Location, location - the Web as prime location words and photos Serena Smith
Ever heard of a wedding cake designed by email? Jackie Kuflik is a sugar wizard who ascribes her business success to her website, and to discreet use of new forms of social networking. Serena Smith went to visit her in a tucked-away studio in Kissonerga to hear more about her marketing ideas. I marvelled how any first-timer to the island would be able to find Jackie, never mind order anything from her – and not just anything, The Wedding Cake! If business success is so intimately tied up with location, how does this work? Jackie, ex lecturer and writer on sugarcraft, and ex chair of judges for the British Sugarcraft Guild, says her most important marketing tool is her website, commissioned from real web experts. Google her site, www. love-island-cakes.com, and one is immediately in celebration mood. The number of hits on her site explains partly why she is hav-
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ing a good year. Another trade secret is interactivity. Often a wedding cake is created by email, through numerous exchanges with the bride, and Jackie gets to meet the couple only when they come to pay the balance. She likes playing with colours, ribbons, letters, even suggesting decorating techniques that pre-date the bride, only to see the disbelief and pleasure when her idea is snatched up as something new and thrilling! Cyprus is a ready source of quality local ingredients such as crystallised fruit, almonds and walnuts, plus plenty of good imported butter - all necessities for a solid, substantial cake. Jackie bakes from scratch, as packet mixes and plastic decorations are anathema to her, and “will in any case not stand up to the heat”. Jackie has a number of links on other business websites, but she is very particular about whom she gets into bed with (figuratively speaking, of course), as only real synergy bears fruit. Relationships with specific wedding planners, hotels and restaurants on the island also bring her business, as do busi-
ness cards and postcards. Because her cakes are so beautiful, the cards are eye-catching. They must be asked for, though, she says, not dished out pell-mell. Jackie orders her cards dirt cheap over the internet. Hundreds of couples have found their way to the sugarplum fairy’s thanks to a popular tourist restaurant, whose owner, impressed by Jackie’s cakes, puts a love-island business card with every bill. This is powerful word-of-mouth. Facebook has also become a business tool. It has allowed Jackie, for instance, to comment on Kate and Will’s wedding cake! She often takes part in forum discussions on the Net, but believes firmly that naivety and aggression in internet discussions put people off. “It’s not about flogging your name, but about offering helpful information on Net forums, then simply signing off with the name of your business,” she says. Reflecting on the effect of the economy on the wedding industry, Jackie says there tend to be fewer weddings, and couples book wedding cakes later than before. Unfortunately for Paphos, bad roads and municipalities and hotels that are less than accommodating have forced more and more ‘wedding tourists’ to the east coast, but as Jackie delivers her sugar craft island wide, it does not affect her. Right now she is ready to pass her knowledge and experience on to a young Cypriot apprentice who might like, in a year or two’s time, to take the brand and run with it. For in spite of her dedication and visible insistence on perfection, Jackie keeps reminding herself that the most important thing in life is to keep the balance right between work and play. She did come to Love Island to retire, after all!