With all my research and studies into Hispanic marketing, I felt the need to expand and create another interest which is to post blogs about Hispanic businesses. I thought it would be a good idea to show how Hispanic business owners manage to build their businesses from the ground up and illustrate any form of Hispanic marketing to help strengthen their brand and presence. Not only would these make great case studies but also it would help others who have the drive to build their own businesses and use these posts as a guide for their own ideas.

This is my first ever post about Hispanic businesses and it is with an interview with Carmen Rodriguez, who started her own cupcake bakery located in Brooklyn, New York called Brooklyn Cupcake. Below are the following questions that I asked Carmen about her small business and what she did to put it all together.

1. What is the story of how this small business was developed?

I’ve always been the family baker and as a family should be (supportive) they all loved my cakes. Lopsided, but always very moist and delicious. When the cupcake craze started (back in the Magnolia days) it sparked a light bulb moment for me and I thought this was the solution to my lopsided cakes. So now it was cupcakes at all family events. The family told friends and a buzz was created and before you knew we had weddings, baby showers and birthdays! Me and my  mom became victims of the economy. With continued words of encouragement (best cupcake) from everyone who encountered my cupcakes and seeing the cupcake business flourish and receive write ups on how the cupcake business was helping the economy my mom and sister approached me and said out of all the crazy ideas you have had we believe in this one and mom turned over her entire 401 savings to me and my sister to get this project started.

2. What marketing and online media campaigns are you using to help expand your business and brand identity?

We’ve been blessed in finding a location in trendy Williamsburg and hope to have our store open before Thanksgiving. To get the word out that we are coming we are participating in a few social networking campaigns i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Fourquare.

3. The Brooklyn Cupcake website page mentions that you’re involved in the community ?

We have done two charity events one for SMA ( Spinal Muscular Atrophy), Road Recovery for teenagers battling addiction and on the 20th of October I will participate in Friends of Firefighters, an organization that provides firefighters with counseling and health services. Giving back to the community is extremely important to us and we have many charities that are dear to our hearts. We also look forward to being mentors to other women in the business. You would think with so many organizations available that claim to help women and minorities that creating a business would be easy but it is far from that.

Brooklyn Cupcake is getting rave reviews on the Facebook fanpage not only for the creative and delicious cupcakes but also for the professional customer service. This is a great example of how a small business uses a balance of traditional marketing and online media to effectively build brand identity and what’s great about Carmen is that she also finds the time to help others within her community. So If you’re living in or near the Brooklyn area and if you want more information you can follow Brooklyn Cupcake on Twitter, Facebook, Foursqaure or just go on to the official website.

Related articles

• A cupcake case study. (rvsocialmedia.com)
• Superhero Cupcakes (laughingsquid.com)
• New York City’s Cupcake Economy (blogs.wsj.com)
• Are We In A Cupcake Bubble? (npr.org)
• Will No One Think Of The Cupcakes? Cupcakes Confiscated In Philly (thefrisky.com)