Busken, an 85-year-old Cincinnati baking institution, is reaching a younger, urban consumer with a new low-cal donut and modern marketing techniques.
Busken debuted its new
Lite-Hearted donut on Valentine's Day. That day, the company gave away 16,000 of the heart-shaped glazed donuts at its 10 stores, regional United Dairy Farmers and Remke-Biggs markets. The company has also set up a pop-up shop on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine, where they give away free donuts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights to people who are soaking up the neighborhood's emerging night life.
Busken developed the Lite-Hearted donut as an alternative to its original glazed donut. The Lite-Hearted donut has half the calories (140) of the original, with zero trans fats and zero saturated fats. Busken President and CEO Dan Busken says the donut follows the standard set by the bakers's reduced-fat skinny cookie. The iced cookie launched three years ago and has sold one million servings, he says.
The key to the cookie's success was retaining the original flavor in a lower fat version.
"When we launched the skinny cookie, we had such amazing results," Busken says. "We're in the business of flavor and indulgence and carbs, and people are really shying away from carbs or are eating less of them. We wanted to develop a product we could sell that had the full flavor of the original iced cookie, with less fat and calories."
Originally, the bakery believed their traditional customers would buy more of the lighter cookies, substituting it for the indulgent treats. But something happened they didn't expect.
"Actually, a whole new consumer started buying our cookies," Busken says. "They still have the desire to indulge, but in a healthier way. We thought, If we can do that with a cookie, why don't we do it with a donut. We are really convinced people can't tell the difference."
The donut pop-up shop is a way to let consumer's taste for themselves. It's set up as an art gallery, and has a fun little video booth where pop-up shoppers can record video snippets that will be posted on the Busken's YouTube
channel. But it's set to close March 16, so get them while you can.
"(OTR) is really a hip, growing part of Cincinnati," Busken says. "We're looking for a way to be part of that and to reach the type of people visiting the restaurants there. We really are trying to reach a younger demographic."
The company also reached out to local bloggers who sampled the donuts and wrote about them. It's given the company a lot of web press.
The donuts will be sold year-round, and plans are to add more flavors to the low-cal lineup, Busken says.
By Feoshia H. Davis
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