries are using the cupcake as a means of expression at parties and weddings to share brand experiences with their customers, friends and guests. Trademark and copyright violation concerns aside, people are baking works of domestic art and sharing that with other people at parties and also pictures of their creations on social networks like Facebook and Flickr.

Take a look at these cupcake pictures I found below:-

Tiffany Cupcakes

Beijing Olympics 2008 Cupcakes

Here is another example of branded cupcakes made to celebrate the Olympics. Some are professionally made-to-order and some are baked by amateurs. Notice how different the designs are.

Barack Obama Election Campaign 2008

Where the cupcake phenomenon has really made a noticeable impact is in the area of politics. Obama supporters have used the cupcake strategy to raise campaign dollars and to rally for more votes. A Flickr search for the term “Obama cupcakes” returns 527 results (as of today), not counting cookies. There is even a special interest group dedicated to Obama cupcakes and cookies.

Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Cupcakes
Video game enthisiasts from children to adults are enjoying Super Mario Bros. cupcakes independent of Nintendo’s involvement. This experience outlives the life cycle of a product version and will likely help sustain continued interest in Super Mario Bros. until a new version is released with a new gaming system.

Chanel Cupcakes
Last but not least, here are some amazing looking Chanel cupcakes. These will do well as treats girl friends give other girl friends on special occasions. Maybe they only seem relevant to women, but then so is the whole Chanel brand save the men’s line.

Embracing the Groundswell Bakery

Instead of panicking and threatening to sue Mary, Jane and Jill for trademark and copyright violation, brand owners should observe what is happening in the groundswell and learn to embrace the validation of their brand. It would serve brand owners well to sit back and enjoy the free promotion from volunteer brand evangelists, because the more people enjoy looking and eating knockoff cupcakes the stronger those brands become as a result of the viral sharing. The offline sensory experience will leak onto the online visual experience courtesy of cupcake creators and citizen journalists alike.

If you are a brand owner, this may be a good time to think about planting a seed for the groundswell to pick up on. Maybe they may just bake and share your brand with their friends.

About two weeks ago, my colleague Lisa handed me a book to read as a guide while I was preparing a user test plan. Thought I’d share that it is a good read for those whose job description include documenting and communicating design. It is great if you’re looking to have a solid foundation on IA principles and introductory techniques on the preparation of wireframes, site maps, and user journeys but might be leaning on the conceptual if you’re looking for time-effective solutions. Nevertheless, still very useful to have on your shelf.

Drawing inspiration from the We Feel Fine project by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, I have done a little bit of digging on computational design and found an open source programming language Processing, an open source programming language to present data in interactive visual animation. This idea is not new of course, but with the popularization of Web 2.0 and the semantic web, we are seeing more and more computational design used to present mashups on the web.

It might be worth taking Ben Fry’s Processing course if you’re interested.