Brands talk a lot about authenticity, but few of them actually manage it. Along with ‘purpose’ and ‘creativity for good’, it’s become another one of those industry buzzwords which more often than not mean very little. However, Greggs is a rare example of a business that’s got it right. The bakery chain isn’t just booming – sales recently topped the £1bn mark – it’s also loved by its customers. Obviously delicious buttery sausage rolls play a part in that, but over the past year Greggs has shown an innate ability to connect with consumers in a way that feels down-to-earth and, dare we say it, authentic. 

The brand got its start in 1939, when founder John Gregg was delivering bread and pastries to families in Newcastle by bike. In 1951 he opened the first shop, Greggs of Gosforth on Gosforth High Street, and the company continued to grow. Now Greggs has over 1,700 stores in the UK, delivers hot baked goods to a select number of cities, and was recently described by The Times as “a pop culture phenomenon”. 

In the last year in particular, the brand earned itself frenzied press coverage for a series of creative stunts that ranged from reversing its Newcastle shop logo, so it would appear the right way round when reflected in the nearby windows of Fenwicks, to responding personally to Piers Morgan’s criticism of its vegan sausage rolls – which were launched with a slick send-up of Apple’s marketing. 

For Valentine’s Day, lovers were invited to dine at their local Greggs, which served up a pastry starter, a pastry main, and a brochette of mini donuts, as well as petits fours to finish with. Later in the year, the brand tricked snotty foodies by launching Gregory and Gregory – a fictional artisanal bakery that secretly served up the same pastries found in Greggs stores. And it finished the year with some characteristic silliness, launching a line of Greggs merchandise including sausage roll-patterned socks and pastry phone covers, all of which quickly sold out. 

We’re more than happy to call people out, make fun of ourselves, and not be too serious about things. There’s not many other brands that behave in the way we do.

“The large part of our creative strategy is rooted in who we are, and the culture that we all work to,” Greggs brand communications team tells CR. “We’re very authentic. What you see is what you get, and we don’t try to be anything different. That’s from the way we look, to how we talk, and from a creative point of view it’s always about being true to who we are. We’re more than happy to call people out, make fun of ourselves, and not be too serious about things. There’s not many other brands that behave in the way we do.”

Greggs adopts the same no-nonsense approach to its visual identity, resolutely hanging onto the four yellow squares of its logo, and refusing to bow to ever-changing design trends. It’s clearly a much-loved motif, as evidenced by the online outrage when the company temporarily changed its Twitter profile to include the Gregory and Gregory logo. 

Part of what makes Greggs such an enjoyable company to watch is the sense that it’s a bit of a creative outsider. There’s certain brands we’ve come to expect great work from, but in many cases Greggs is outdoing them. Fun, and playfulness in particular, is hard for companies to get right, but the bakery chain pulls it off with apparent ease. The brand comms team admits this might be to do with a certain north-eastern sense of humour, that is perhaps hard to define, but also revolves around the way its creative work comes into being. 

“As a team, we collectively look at the work that’s produced – whether internally or by someone else – and if it’s trying too hard, or is something that’s not true to us, then we’ll call it out,” explains the team. “It’s a very strong gut feeling among all of us around what’s right and what’s wrong, and – touch wood – we seem to get it right more often than not. That’s because it’s reflective of who we are as a brand.”

We don’t ever try to be funny. When it’s right, it makes us all laugh at the office, and we’ll run with it.

Often, ideas come from Greggs’ 20-strong internal marketing and creative team – such as the reversed logo, which took just a couple of weeks to create and cost a fraction of what many major brands would pay for similar creative executions. “We thought it would be fun,” says the team, who made no effort to spread the news, but watched it quickly catch fire on social media. 

“We don’t ever try to be funny,” they explain. “When it’s right, it makes us all laugh at the office, and we’ll run with it. We all hold each other accountable to a certain extent.”

This sense of teamwork extends to community management, which is also handled internally. This means staying aware of what people are saying, responding and gently defusing situations, but also having a natural sense of comic timing. For example, a recent tweet comparing a velvet chevron cushion to one of Greggs’ steak bakes received nearly 7,000 retweets. 

*googles if it’s okay to eat a cushion* pic.twitter.com/qHXePTESjm

— Greggs (@GreggsOfficial) 3 April 2019

“It wasn’t a huge amount of creative effort that went into that, it was just a screengrab and a nice line,” says the team. “But we were able to react really quickly, efficiently and cost effectively, and people engaged with it in a way we didn’t expect. It’s nice that they did, and nice from a social point of view that we bring a bit of fun to people’s lives.”

It’s notable that Greggs really doesn’t spend a lot of money on creativity. The team told CR that it has a fraction of the brand budget that many of its competitors do, but that it has used social and PR activity to get people’s attention nonetheless. While major brands are spending huge amounts on creative work every year, Greggs is proof that all it really takes is one good idea.

“It shows that while it’s nice to have the money to spend and push the boundaries, you don’t need to have it to be creative,” says the team. “There’s so many different ways you can come at it, and the smallest of ideas executed really well can cut through.”

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