East African Bakery website needed to appeal to a wide audience: East African immigrants who wanted authenticity and newbies to East African foods who needed a bit of education on the products. Genuine, warm storytelling aimed to convey authenticity, educate and build awareness around the brand.
East African Bakery makes fresh, traditional East African breads in St. Paul, Minnesota. They were selling their breads at a few East African grocers in Minnesota and were looking to expand locally and nationally. They needed an online presence to tell their rich story and create awareness about their brand and products.
The owner founded East African Bakery after immigrating to the United States. He missed the authentic breads from home and so founded a bakery committed to the high-quality ingredients and flavors true to the taste of back home. His story is rich and shows his commitment to creating quality, authentic products, and we wanted to bring that to the forefront of the website. We told his story through pairing hand-rendered branding elements inspired by East African garment patterns, traditional woven baskets and the patterns on the hand-scored breads with rich photography of the product and food pairings. A recipe section aims to create a sense of community through recipe sharing. And little interactive surprises throughout the site inform and delight the user.
The website helped to establish East African Bakery as a leader in authentic East African bread production and increased brand awareness. Sales are up and expansion to new national and local markets continues steadily.
