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- At the Banana Farm – Michel et Augustin’s headquarters.
The morning at the Banana Farm with Sixtine – in charge of Communications for Michel et Augustin – was yummy, entertaining and interesting.
Michel et Augustin is the fruit of a childhood friendship, a shared passion for food, and the irresistible appeal of entrepreneurship, we learnt from an INSEAD case study that Michelle Rogan asked us to read prior to our session on Entrepreneurship.
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- Michel et Augustin at school
The duo started working together in late 2003. They spent six months tasting baguettes and croissants in Paris as part of the research for their book Le Guide des Boulangeries de Paris, the first comprehensive guide to Parisian bakeries. It was while working on this project that they decided to launch their own food brand. Today, Michel et Augustin is selling a wide range of food products across the globe.
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- The perfect cookies….
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- The world famous chocolate mousse…
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- …and many other products! Recipes are available online.
It wasn’t easy at the beginning, said Sixtine. Learning to make the perfect cookie took a long time. Selling those perfect cookies was also a challenge. The food industry is dominated by industry giants. How can a small company with very limited resources compete while it cannot even afford an advertising campaign?
While eating cookies and drinking apple juices, we listened to Sixtine’s presentation on what the two friends actually did to achieve success.
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- Building awareness One of the first marketing campaigns: Michel & Augustin dressed up as cows in the Parisian metro.
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- Leveraging social media The Starbucks saga: How the company got a meeting with the global CEO of Starbucks in Seattle.
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- Building a local community of fans.
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- Sharing a passion for pastry All staff at Michel et Augustin must be pastry-certified. Customers can join the pastry class too.
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- Shaking up the French establishment.
Thank you Sixtine for the entertaining presentation and for the cookies!