Layla's Delicacies: Scaling Up a Small Business with Insights from Marketing Research

From modest beginnings in 2018, selling to a few enthusiasts from her apartment, Madame Berrima quickly built Layla's Delicacies, an exotic Tunisian pastries company, into a thriving mail order business. Her sweets were handmade, customers posted rave reviews, and the New York Times attested to the product line's authenticity. The company invested heavily in product design, packaging, and branding and rode a wave of popularity of artisanal foods, which were enjoying brisk growth in the US. But by 2020, Layla's had fallen short of its goals. The case examines the reasons for the company's slowed progress including the impact of environmental factors, like the pandemic, and their weak go-to-market strategy and asks students to use market research to create a strategy that could jumpstart the company's growth and set it on a clear path for sustainable success. Students must consider the kinds of customers that should be targeted and determine the most clear and promising positioning for the brand.