Line up for hours for a tart or a piece of cake? That might sound insane to Canadians years ago. But all changed since Uncle Tetsu Cheesecake opened in Toronto in 2015.
Recently, another bakery, called Pablo Cheesetart, shocked Torontonians again. If you happened to pass by 114 Dundas St. W. in the late afternoon on Aug. 18, you might be surprised by a long line on the street. These people were waiting for the grand opening of Pablo. Some of them have been there for more than 4 hours. Even now, almost three weeks after, customers would like to wait more than one hour for its creamy tarts.
Why Uncle Tetsu and Pablo drive people so crazy about their desserts? Their cakes and tarts taste better than others? If you go to Yelp, you may find a negative answer. Overall ratings on both are under 4. So, there must be something else. The Pablo’s Grand Opening Giveaway Winner List tells you part.
If you pay a visit to Pablo or vist Yelp, you’ll know better. So many Chinese are waiting in the line. And more than half of the reviews on Yelp comes from Chinese. It’s also true to those earliest reviews on Uncle Tetsu. The everyday long line and positive reviews help attract more customers beyond the ethnicity. The line in front of Uncle Tetsu now is much diversified than that two years ago.
Why so many Chinese in their early days? ？？
The two bakeries know very well about Chinese customers through their successful launch in China.
Chinese are more likely to be early adopters.
Chinese are open to advertising.
Chinese like to share their experiences.
Chinese are active on social media, like Sina Weibo and WeChat.
The same insights also work well for Chinese living and studying in Canada. They help both bakeries successfully turn the Chines ethnic group into their loyal followers and free broadcasters beyond the ethnicities.
Let’s take a look at how Pablo made it.
Photo from Weibo.com
Around 8 months before its grand opening, an influencer on Sina Weibo, who has more than 100K followers mainly living in the GTA, disclosed that Pablo would open its Toronto store soon. The influencer had a detail introduction on the brand story and its cakes. Her followers showed great interest and asked for the opening date and location.
Photo from Weibo.com
On Aug. 12th, around one week before the opening, she had another post on Pablo with the opening date and the special offer on the day.
Photo from Weibo.com
One day later, she gave out the exact location of Pablo.
The words get out with the reposts of her followers. The buzz was heard by other influencer accounts in Toronto and they joined into the discussion as well.
Photo from Weibo.com
Since the opening, lots of photos of Pablo’s cheese tarts and store decors were shared on Weibo and WeChat. Forwarded by the influencers, the topic disturbed new discussions.
Driven by their like-to-share minds, Chinese also shared their Pablo experiences on Instgram, Facebook, Google, and Yelp with other friends. No wonder why so many headed into downtown and line up for hours.
Pablo’s story tells that to reach the Chinese ethnic group and build up your earned media is not that complicated and costly if you know who you should talk to and who can help get the words spreaded. A well designed strategy with solutions can help you boost up your business in a very lean way.
