Scrumptious Business & Brand From Scratch

Bessie & Izzy’s Vegan Bakery

Philadelphia, PA

When a third generation baker, whose family has been creating delicacies from a brick and mortar Philadelphia bakery for decades, decided to create a vegan cookie offering, she and her seasoned business partner tapped VFC to develop a stand out identity and promotional strategy.

In the early 1900s, two Lithuanian immigrants—who both loved baking—fell in love and started a small business. Over a hundred years later those immigrants, Bessie and Izzy, are the inspiration for a vegan cookie company. VFC worked with Bessie and Izzy’s grand-daughter, who is creating vegan versions of family favorite recipes, to develop an exciting direct to consumer brand and e-commerce offering focused on freshness and flavor.

“Other vegan cookies promote unique ingredients or cater to specific diets, like Keto,” says Bessie & Izzy owner Mindy Greenberg. “We’re focused on making the best tasting vegan cookies possible.”

After a significant amount of competitive analysis and market research, VFC presented naming options. Mindy and her partner Robert decided to honor Mindy’s grandparents. Saluting the tradition of baking excellence allowed VFC to create a back story and colorful characters in Bessie and Izzy that consumers can relate to and remember. It’s our hope that the personality of the characters in the Bessie & Izzy’s brand evolve as the business grows. A deep identity was developed including a style guide and brand assets that supported categorical colors for each cookie variety.

VFC explored multiple packaging options with the start-up and helped them to achieve a high impact and economical go-to-market solution. We worked with the team on operational and production solutions while developing a custom e-commerce site and social media plan to promote the best tasting vegan cookies available anywhere.