The Business, Brand & Marketing Secrets Behind Crumbl Cookies' Multi-Million Dollar Success
How Crumbl Built an Empire Out of Sugar & Butter
As a kid, one of my favorite activities was baking treats with my older sister.
Although she wasn’t the best baker on the planet (sorry, sis), we’d have fun making muffins, cookies & brownies in the kitchen. One day, we decided to take our cookie-baking game to the next level.
We looked up a few recipes, baked them, and measured the tasty results. We had some fall flat, but one became our go-to recipe. We used the secret cookie recipe to wow the rest of our family for years.
Although what we were doing was on a much smaller scale, Crumbl Cookies went through a similar exercise before their launch back in 2017.
It might sound simple, but it’s one of the things that has helped Crumbl go from 1 location to nearly 400 in just four years, build a huge online audience of raving fans, and have an average profit of $1.8 million per store across 324 locations in 2022.
Their story is impressive, but what did they do to get here? What are they doing right that led to this explosive growth?
Let me give you some more context about Crumbl
Before I dive into three things Crumbl did right and is still doing right to make its business explode, let’s take a quick look into what Crumbl is and its origin.
Crumbl was founded in 2017 by two cousins, Jason Mcgowan (CEO) & Sawyer Hemsley (COO). The saying they follow internally is “it’s all about the details,” which they exemplify through everything they do, as I’ll explain in a second.
If you pay close attention to the brand, you’ll notice that there’s a lot you can learn from its growth. In this article, I will talk about things that Crumbl has done or is doing well across business, branding, and marketing that have helped them succeed.
For Crumbl, it all started with them wanting to be world-class.
Creating the world’s best chocolate chip cookie
When you’re excited about getting a product out into the world, moving faster than you should can be easy. You might be excited and think you have a product that will compete in the market, but how do you genuinely know? It can be easy to overlook, but the first thing that they did right was being obsessed with making the world’s best chocolate chip cookie (before selling anything).
They spent thousands of dollars on ingredients, threw out most of the cookies they made, and even admitted that many were “just plain embarrassing.” But still, they continued to test until they had a cookie that almost no one could deny.
It’s important not to overlook the importance of getting this recipe right from day 1. Although it may sound obvious, it has to be good if you want people to buy something continuously.
Getting the cookie itself correct was the first step, but of course, they had to do some other things right to get where they are today. After having a product they believed in, they established a stand-out brand and marketing approach.
Creating a brand that stands out
Upon walking into a Crumbl store, you’re likely first to notice the open layout and use of white and pink colors.
Although the open layout is more of a modern look that you can see in a few stores today, it was rare to see stores with an open layout when the brand was first founded. They wanted their stores to have this layout so everything happening “behind the scenes” wasn’t a mystery.
These stores' open, bright, and airy nature all contribute to a feeling. They contribute to the overall experience you get when you walk into the stores, and they don’t stop there. They make sure to extend the brand into a way you can carry.
The boxes that help extend the brand
One way they extend the brand, also known as “brand extension,” is by having something you can take with you in the form of their signature pink boxes. As I mentioned earlier, the brand’s motto is “It’s all about the details,” You can see how that thinking extends to their signature pink boxes.
The pink boxes look sleek and probably what you would get if you asked Apple to make a box for cookies.
They’re also shaped so that the cookies can only be placed into the box vertically. That might feel like a small detail, but that vertical placement of cookies makes it so that when you open it, you can see all of the cookies at the same time neatly placed together. The experience of receiving and opening the box itself is a huge upgrade from someone just giving you a bag of cookies, for example.
With a cookie that stands out, a brand that is focused on experience, and a clever way to extend the brand, the only other thing left that Crumbl had to get right is their marketing, which they’ve achieved.
Let’s talk about Crumbl’s marketing
If you check out their social media channels, you’ll notice that Crumbl has a massive following online.
With an audience of:
Over 5 million people on TikTok,
2 million on Instagram
(Just under) 1 million subscribers on YouTube
It’s safe to say that the brand has captured people’s interest.
It can be easy to overlook social media, but these channels play a key part in their business. While some of their competitors are focused strictly on spending advertising dollars, Crumbl’s clever use of their product availability and eye-catching and engaging social media presence helps them organically gain new customers.
The brand does a great job of creating content that “fits” on each social platform, but even people across social media are excited to do weekly reviews for the brand on their own.
Having a fabulous social media presence with engaging content that is specifically made for each channel is the first part of the equation, but the other part of the equation and a large part of what keeps their customers hooked is their cookie “drops.”
Although Crumbl’s chocolate chip cookie is always on the menu, the brand uses a 6-item weekly rotating menu, so you never truly know what to expect. They cycle in a rotation of over 150 different cookies of all different kinds. Some have bacon bits, some have whipped cream, some have a lime wedge, and some are even considered breakfast cookies! In any case, they have enough of a variety that helps keep consumers on their toes.
At this point, you might feel like Crumbl can do no wrong, but some people don’t think their cookies are the best and are much more hesitant about the brand and its future potential.
Who’s hesitant about Crumbl?
If you do a quick search on social media, you’re bound to find people who dislike Crumbl or think it’s not all that great.
It’s important to remember that thoughts like these are natural to any industry, but especially food. There will always be people who think Mcdonald’s is better than Burger King or that Five Guys is better than Shake Shack (even though there’s no way). Similarly, some people feel that other cookie franchises reign superior over Crumbl.
However, as I’ve outlined throughout this article, the brand has a solid following and plenty of raving fans. You might wonder whose side is right, but does it matter?
For Crumbl to grow and be truly successful, it’s important to remember that they don’t need everyone to love them. There’s competition across any industry, but luckily, there’s room for more than 1 “big show” in town.
So, what did we learn today?
Crumbl Cookies has had a massive expansion over the past four years.
From day 1, they knew they had a product that would be competitive in the market, used clever branding tactics so that the brand was more “sticky” overall, and then followed it all up by using social media in the right way to help spread the message about their brand.
You can learn a lot from the growth of Crumbl over these past years.
What’s next?
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Sources and inspiration:
https://wolfoffranchises.com/why-is-crumbl-cookies-so-popular/
https://twitter.com/venturetwins/status/1433454067183804416?s=12&t=s3XFVypU9QATeIQqfzLs-g
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumbl_Cookies